Murray feels confident with Lendl in his corner
ANDY Murray hopes that the return of coach Ivan Lendl can help inspire him to more Wimbledon heroics.
The two-time champion gave a positive assessment of his form and fitness having faced a race against time to recover from an abdominal strain suffered in the final of the ATP tournament in Stuttgart just two weeks ago.
Murray showed his prowess on grass once again to defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios and was matching last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini prior to sustaining the injury.
He was forced to pull out of the cinch Championships at Queen’s Club earlier this month and was unable to practise at full tilt at the start of last week but has made encouraging progress since.
“It’s gone well,” said Murray. “I’ve been able to gradually progress my training this week and got to play a few sets, a lot of points. The last few days have been good.
“I think I showed a couple weeks ago that there was still good tennis left in me. I beat a guy in the top five in the world, was neck and neck with Berrettini, who is one of the best grass-court players in the world, before the injury.
“I played well against Kyrgios as well. The first set was a good level. And I’ve been doing pretty well in practices. I know the tennis is in there, I just need to bring it out during the event now.
“Obviously having Ivan on my team helps. We’ve had success in the past. We know each other well. He still believes in me. There’s not loads of coaches, people out there, that have done over this last period, and he has. That definitely helps me.”
Murray announced in March that Lendl had agreed to return for a third spell as coach having guided him to all three of his grand slam titles before the Scot experienced his longterm hip issues. He has managed to play consistently for the last year but struggled to find the results of which he felt he was still capable.
He parted ways with long-term coach Jamie Delgado – who worked alongside Lendl previously – late last season and admitted he struggled to find a replacement who shared his optimism for the future.
The 35-year-old said: “For the most part, when I had had conversations with coaches, and the potential of working with someone, it had come off most of the time and worked out, whereas this time round, I got turned down by a lot of coaches.
“That obviously was difficult to deal with because there’s obviously good coaches out there.
“I don’t know how many that are top-level coaches that maybe you’d really want to work with if you’re trying to win the major events.
“That’s also why I’m grateful that Ivan has come back to work with me and help me try and achieve what it is I want to achieve.”
■ Emma Raducanu has declared herself fit and ready to go as she prepares to make her Centre Court debut at Wimbledon today.
The US Open champion has been in a race against time to be fit for the Championships since sustaining a side strain in Nottingham nearly three weeks ago.
Raducanu stopped short of saying she is pain-free, but said: “I think that this week was a good build-up.
“Definitely there were moments earlier on in the week we weren’t really sure. We were sort of going to see how the week goes. But it went pretty well. It’s full steam ahead. Right now I’m fit. I’m ready to go.”
Raducanu sparked some alarm by pulling out of a scheduled second practice session on Friday against Garbine Muguruza on Court One, but she played down the significance, saying: “We just had to react to the situation. I had already practised in the morning. So we all collectively thought it was the best decision to pass on the afternoon session.”
Raducanu’s return to Wimbledon caps a whirlwind first year on tour in which she has gone from a largely unknown wild card fresh out of school to a global star and face of the tournament. But her clash with the Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck today will be her first experience of playing on Centre Court, with the attention and expectation enormous.
She said: It’s always been my dream to step out on Centre Court.”