Murray plays down new Lendl, Becker rivalry

In this photo made available by the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, British tennis player Andy Murray poses with his award, in Miami, Florida, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. AP FILE PHOTO

ABU DHABI – Andy Murray believes the intense rivalry between his coach Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker, the newly-appointed coach of Novak Djokovic, which was a feature of the 1980s, won’t be rekindled in 2014.

Lendl took Murray to a breakthrough major at the 2012 US Open as well as this year’s historic Wimbledon triumph while Djokovic has turned to Becker to help add to his six Grand Slam titles.

In their playing careers, Becker defeated Lendl in the 1986 Wimbledon final, the 1989 US Open championship match as well as the 1991 Australian Open final.

The German claimed six career majors. Lendl won eight and it was the Czech who enjoyed a 12-10 advantage in their head-to-head record.

“I personally don’t think there will be renewal of a rivalry,” Murray told the Gulf News.

“I mean, no matter if you are coaching the players, you can’t influence much. Once you step on court, the coaches can do very little to the outcome of a match.

“It is the preparation where the coaches can make a really good difference. We will have to see how it goes from here.”

Murray and Djokovic have joined world number one Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Stanislas Wawrinka in the six-man field for the Mubadala World Tennis Championships which runs from Thursday to Saturday.

Murray believes today’s players have a lot to learn from the legends of the past- even Roger Federer has been practising with six-time major winner Stefan Edberg over the winter.

“Obviously, everyone wants to keep working on every game. It is good to see great players like Novak get some help from Becker who has been there and done it before,” said Murray.

“I don’t know if it is a trend starting here or not. For that, we will have to wait and see for few years.”

World number four Murray, 26, missed most of the latter part of the 2013 season to undergo surgery on a long-standing back injury and has been keen to play down expectations of hitting the heights straightaway in 2014.

“I can honestly speak for myself and not others. I’m coming back from an injury and I’m not expecting anything. My focus is to try and be healthy,” said Murray.

“Hopefully, results will come if I’m 100 per cent fit. I would expect everyone to play very good tennis this year. I would personally like to get good results in the Grand Slams.”