Andy Murray ‘surprised’ there aren’t more female coaches across ATP and WTA Tours
Andy Murray has expressed his “surprise” that there are not more female coaches across the ATP and WTA Tours.
The Scot found success by working with two-time Grand Slam winner Amelie Mauresmo for two years between 2014 and 2016.
Murray reached three Grand Slam finals and won clay-court titles for the first time under the stewardship of Mauresmo including the Madrid Open in 2015, which culminated in a first clay-court victory over Rafael Nadal.
Murray reached the semi-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon before Mauresmo took maternity leave to give birth to a son.
She returned to guide Murray to his fifth Australian Open final where he lost to Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
“It’s strange, I’m probably surprised there’s not more female coaches across both (men’s and women’s) tours,” Murray told reporters at Wimbledon.
“I didn’t necessarily think at the time that it (being coached by Mauresmo) was for sure going to spark loads of new or more female coaches to come into the game. It wasn’t exactly received, unbelievably well at the time, I wasn’t necessarily expecting that.
“But it’s probably slightly more deeper-rooted than just the top of the game. I think it’s probably the case throughout the sport. It probably starts from the bottom up.”
Mauresmo oversaw Murray’s first career titles on clay
Murray said tennis needed to do a better job of encouraging more women to take up coaching at the lower levels first.
“Then hopefully that transitions onto the men’s and women’s tour a bit more,” he added.
“I don’t even know that it would be a handful of female coaches across both tours, which is not enough.”
Mauresmo’s last tournament as Murray’s coach was at the 2016 Madrid Open, where he lost a close final to Djokovic.
She coached several players after splitting with the former world No 1 and is currently the tournament director at the French Open.
