Will Murray's Czech mate smile?

The Czech, an eight-time Grand Slam singles winner himself, has a habit of perching up in the players' box, his chin propped glumly on his wrist, for the entirety of Andy Murray's matches, presumably to remind his young charge that he has to win one of these events some time for him to be properly impressed.

After taking the Scot through his last practice before today's Wimbledon final, a session in which he hit with British youngster Oliver Golding and was cut short by a downpour after just 30 minutes, he offered even less encouragement to journalists yesterday,

On closer inspection, however, Lendl is the kind of figure who can say something profound without even opening his mouth. Last week, he memorably described the relationship between the two men as "the two of them cracking bad jokes, and nobody laughing", and the question on everybody's lips yesterday was if he would finally crack a smile if the 25-year-old goes on to lift the title.

"Come along and find out," he said mysteriously. Lendl, of course, has his own reputation on the line in all of this. A two-time Wimbledon losing finalist, Murray is the first man he has coached on a full-time basis, so this is also his first Grand Slam final as coach, an achievement which is already more than some in the sport felt he was capable of.

So how much personal satisfaction would he derive from the achievement? "I have had a great time at Wimbledon," he said. "But it is all about Andy." It is precisely the same single-mindedness which took him to the summit of the game, after losing his first four major finals. "You have to keep putting yourself in the position where you have a chance," he added, "and eventually you are bound to have a breakthrough.

"Andy has the experience and has developed and matured as a player and a person. He has been very focused and determined during the tournament. Federer has won 16 majors, more than anybody else in the history of the game, so you don't necessarily look at his age. We have worked on certain things and we'll continue to work on them. We will talk a lot about how to play the late stages in major events."

The other occupants of the Scot's occasionally revolving coaching chair might not be as illustrious as Lendl, but yesterday a few of them were rather more talkative.

Leon Smith, Mark Petchey, Brad Gilbert, Miles MacLagan, Alex Correja, and Darren Cahill – as well as his mum Judy – have all previously filled the position and all can be said to have played their part in helping the Scot to today's Wimbledon final.

Petchey, who coached him to his first ATP tour win, recalls the Scot's single-minded streak. "Andy's sole objective in life is to win a major tennis tournament," Petchey said. "He won't be happy obviously just to reach the final. He wants to have his hand on that cup. And he is going to have to play probably the best tennis of his life to do that, against arguably the best tennis player of all-time.

"Obviously Roger starts favourite, because emotionally one of the unknown quantities going into the final is how Andy handles the biggest occasion of his tennis life. Roger has won this tournament six times, and has nothing left to prove. There are a few variables out there that nobody is really going to know until about 6 o'clock tomorrow night."

Gilbert, the American who took over from Petchey and oversaw the Scot making great strides before being sacked in 2007, said he would be "rooting" for his former charge. "I am not making a prediction until I see what the weather is like," the American said.

"It changes the elements of the match, but Andy plays well indoors. I am sure Ivan has it planned all around winning 21 sets, not 18. When he has been up against it all tournament, he has shown a lot of resolve, and that's been the best thing. I definitely would love to see Andy win. He has done all the work."

If and when that does come to pass, Lendl will surely crack a smile, even if Murray has to climb Pat Cash-style and hug him to get it.