When Andy Murray announced his retirement from professional tennis, hardly anyone could have imagined that he would find a new role so recently. The former Scottish champion has been announced as Novak Djokovic’s new coach and will follow him to the 2025 Australian Open, in which the Serbian legend will look to win the 25th Grand Slam title of his legendary career.
Murray and Djokovic have been great rivals throughout their careers, they have known each other since they were children and have faced each other in four different AO finals (all won by Nole). Andy has received several offers since retiring from the Paris Olympics, but only Novak’s call convinced him to return to the ATP tour so soon.
Novak Djokovic & Andy Murray, Doha 2017© Stream screenshot
It is not clear how much Murray will be available to travel next year, but it is no mystery that there is great curiosity about their collaboration. The 3-time Grand Slam champion has no experience in this area, but he seems to have a good attitude considering his intelligence and knowledge of opponents.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has faced all of Nole’s current rivals and will be able to help him in the decisive stages of the most prestigious tournaments. The 2025 Australian Open will already be an important test to understand whether their collaboration can have a future or not.
The Happy Slam is the Major tournament that Djokovic has the most chances to win together with the Wimbledon Championships, which is why the pressure on Novak will be particularly high. The 37-year-old from Belgrade has not won a Grand Slam title since the 2023 US Open.
What’s next for Nole?
During a recent interview, American legend Andre Agassi expressed his point of view on this surprising collaboration: “In any coach-student relationship, you need trust and trust can take time, but it’s nice when it starts with believing in somebody because you know that they know your experience.
There’s an asset to their history as competitors. Any success of a relationship is based on complete buy-in and that’s always the part you have to wait and see.
It’s not what I know that changes your career, information doesn’t lead to transformation, somebody has to counter that. That’s the connector
I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of trust immediately, we’ll see how the results go.”
Although he had several hard times last season, the Serbian champion has not yet lost his motivation and the choice to hire Murray proves this assumption. The current world number 7 knows that next season is decisive from all points of view and that it could be the last at the highest level.
For this reason, the 24-time Grand Slam champion has already promised that he will increase his number of tournaments and that he will give his best from the beginning of the year. His first official event in 2025 will be the Brisbane International, where he will have the chance to compete with excellent players such as Dimitrov, Rune and Kyrgios.
A new experience
2025 will be a very special year for Nole. For the first time in his career, his two eternal rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will not be in action. The Swiss retired in 2022 due to a serious knee injury, while the Spaniard said goodbye to professional tennis at the Davis Cup Finals a few weeks ago.
Djokovic created a truly iconic rivalry with Roger and Rafa, playing some matches that have forever marked the history of this sport.
During a long interview with his sponsor ‘Head’, the former World No.1 revealed his favorite matches against Federer (the 2019 Wimbledon final) and Nadal (the 2012 Australian Open final): “I remember it was late afternoon, the sun was very low so it was hard for visibility, for both player actually. Roger broke my serve and he was serving for it, I think 8-7 in the 5th set. To play the super tiebreak at 12 all, men’s final, long match, a match in which he was the better player statistically. He won more points, just had all the stats on his side but I just found a way to win in important moments, to play the right shots at the right time.
I just try to make him play, make him earn his victory. He got tired a little bit, I used my momentum. Probably the most nerve-wrecking match I was ever part of.”
He continued: “Maybe another one I would add to that section was the 2012 win against Nadal in the Australian Open finals. But those two matches stand out as two greatest matches that I was ever part of.”
