Well the Sony Open tournament from Miami is already under way this week for the men's and ladies tour but this post will cover something a bit different as there has been a dramatic revelation this week in men's game as Andy Murray has announced his split with his coach Ivan Lendl after two years working together.
And there is no doubt that this comes as a real surprise to the tennis world and to the public especially considering how much success Andy has enjoyed working with Lendl who has helped him win the three biggest titles of his career. And the split seems to be more on Lendl's part than on Andy's as Ivan has stated he wishes to play more senior tour matches as well as concentrate on developing his tennis coaching academies. And this all seems fair enough as Lendl wants to move onto other projects, however it does leave Andy with a gaping hole in his team needing to be filled and it begs the question: how will Andy fare without Lendl??? Well only time will tell on that one but I think it hasn't happened at the most opportune time especially given Andy's ropey form of late. Also given that Andy is the defending champion at the Sony Open this year he has a tough field ahead of him in trying to defend it, as he will have to face Djokovic, Federer and then Nadal in succession to win it again from the quarter finals onward.
However with Lendl now gone it does open an interesting new chapter in Andy's career and while he is still searching to find his form, it will be intruiging to see how he will cope on his own without a coach. For now his hitting partner, Dani Vallverdu will probably provide support on a temporary basis in this role as he has done in the past. And its also a reminder of his split from Miles McClaghan back in 2011 and he actually went on to have a really good year after his slow start and disappointment of losing out to Djokovic in the Australian open final that year, he had his most consistent year in the slams by reaching all four semi finals and won five titles as well.
So while Andy has gotten off to a slow start in 2014 we still also have to take into consideration that he has just returned from surgery, but now that his back has improved, and he has his match fitness back, what he needs to work on is his match sharpness. And hopefully over the next few months that will come and by the time he plays the French Open even he will be back to near his best form. Also Andy has the chance to build up alot of points over the clay court season given that he didn't play for most of it last year mainly due to his back injury. And this year Andy is pain free with his back no longer an issue, its now just purely a matter of getting his game back up to scratch (not his back!).
And whether or not Andy can go on and win the Sony Open in Miami this week or not is not entirely relevant at this stage, given that there are so many players out there already gunning for him, as well as the resurgence of Federer and Nadal making his return after missing the tournament last year. But if he does lose out in Miami then I hope it will be later rather sooner as the deeper he goes the better a chance he has of winning and if he doesn't and does manage to beat Djokovic or even Federer on the way and loses in the final, he will at least take confidence from having beaten two (or one) top ten player. And this is something Andy realy needs to start doing in order to build that confidence is to beat players ranked lower than him but are close to his ranking (now No.6) such as Grigor Dimitrov or Milos Raonic, who have already beaten him this year in other tournaments.
Andy might already face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the 4th round in Miami just prior to a potential showdown with Djokovic and he has an excellent head to head over Tsonga as it is (i.e. he has only lost once to him) . And if Andy can beat Tsonga then that will surely give him enough confidence to go forward and beat higher ranked players, as Tsonga is currently ranked No.11, it would be the highest ranked player he will have beaten so far this year. But that still lies ahead and for now we stil have to wait and see what the impact of Lendl's departure will take on Andy.
So I will finish by wishing Andy the best of luck for the future and let's hope his mutual split with Lendl will not backfire on him. But we have to remind ourselves that even though Lendl gave Andy the mental edge he needed to win a major, it was Andy that carried himself there as well and even without Lendl in his corner, Andy is and always will be one hell of a player. And even if Andy's patchy spell continues this year, I'm pretty sure we haven't seen anything yet and he will be back to his best soon enough.
And on that note I shall leave you there and report back once Miami get's well under way and maybe also the result of Andy's first match, which is against the Aussie player, Matthew Ebden.
And that's it, bye the now!
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