John McEnroe has not been ruled out (although, in truth, he was never really ruled in) but, as yet, Andy Murray is still a long way from finding someone to replace Ivan Lendl as his coach.
With the year's second and third grand slam tournaments looming, Murray feels some urgency. "I don't want to go into any names because that would cause me a lot of stress over the next week or so. A lot of questions," the Wimbledon champion said. "But it's something I did start to think about a lot the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I'm getting closer to making a decision in the next month or so. I still hope to have a coach definitely, definitely before Wimbledon but I'd hope before the French Open."
As for McEnroe - when he was asked if he would consider coaching Murray, he made all the right and polite noises, saying that the job would be tempting. In return, Murray said that a player of McEnroe's magnitude could not be ignored.
"When someone like that shows an interest, you have to take it into consideration," he said yesterday. But after the disappointment of losing Lendl, Murray is clear about what he wants: commitment. Lendl could not give him 30 weeks of every year; Murray wants someone who can.
"Ideally I would have someone that was No.1 in the world, someone that's won 10 slams and someone that would dedicate 25, 30 weeks of the year," Murray said. "That's what I would like but it's not going to happen. It's not just as basic as 'what do I want?', it needs to be the right balance. Whether they were a great player or they were an average tennis player, it doesn't really matter; the communication needs to be there, they need to be willing to dedicate enough time to make a difference. They are two of the most important things and then it just depends on how it works out from there."
Murray has been on the professional circuit for nine years, will turn 27 in 10 days and has two grand slams and an Olympic gold medal in his collection of 28 tournament trophies. These days, he is not looking for a teacher, he is looking for a partner, a work colleague, to help him out.
"A very important attribute in a coach is the ability to listen," Murray said. "Anyone that comes into my team now needs to be able to listen to the things I'm saying: the things I'm saying about my body, about my practice, the way that I feel.
"There're also people that maximised their game, people that got the most out of it. They will tend to make good coaches because they squeezed every ounce of talent out of their body by working extremely hard, finding different ways to improve, making adjustments, and tactically they will tend to be very good."
All of which rules out McEnroe: he is not much of a listener, has little free time and he was hardly a limited player making the best of a bad job. So it is back to the drawing board.
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