For Andy Murray, this first week on summer’s grass, with the red dirt of Roland Garros a receding memory, must feel like sinking into a warm bath.
Not that his run in Paris was a poor one: He equalled his best-ever result there in reaching the semi-finals and lost to the ‘king of clay’ Rafael Nadal, who has only ever been beaten by one man in 67 Roland Garros matches.
But on grass, Murray has risen like cream when it comes to his home turf.
Since Wimbledon 2012, he has lost only one grass-court match—the final of The Championships that year to Roger Federer. He went on to win Olympic gold on the same Wimbledon Centre Court, won his third title at Queen’s and finally became the first British man to win at the All England Club in 77 years. That completed an 18-match grass run, and moved him to third on the all-time list both of grass-court titles and grass-court matches. Only Federer and Lleyton Hewitt have achieved more.
Murray has, in any case, come to feel entirely at home at London’s Queen’s Club. With three titles in the last five years, he has an impressive 19-4 career record at what has become the biggest pre-Wimbledon tournament—a 56-man draw that has always drawn impressive fields.
It’s always worked as perfect preparation for Wimbledon, and I have actually played some of my best tennis here
Andy Murray
He talked today to BBC Sport about his affection for the tournament. “It’s always a nice place for me to come back,” said Murray. “I have had some great memories from here. It’s always worked as perfect preparation for Wimbledon, and I have actually played some of my best tennis here. It’s also the place where I won my first ATP match!”
For the record, he lost in the third round, just turned 18, in the closest of matches against the then No20-ranked Thomas Johansson, 6-7, 7-6, 5-7.
This year, the world No3 and No6, Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych, top the seeds, and while Murray is only third, he is this week celebrating a return to the top five for the first time since January.
And when it comes to rankings, Murray may also be casting an interested eye towards the other grass tournament this week in Halle. There, like Murray in London, Federer is defending the title, and Murray is only 105 points short of the Swiss man. Should Federer fall short—and French Open champion Rafael Nadal, along with five more top-20 players, are in a quality-packed draw there—Murray may even enter Wimbledon in the top four.
Murray does, though, have another component that will boost his confidence after what has been a testing season for the Briton. For he did not play after September last year because of back surgery, an important step but one that required long and intense recuperation.
Then, at the Miami Masters—where he was defending champion—Ivan Lendl brought the curtain down on what had become one of the most successful coaching partnerships of recent years.
It was clearly a blow as Murray worked to regain his form and fitness through the North American swing, and it became, too, a constant subject of conjecture as he switched to clay.
But just ahead of his first match on grass, he broke the silence with the announcement of an imaginative and intriguing tie-up with former Wimbledon champion and world No1, Amelie Mauresmo.
He went on to talk about how the appointment had been made.
“I spoke to her a couple of times on the phone,” he said. “I thought she was extremely calm, she listened very well… I met up with her in Paris, chatted for about an hour and a half about a number of different things, obviously mainly about tennis, my team, how I like to work and what my goals were. And we decided to give it a go together over the grass. Hopefully it will work out well.”
He then revealed that he had sought the opinion of Darren Cahill in his search for a female coach, and Cahill thought Mauresmo would be “a good fit.”
Murray went on: “She’s obviously a fantastic player. She won Wimbledon, she was world No1, won the Australian Open… I think we will communicate well together and I think that’s a very important part of coaching.
“For me, it doesn’t feel so different [working with a woman] because obviously when I was growing up I had my mum working with me until I was 17 years old… I have always had a strong female influence in my career. I found that, with my mum especially, that she listened extremely well. That was something that I felt, right now, I needed.
“I have started to listen to my body a lot more… I think it’s important that the people you work with respect and understand and listen to how you’re feeling.”
Mauresmo, who has broken the stereotypical mould before by coaching fellow French player, Michael Llodra, held a press conference on the final day of Roland Garros to talk about the appointment.
“I think [Andy’s] maybe looking for something different, about emotions and sensitive things,” said Mauresmo. “It’s not really interesting for me, this part of the story, to be honest. All I’m interested in is to be able to help him in his goals. That’s about it. For me, it’s a challenge. I want to take it.
“It will change a little bit my life and my retirement, let’s say. But I’m passionate about this sport. I love challenges. I guess I like to put myself on the line at some point and see what I can do.”
Asked what she expected to achieve, though, she had no hesitation: “Well, it’s quite easy for me to answer this, and he’s very open on this. He wants to win more Grand Slams.”
The arrangement will be, as it was with Lendl, a part-time one that starts immediately, though Murray stressed that it was for a trial period. “It’s just for the grass court season just now,” he said.
“I think, with any sort of coaching appointment, there’s always a period where you need to try it out… Obviously it’s quite a high pressure situation in the next few weeks: I can get a good idea if it will work long term or not.”
The Murray-Mauresmo story has, without doubt, created a buzz: Everyone at Queen’s has their eyes peeled for her arrival, and the walkways around the practice courts were chock-a-block with fans for the home-hero’s Monday practice. But the man himself will not lose sight of the task he has here before he can even begin to contemplate Wimbledon.
No fewer than nine men in the Queen’s draw have grass titles to their name. His quarter contains the talented Vasek Pospisil, who reached a career-high 25 at the start of the year after reaching the semis in Basel and Montreal.
Further on, Murray’s half also contains the charismatic Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who surged into the top 10 this week after his first Grand Slam semi in Paris.
Other seeds in the Murray half include, in the order he could meet them, Radek Stepanek, Kevin Anderson, and then Berdych or Gulbis. The top half brings together Wawrinka with 2012 Queen’s champion Marin Cilic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Grigor Dimitrov and Alexandr Dolgopolov.
So yes, the road is not an easy one but the reward, should Murray win his fourth title here, would be to equal three greats in this tournament’s history, Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Boris Becker. And that—rather like Mauresmo—is some company.