How the Andy Murray-Novak Djokovic relationship fell apart

Yahoo

13-05-2025

Novak Djokovic caught the tennis world unawares when he announced that his new coach would also be one of his greatest rivals: Sir Andy Murray.
Six months on, results have been mixed. A couple of strong runs, in Melbourne and Miami, were counterbalanced by a string of first-round exits. And now, as of Tuesday morning, the partnership is officially over. So, how did this collaboration play out?
The most surprising announcement of the tennis year dropped while I was driving to a college reunion. My first thought was 'This has to be a hoax'. My second was, 'Damn, I'm going to be late for dinner.'
But then I started to muse – and realised that there was a certain logic to Murray's new role as Djokovic's coach. For Murray, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from the best player in history. For Djokovic, a way of reinvigorating his interest in the tour.
The superstar collaboration began near Marbella. Djokovic has a house there with an outdoor hard court attached, where the two men put in just over a week of pre-season preparation.
Murray missed the Brisbane International, where Djokovic lost his first match to 7ft serving machine Reilly Opelka, because of a family skiing holiday which had been booked before the coaching offer came in.
The real work began in Melbourne, venue for the Australian Open, where there were a few teething issues during Murray's first match as a courtside coach. First, Djokovic seemed to complain of a lack of audible encouragement during the first set against unknown Indian 19-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy. Then, after coming back to beat Basavareddy in four sets, he waved his entourage away grumpily as he walked up for the handshake.
Yet relations seemed to improve during the tournament. Djokovic peaked during a magnificent quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz. This match was a tactical masterclass, revealing how effective the two master strategists could be when they put their heads together.
Here was the undoubted highlight of the partnership. An exultant Djokovic came bounding straight over to Murray after the win, and later told reporters that 'This was a huge win for all of us, including Andy and myself, you know, for the relationship.'
Unfortunately, it turned out that Djokovic had torn a hamstring during the match. He withdrew from the tournament after one set of the semi-final.
Djokovic played only one tournament – and only one match – in the whole month, losing to Matteo Berrettini in Doha. Murray did not attend.
The boys got the band back together for the so-called 'Sunshine Double': the two big American two-weekers that run back-to-back and occupy the whole month of March.
Djokovic had not been a regular visitor to Indian Wells, appearing there only once in the previous five years. Asked if the chance to reunite with Murray had helped influence his decision to attend, he replied: 'To some extent, yes, because I wanted to get back on the court with him sooner rather than later. I still feel like we are going through the process of getting to know each other on the court in a different way than we have known each other for 25 years. It's obviously a new role for him [and] he's also exploring it and trying to understand how he can excel in it.'
Yet when Djokovic walked onto the match court three days later, he lost to Botic van de Zandschulp to make it three defeats on the trot: his worst sequence on the tour for seven years.
And so to Miami, where Djokovic finally returned to winning ways against Rinky Hijikata of Australia. After the match, the subject of his relationship with Murray came up again. Asked what he had learnt about his former rival, he replied: 'I didn't know how good of a golfer he is. Great humour. I mean, we knew that before. Just super-nice guy that cares about relationships with people, that cares about this coach/player relationship we have, and he wants me to do well. He's just very genuine guy. I enjoy spending time with him, for sure.'
The tournament was a restorative one for Djokovic's fortunes, as he reeled off four more straight-sets wins to reach the final, before being blasted off the court by the 135mph serve of 19-year-old Czech prodigy Jakub Mensik.
Another barren month for Djokovic, who lost his opening matches to Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo and Matteo Arnaldi in Madrid. Murray was absent from the first but present at the second, not that it seemed to make any difference. Djokovic was flat and error-prone in both matches.
Interestingly, there were no more press-conference conversations about Murray. Reporters had stopped asking about the partnership. Fans had stopped discussing it. The honeymoon was over, and with it the buzz.
Djokovic would normally have played the Masters 1000 Rome as his main tune-up event for the imminent French Open, but instead he has opted for the smaller ATP event in Geneva next week.
Not that it will make any odds to Murray. On Tuesday morning, another announcement informed the world that this brief tennis marriage had been dissolved.
My mind went back to the one and only interview that Murray gave during the collaboration, which had come at the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne in early January.
His most revealing answer came when I asked him if he was enjoying the new role. His lip curled slightly as he replied 'High performance [sport] is not supposed to be laughs and jokes and messing around. In all the times I've been on tour, I haven't seen that from any of the best players in the world. I've seen it from some of the lower-ranked players, and that's one of the reasons why they're not there.'
We know that Djokovic expects great things from his support staff. Murray's predecessor Goran Ivanisevic described working for him as 'very stressful, very demanding,' while the Serb's former fitness coach Marco Panichi has said that 'there were moments when Novak turned into a pressure cooker … it wasn't all hearts and flowers'.
Such sacrifices are justified when you are working with a world-beater, but Djokovic's indifferent performances this year suggest that he may struggle to stand among the world's eight leading players when the ATP Finals field is decided in November.
With the new-coach bounce declining, and the wins drying up. Tuesday's message did not feel like a huge shock. It was certainly far more predictable than that first exciting missive from November last year.