British tennis great Andy Murray boosted his bid for a second Wimbledon title yesterday by recalling to his team Ivan Lendl, who coached him to his success on ‘home turf’ in 2013.
The 29-year-old Scot—who also won the 2012 US Open and Olympic gold in the same year under Lendl’s aegis—revealed the news of his reunion with the former Czech world number one in a statement.
“I had two very successful years working with Ivan, he’s single-minded and knows what it takes to win the big events,” said Murray.
“I’m looking forward to Ivan joining the team again and helping me try and reach my goals.”
Lendl’s first target will be this week’s key Wimbledon lead-up event at Queen’s Club, where Murray is bidding for a record fifth singles title. “I enjoyed working with Andy in the past,” said Lendl. “Andy and I have always stayed in contact so it should be fun to be part of his team again,” added the 56-year-old.
Lendl originally left Murray’s employ after two years in 2014 because he had had enough of the incessant travelling. Murray eventually replaced eight-time Grand Slam singles champion Lendl—for whom Wimbledon was the only Grand Slam title to elude him, losing in two finals—with former French female star Amelie Mauresmo.
However, whilst he regained his number two spot in the world rankings, he failed to add to his Grand Slam trophy haul and split from her earlier this year.
Since then he had relied on former British Davis Cup player Jamie Delgado, and he subsequently became the first British player to reach the French Open final since 1937, beating defending champion Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals.
Yet, despite winning the first set he went down to a four-set defeat to world number one Novak Djokovic in the Roland Garros final.
Murray and Lendl first made contact over a potential reunion during the French Open and the Czech, who had previously suggested his dislike of flying was a major reason to step away from full-time coaching, was surprisingly open to a return.
Lendl has had both his hips replaced since parting ways with Murray and had been working with some of America’s top young players.
The reunited duo have reportedly agreed on a schedule that will see them work together for around 20 weeks a year, including all the Grand Slams, some Masters 1000 events and key training periods.
Murray hopes the partnership will prove longer lasting and just as successful this time.”Well, hopefully it will be for a long time, from my side,” Murray said. “He’s coming over, he’ll be here for the tournament and it’s good for him to spend a bit of time with the rest of the team as well to see how things work out. But provided everything’s good, it will hopefully go on for a long time.”
Lendl’s intimate knowledge of exactly what it takes to win Grand Slams was key to Murray’s success when they last worked together and, after watching German legend Boris Becker have a similar impact on Djokovic, he is confident the Czech will again prove an invaluable presence.
“I think the most successful period of my career was while I was working with Ivan. I know what he can offer,” Murray said. “The experiences he had I think psychologically he helped me in the major competitions and they’re obviously the events I’m trying to win and am competing for. I hope he can bring that same experience and those same benefits that he did last time.”
Murray, going for his fifth Queen’s title, took five days off after his French Open defeat to Djokovic before practising again on Saturday. “I’d never done that well on clay before so I needed to let my body rest and recover a little bit before I started practising on the grass again,” he said.

LENDL FILES
Grass not greener for Lendl

He achieved a lifetime ambition when he won the Wimbledon singles title in 2013—as coach of Andy Murray. The Wimbledon trophy eluded him throughout his career—he won all the others and racked up a total of eight Grand Slam titles before back pain forced him to retire in 1994 – losing in two finals. Despite saying in 1982 ‘grass is for cows’ and giving Wimbledon a miss he wasn’t all at sea on the surface as a Queen’s title and a junior Wimbledon singles crown testify to. Still he is part of a distinguished club of players who never cracked Wimbledon such as Mats Wilander, Guillermo Vilas and Vitas Gerulaitis.

Blanked by Czechs
Lendl became an American citzen in 1992—having got his green card in 1987 – and for good reason. He had his own version of the ‘Cold War’ with his Czechoslovak compatriots, after he was heavily fined and suspended from the Davis Cup team in 1983—three years after he had been part of the victorious team. His crime was to have played in an exhibition tournament in Sun City, South Africa, firmly in the apartheid era which did not sit well with the Communist regime in Prague. It was the start of a long running feud with his homeland. They were to block his path to representing the USA in the 1988 Olympics.

Tough love
Both his parents were talented tennis players, his mother Olga being ranked second best woman player in Czechoslovakia, his father Jiri didn’t reach those giddy heights paying more attention to his profession of law. However, home life as a child was no laughing matter as he told Sports Illustrated. His mother he said probably had moments when she regretted bearing him. “I’m sure she had to think, ‘I could have been great if not for this baby,’ “ he told the magazine. It was also his parents who banged into him that showing emotion on court was not an advantage and they ended up succeeding as while Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe wore their hearts on their sleeve he was renowned for his impassive stone-faced presence on court. As he related to Sports Illustrated his parents wouldn’t let up: “Emotions don’t help you,” said Jiri. “Never show your opponent that you are upset.” “If you’re going to cry,” said his mother, “go home.”

Girl power
Lendl’s favourite companions it seemed while he was a bachelor were his Alsatian dogs. However, they were replaced in his affections by his wife Samantha, whom he married in 1989 and they have had five daughters—including twins Isabelle and Caroline. They have inherited the sporting competitiveness of their father, three are classy golfers who qualified for their university teams whilst one is a respected rower and another a three day event rider.

‘Greatest overachiever’
Respected publication Tennis Magazine ranked him 10th best in their list of all-time players back in 2006 placing him perhaps controversially one spot ahead of McEnroe. He drew special praise from the publication for sticking to trying to break his Wimbledon hoodoo. In perhaps a back-handed compliment they labelled him ‘the game’s greatest overachiever’.