Having been coached by his mother for some time, Andy Murray's hire of Amelie Mauresmo as his coach in 2014 was not an entirely shocking decision. Since joining with the former WTA No. 1, Murray has been outspoken in his support of female coaches on tour.
Very few women have held or currently hold coaching positions in both the ATP and WTA, something Murray hopes will change.
“I wasn’t thinking of it being a groundbreaking move or having an influence that could cross over into other sports,” said Murray to The Red Bulletin. “Then, after seeing the response to it, and some of the things that have been said, I can see it is. I’ve actually become very passionate about getting more women in sport, giving women more opportunities," he said.
"When I was younger, I wasn’t thinking about stuff like that. But now I’ve seen it with my own eyes, it’s quite amazing how few female coaches there are across any sport.”
Murray says that the two-time Grand Slam champion was criticized by some as she began coaching him 14 months ago. Mauresmo is also Fed Cup captain in France.
“Since I’ve been on the tour, and I’m in my 10th year, none of the top male or female players have had women coaches,” the 27-year-old said. “It was two or three out of hundreds of players. So I knew it would be a big story at the beginning. But I thought it would die down quicker than it has."
Murray was surprised by the criticism lobbed towards Mauresmo, which he deemed unfair.
"Before I started working with Amelie, I was losing—I started last year much worse than I finished it, so I was very surprised at the amount of criticism she received for each loss I had. I couldn’t believe the negativity towards her personally. That has never happened with any other coach I’ve worked with before. It was a shock.”
Murray is currently the only male in the Top 50 that has a female coach. Only two men in the Top 100 are coached by women: No. 56 Mikhail Kukushkin, who is coached by his wife, Anastasia, and No. 67 Denis Istomin, who is coached by his mother, Klaudiya.
Murray’s mother, Judy, taught him to play as a child. She now serves as the Fed Cup captain for Great Britain.
The WTA also has a very small number of female coaches. There are two in the Top 20: Evgenia Manyukova coaches No. 8 Ekaterina Makarova, and Lindsay Davenport coaches No. 17 Madison Keys.
The current No. 13 Agnieszka Radwanska previously worked with Martina Navratilova for four months but recently ended their partnership. Caroline Wozniacki began working with Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario following Miami, but they have since separated.