Andy Murray says Ivan Lendl, his coach of a year-and-a-half and eight-time Grand Slam champion, has had a huge impact on his career. Murray has now won the 2012 Olympic gold medal in singles, 2012 U.S. Open, and 2013 Wimbledon with Lendl in his corner.
“He's made me learn more from the losses that I've had than maybe I did in the past,” Murray said. “I think he's always been very honest with me. He's always told me exactly what he thought. And in tennis, it's not always that easy to do in a player/coach relationship. The player is sometimes the one in charge. I think sometimes coaches are not always that comfortable doing that. But he's been extremely honest with me. If I work hard, he's happy. If I don't, he's disappointed, and he'll tell me. And when I've lost matches, last year after the [Wimbledon] final he told me he was proud of the way I played because I went for it when I had chances. It was the first time I played a match in a Grand Slam final like that. He's got my mentality slightly different going into those sort of matches.”
The 25-year-old Murray also said the reason why he has continued to progress is because he never gave up on himself. Murray was unable to win a major in his first four finals, but did manage to get over the hump at the 2012 U.S. Open.
“I think I persevered. That's really been it, the story of my career,” he said. “I had a lot of tough losses, but the one thing I would say is I think every year I always improved a little bit. They weren't major improvements, massive changes, but every year my ranking was going in the right direction. I was always going a little bit further in the Slams. I kept learning and I just kept working as hard as I could. When I lost those matches sometimes I dealt with them badly, but I think the last few losses that I've had in Slam finals I've dealt with them a lot better.”