Judy Murray certainly approves her son Andy Murray’s partnership with Novak Djokovic as the former British Billie Jean King Cup team captain funnily remarked that the Serb now has a new fan.
For years, the-now record 24-time Grand Slam champion was one of the Briton’s biggest rivals on the Tour. But just three months after the 37-year-old concluded his career, the current world No. 7 decided to give him a call and offer a coaching job because he thought he could help him.
When Murray and Djokovic made a joint announcement on November 23rd, the entire tennis community was left stunned but also excited.
“I’m going to be joining Novak’s team in the off season, helping him to prepare for the Australian Open. I’m really excited for it and looking forward to spending time on the same side of the net as Novak for a change, helping him to achieve his goals,” Murray said at the time.
The former two-time Wimbledon champion and Djokovic may have a big history as rivals – and the Serb won 25 of their 36 meetings – but that won’t prevent the British tennis legend’s mother to now root for the Paris Olympics gold medalist.
“I’ve got to support Novak now. That’ll be a first. I mean that in the nicest way, of course,” Judy Murray told The Herald.
Judy Murray© Judy Murray/Instagram – Fair Use
When the news about the partnership dropped, the majority were excited but also thought there were logical explanations why Djokovic wanted to work with Murray. However, some weren’t that impressed, slamming that move as something that was made for pure entertainment.
Since then, the Serbian tennis star himself shut down those claims.
Now, the Briton’s mom acknowledges they are not two same persons but also underlines that they know each other extremely well.
“Well, they’re different characters. The first time I saw Novak was when they were playing in an under-12 competition in France. So, they’re part of each other’s furniture and they know each other really well on and off the court,” Judy added.
Djokovic had a good reason why he wanted Murray to be his coach
After a rocky start to 2024 and Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s rise, the record 24-time Grand Slam accepted that he and Goran Ivanisevic couldn’t help each other anymore. And in April, he announced that he was parting ways with the Croatian after six years of working together.
However, Djokovic didn’t want to instantly find a replacement. Instead, he was assisted by Nenad Zimonjic and also worked with some other people associated with the Serbian Tennis Federation.
After the 2024 season ended and the 37-year-old started making plans for 2025, he decided to bring in a new full-time coach. And he wanted it to be someone who knew him extremely well and went through the same stuff.
“I was going through a process of thinking about next season in the past couple of months and figuring out what I needed as I stopped with my coach Goran Ivanisevic, who I was successful with. I took about six months to think if I really needed a coach and if yes, who is that going to be and the profile of the coach,” Djokovic told Sky Sports.
“We were going through different names and I realized at this point the perfect coach would be someone who has been through the experiences I have been through. A multiple Grand Slam winner and I was thinking about a few and the Andy Murray discussion appeared on the table with my team. I decided I would give him a call and see how it goes. It caught him off guard a little bit as he wasn’t expecting it.
“We connected really fast and he accepted it after a few days. I can’t be more excited about it. This collaboration is a surprise to me as well, to everyone, but it is exciting for tennis. He has been one of my greatest rivals, we are at the same age. We played in all the biggest stages in our sport so I can’t wait to be out there next season.”
Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic© YouTube screenshot
By making these comments, Djokovic dismissed claims that he hired Murray just because he wanted some attention or to be in the headlines.
Last week, the Brisbane International confirmed the former world No. 1 to be a part of their tournament player field in the first week of 2025. However, according to reports from British media, he is not expected to be joined by his new coach there.
Instead, the Djokovic and Murray collaboration will probably kick off at the Australian Open.
Tennis World USA