Hand of the king Lendl is inspiring Murray to win Wimbledon and seal third Grand Slam GAMES OF THRONES
sitting there I’m just blankly staring at the court. “I’m processing what’s going on and what I need to be doing for the next match, for four weeks , eight weeks from now, what Andy needs to improve.” One of those orders was to have Murray’s other coach Jamie Delgado serving at the No.2 seed from eight feet inside the baseline yesterday morning. It was an attempt to replicate the pace at which Raonic – who hit a 144mph ace against Roger Federer in the semi-final – will be firing at him. Delgado explained: “It’s a drill we do to try and get him up to speed against the top guys. Obviously when you play Milos the return is very important so it’s about trying to sharpen him up.” Lendl believes his man is at the very top of his game – a more mature, better player than he was when they stopped working together after achieving so much success in 2013. Mur ray hope d to continue the partnership but Lendl wanted time out. Now Lendl is delighted the time wa s r ight to resurrect the relationship this summer. The 56-year- old said: “It was a tough decision to leave, and for the same reason I left I told Tomas Berdych I couldn’t work with him.
“A lot of things have changed since and when Andy started making contact it was something to think about.
“Not only Andy but everyone gets more mature as they get older. But I’m impressed with just how mentally engaged he has been the entire time. Practices and matches, it’s been great.
“Andy is mentally engaged playing every point in practice and that’s how you get better, being consistent in effort and consistently trying to do your best.
“That’s how you improve over a long period of time. He’s definitely more focused than before.”
Raonic’s coach McEnroe won’t even be in his player’s corner during the match because he has a TV commentary role to perform.
But McEnroe has been working on making the Canadian more aggressive and more positive.
And the American might have been trying to get into Murray’s head by insisting that the Scot will be delighted to have Raonic on the other side of the net, rather than heavyweights Federer or Novak Djokovic.
McEnroe said: “It’s no real secret that Murray, from the start of the tournament, has been playing a lot better than anyone else.
“When Djokovic lost, a lot of guys’ eyes lit up. Raonic, the opportunity for him, and Murray, who doesn’t have to play Djokovic in the final.
“Andy’s playing Raonic – ask him if he’d have taken that before the tournament, I have a feeling he’d say yes.”
Djokovic’s coach Boris Becker is in the neutral corner but fancies the Scot to come out on top.
The German legend said: “At the French Open final Andy had played five hours more tennis than Novak.
“As the match went on we knew he’d would get tired. It can make a massive difference especially if the final is a long and grinding match.
“Here he had a pretty straightforward tournament, until Wednesday when he had that five-setter.
“But physically Andy should be fine in the final. Mentally he should be sky-high being back in a Wimbledon final, his favourite tournament, and facing an unusual opponent.
“Andy would have expected Roger to win the semi- final, no disrespect to Milos, so the mindset and preparation will be a bit different
now.”