by Andy Charles (contributor)
Andy Murray has become the latest top tennis player to make a coaching move after dispensing with the services of fellow Scot Miles Maclagan before the end of their third year together.
Maclagan, himself a former top British player, joined Team Murray at the end of 2007 and was looking after the British No 1 when he reached his two Grand Slam finals, the 2008 US Open and this year’s Australian Open.
Online Betting (http://news.ladbrokes.com/en-gb) pundits note that Murray’s form since Melbourne has not been great, apart from his run to the semi-finals at Wimbledon, and he has stagnated at No 4 in the world at a time in his career when you would have expected him to be well on the way to challenging Rafael Nadal for the No 1 spot.
“I have had a great relationship with Miles over the past two-and-a-half years and I thank him for his positive contribution to my career. We had a lot of success and fun working together.”
Some tennis betting (http://news.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/tennis) experts suggest the closeness of Murray and Maclagan might have been the problem in him not improving his game generally in the last couple of seasons, since there is little question that he has become one of the fittest players on tour, removing all the doubts over his stamina from the past.
Murray, who returns to the ATP Tour this week in Los Angeles, will now work with recent clay-court advisor Alex Corretja in the run-up to next month’s US Open, after which a full-time appointment is likely to be made.
Speculation now turns to the next man or woman to take over his coaching regime, but it appears that the favourite is Australian Darren Cahill, who has worked with the likes of Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt in the past.
Cahill is currently working as an analyst for sports television channel ESPN and for adidas, which would fit in with Murray, who recently switched his allegiances to the German sporting goods giant.