Time for Murray to step up, says McEnroe, as Mauresmo partnership faces test at US Open
FORMER world No1 John McEnroe believes next week’s US Open will provide a telling indication of the progress Britain’s Andy Murray has made under new coach Amelie Mauresmo.
Murray has not reached a final in 16 tournaments since winning Wimbledon last year, during which time he has had surgery on a back injury and, in June, teamed up with former women’s world No1 Mauresmo.
McEnroe believes the jury is still out on whether the surprise partnership is the right one, but expects the season’s final grand slam, which Murray won in 2012, to represent a useful test.
“It’s difficult to say what’s happening with Andy,” said McEnroe. “It seems like the physical issues are behind him – it’s impossible to say for sure from the outside but that’s how it looks.
“It’s been a process for him to come back from those issue so that takes its toll on the confidence, and he made a big change – I thought he and Ivan [Lendl, his former coach] worked well together.
“To change course when he did is tricky so it remains to be seen what happens there. You need to give it more time to judge, but you sort of feel like the US Open would be a time he needs to step up because it has been a struggle compared to what it’s been the last couple of years.
“Amelie Mauresmo’s appointment was a little out of leftfield and an unusual choice, but she’s had some coaching experience and she’s been out there herself so she can bring things to the table.
“You always need to give these things some time to see how they relate to each other and whether she can make that little difference. Can she help him find that extra two to five percent? That’s the key. It remains to be seen.”
Murray is seeded eighth, behind rising stars Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic, at Flushing Meadows, where Roger Federer arrives in the best form having won last week’s Cincinnati Masters, and defending champion Rafael Nadal will be absent with a wrist injury. Despite patchy recent showings, however, McEnroe believes top seed Novak Djokovic is the man to beat.
“Roger looks great. He’s looked the best of all the top guys this summer,” said the 55-year-old American, who is due back in London in December to play the Statoil Masters Tennis at Royal Albert Hall.
“I think Novak had an incredible run at Wimbledon and it seems to me he is waiting for the Open. I don’t think it matters a whole lot what’s happened with his results in the summer. To me, he’s still the favourite going in.
“There’s a cast of other characters that will want to break through and to finally put their names in the record books, and the most obvious ones are Dimitrov and Raonic, but Djokovic is still the favourite.”
ANDY AND AMELIE
How Murray has fared at tournaments since naming Mauresmo coach in June.
Aegon Championship, Queen’s
Won just one match before losing to Czech Radek Stepanek in the last 16
Wimbledon
Title defence ends at the quarter-final stage as he loses in straight sets to Grigor Dimitrov
Toronto Masters
Another quarter-final defeat as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga wins in three sets
Cincinnati Masters
Two more wins but another last-eight loss, this time to Roger Federer