Lighten up, McEnroe tells Andy

TENNIS great John McEnroe is urging Andy Murray to lighten up and take a leaf out of Roger Federer’s book as the Scot bids to break Novak Djokovic’s grand slam stranglehold next year.

McEnroe suspects Murray will be in a “slightly better frame of mind and slightly better shape” entering the Australian summer and he wants to see the 28-year-old enjoy his rivalry with Djokovic more in the heat of battle.

“To be more positive and smile on the court more – since I was so bloody good at it myself,” tennis’s original superbrat said. “I’m definitely serious. “It certainly hurt me in my career that I wasn’t able to enjoy the moment as much as I would have liked, a la Roger Federer who, even in defeat, seems to be able to shrug that off extremely well and even at an advanced age, tennis-wise, to learn from it and I envy that. I respect it.

“I saw the same with (Jimmy) Connors, who was one of my great rivals, where he was able to get extremely intense and negative at times, but he was able to turn that around and suddenly he’s putting his arm around one of the fans’ shoulders and sort of laughing and making a joke.

“I was always amazed and irritated – because it happened often when we played – that he was able to do that.

“I sympathise with the difficulty of it, but if he (Murray) was able to appreciate the moment a bit more, I think it would help him, if nothing else, last a little bit longer playing.”

McEnroe would also like to see Murray improve his second serve and net play, like Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both did to take their grand slam tallies to double digits.