Lendl: Hard work paying off for Murray

● Coach satisfied with Scot’s progress as he faces Wawrinka for place in the final

Ivan Lendl is not your warm and fuzzy sort of guy, not the sort to offer a hug, a cup of tea and jammy dodger when things are not going well.

But after drumming his fingers on the desk for the best part of four months, the impassive super-coach is not exactly happy – history does not record moments of pure, unbridled joy in Lendl’s career as either coach or player – but does seem satisfied. Sort of content. Not in a bad mood.

For the first time all year, Andy Murray is fit, he is well and at last Lendl can get back to work on his pet project: winning more major titles with the Scot.

At the Australian Open, Murray was feeling sluggish and no one could work out why. Only when he went home did he come down with shingles but that had clearly been lurking in his system for a while, dragging him down. Then he picked up an elbow injury. Then he got a bad dose of flu. Then, as he unpacked his bags in Paris the week before the French Open, he felt lousy again – this time it was a heavy cold.

Butoncetheworldno1shook off that latest bug, he has been hard at work on the practice courts and Lendl has been a little cheerier (everything is relative). Now the two can get some real work done and the harder they have worked, the better Murray has played.

“You have to put in consistent work to have consistent results,” Lendl said. “If you have three illnesses and an Dominic Thiem is under no illusions about the size of the task ahead of him as he chases his first grand slam title.

Having pulled off the greatest win of his career to knock out defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals, the young Austrian now finds himself facing nine-time champion Rafael Nadal.

Nomanhaseverbeatendjokovic and Nadal back-to-back and won a grand slam, and even if Thiem were to get past injury which take you out for some time, you start again, you get going and you get ill or injured again, then you start again and again and again. It’s very difficult mentally for the player. It’s nice that Andy’s healthy and he can put the practices in and I think the results are starting to come.

“With the exception of the first two or three days, when he had a bit of flu, he has been putting in great work. He scraped through the first two matches and then the work started to come in.”

Many have thought that Murray worked too hard during the off-season and that intense training block, coming at the end of a gruelling season (albeit his best ever season), left him depleted as the new season began. Lendl disagrees: he wanted them to spend longer working together in Miami, not less time.

“A three, three-and-a-half week training block is ideal in my mind,” Lendl said. “We did 17 days so we had to move around one or two days because of rain-outs.

“I just feel that we could have used another week, because then you can put more work in, you can work on more patterns and so on, you hit more balls, because when you come from the off-season you just need to hit a lot of balls, you have to get a lot of repetition, I just thought it was unfortunate the Spaniard, he would still have to defeat either former champion Stan Wawrinka or three-time grand slam winner Andy Murray in the final.

“It’s a joke how tough it is to win a slam,” said Thiem.

He is looking to join Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro as the only players other than Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Wawrinka and Roger Federer to win grand slam titles in the last 12 years.

Thiem can at least take confidence from knowing he won his last match against Nadal, it was that short, I could have used another week.”

Lendl’s role in Team Murray appears to be precise and specific: he does the tennis; the others do the rest. However, as hediscussesthearrangements and practicalities of the training block, it becomes clear that the world No 1 is like a Formula One supercar being tweaked by a battery of mechanics.

As Lendl explained: “I talk to Smurf [Matt Little, Murray’s fitness trainer] and we discuss it and he says “I need to do intervals, can you do it on the court, so we save some time?” and I say ‘Yeah I can do that on the court.’ Or I say coming back, ‘The quickness or agility pictured, in the quarter-finals of the Italian Open three weeks ago. It was a sign of the 23-yearold’s growing maturity on clay in particular. He had lost to Nadal twice in the preceding weeks, heavily in Barcelona and then narrowly in Madrid.

“It’s going to be the fourth match against him in five or six weeks,” said Thiem. “There’s not really big secrets. He’s again in his best shape. So it’s going to be the toughest match you can imagine.”

Thiem must try to prosper is not looking as I would like to see it, can you do something for that?’ So we work together that way. But I am not physically present when we go to the gym.”

But with the work done on the practice courts and with Murray in the rudest of health, there is now the chance to reach another grand slam final. All Murray has to do is beat Stan Wawrinka today. Murray leads their rivalry by ten wins to seven and he did win the last two, including last year’s Roland Garros semi-final, but Wawrinka has looked very dangerous this past week in Paris.

“Once again I think it comes where so many have tried and failed as he bids to conquer the Nadal forehand at Roland Garros. The world No 4 has been hitting his signature shot with familiar power and accuracy this fortnight to cruise into the semi-finals.

“You cannot defend it all the time,” said Thiem with a smile. “I just have to watch that I’m not giving him his favourite positions on the forehand.

“It’s one of the best shots I think ever in tennis. I will concede some winners.”

Thiem has attracted many admirers with his play during this clay season and has certainly lived up to his billing so far, not dropping a set on his way to the last four. However Nadal, who has dropped only down to executing your game plan and the conditions,” Lendl said simply. “Different conditions favour different players on the court – or not necessarily players, but the patterns you can do and can’t do. In the quarter-final, it was extremely difficult with the wind and ball-striking was hard. I think conditions are important in what happens and how you deal with it.”

The forecast is for sun, some clouds, a bit of a breeze and temperatures in the low 20s. That should suit Murray. He is feeling confident and considerably more positive about his game than at any time this year – that is a good sign. But can he 22 games in five matches, is on an apparently unstoppable march to a record tenth title.

“Thiem is a tough player,” said Nadal. “I won in Barcelona, Madrid, and I lost to him in Rome. We can talk about statistics for hours, but what is important is to consider the match.

“If I play well, I hope that I will be able to book my spot in the final. If I don’t play well, I will be out of the tournament.

“He hits the ball very hard. He’s very powerful on both sides. Forehand, backhand, serve. He has a huge potential to tap.

“I am in the semi-finals and with very positive feelings. I played well all the matches here.” 0 World No 1 Andy Murray trains in preparation for today’s semi-final against Stan Wawrinka in Paris. beat Wawrinka again? When he did it the last twice, he was in the form of his life and as Jamie Delgado, Murray’s cocoach pointed out, the Scot is on his way back but there is still a bit of work to do yet.

“I think he’s getting closer,” Delgado said. “He’s showing great signs in these two weeks, starting off with good practice and then putting it into matches. He’s definitely closer than he was two or three months ago.”

0 Dominic Thiem: Admirers.