CONCLUSIONS remain tantalisingly out of reach when it comes to cold, hard analysis of Andy Murray's two-year coaching experiment with Amelie Mauresmo. The first such relationship of its kind - between a high profile, highly-ranked male player and an equally high profile female coach - gender warriors on either side of the debate will be desperate to claim it as a stunning success or desperate failure but the truth is far more nuanced than that.

Unorthodox or not, the first thing to be stated is that Murray clearly got something out of it. The Scot often spoke of Mauresmo as a calming influence and perhaps it was this which helped him to a year in 2015 which in terms of match wins was the most successful of his entire career. Likewise, most players in the world would be overjoyed by the two Grand Slam finals and two Grand Slam semi-finals he has reached since hooking up with Mauresmo in the summer of 2014. He is playing better than ever before on a clay court, having won his first titles on that surface last year not to mention his starring role in Great Britain's historic Davis Cup triumph in November, even if Mauresmo can hardly claim the credit for that one.

But the news yesterday that this pair had mutually agreed to part company and put an end to this particular version of the Auld Alliance was perhaps an acknowledgement that the challenges which have been up against them from the start have finally proved too much to bear.

Born in the full glare of the English sporting summer, while the Scot was still getting over his back surgery in late September 2013, certain knives were out even back in the aftermath of the shock quarter final defeat to Grigor Dimitrov at Wimbledon which brought an end to his SW19 reign. But the Scot stuck to his guns, parting instead with Dani Vallverdu and Jez Green in a mini-purge of his backroom team. It was the quarters again at the 2014 US Open, even if a four-set quarter final defeat to Novak Djokovic was hardly a disgrace.

Dispensing credit and blame at the hands of an outside agency like a coach is a messy business in an individual sport like tennis where players are the authors of their own success and downfall. While Ivan Lendl was credited, rightly or wrongly, for cultivating the ruthless streak which took Murray to his two Grand Slam victories, Mauresmo's main demerit may simply be her star pupil's failure to prevent Djokovic and his celebrity coach Boris Becker taking the whip hand at the sharp end of tennis. The Scot enters Roland Garros this week, still patiently knocking at the door of completing what would be a thoroughly deserved hat-trick of slam wins, yet knowing that ten attempts have now ticked by without being able to add to his list of major honours. After that Wimbledon defeat to Dimitrov, he has been vanquished in the slams by Djokovic, Djokovic, Roger Federer, Kevin Anderson, and then Djokovic again.

While Mauresmo restated her commitment to travel 25 weeks a year on the tour after the birth of her first child, Aaron, last summer, this was always going to require quite a juggling act and there were hints from the Frenchwoman last night that she had indeed struggled to commit the requisite time. As a new dad, of course, Murray understands all this and sympathises. Speculation about a fall-out is wide of the mark, even if tongues started wagging at the Miami Open in late March whenMauresmo was seated away from the official support box as the Scot went down in strangely self-destructive fashion against Grigor Dimitrov.

While a potential coaching reshuffle has been a source of discussion in recent months, it is only in recent days that events have gathered pace - Mauresmo was in Madrid for the early part of last week, albeit mainly working with French Fed Cup players, and was due to meet him again at this week's Italian Open.

Jamie Delgado, appointed assistant coach in January, already works 40 weeks a year with the Scot, and will take lead coaching duties in Rome and Roland Garros, with doubles specialist Louis Cayer lending some technical expertise. Much thinking is already under way to locate a suitable final piece of the jigsaw in the Lendl/Mauresmo category, possibly by Wimbledon, ahead of a critical summer which also includes the challenge of defending his Olympic title.

While the world obsesses about each minute coaching change, Murray - who ran Djokovic close in Madrid last week regardless of all this - is the master of his own destiny. A man in the mature phase of his career yet still with a restless mind, he continues to search for the right piece of guidance at the right time to get him back on the Grand Slam podium. Don't bet against him finding it.