When Andy Murray hooked up with Ivan Lendl seven years ago, he seemed convinced that, after several experiments with other coaches, he and old Rock Jaw would be together for the rest of his career. Within a year, he had broken through for an Olympic gold medal and his first grand slam title at the US Open. Two Wimbledon titles would follow – then injury, struggle and no little angst.
When Murray arrived this week in New York to prepare for the US Open, the last major of the season, he may have experienced a shiver of regret, or nostalgia maybe, when he learned Lendl had come out of retirement to tend to the development of the exciting young German Alexander Zverev. Murray would hardly be human if he did not at least wonder how it may have panned out during his own difficult stretches had Lendl not walked away – twice.
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