WASHINGTON, December 12, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)
When Andy Murray stepped away from professional tennis following the Paris Olympics in August of 2024, he wrote wryly on X: “Never even liked tennis anyway.” Then, three months later, after he was tabbed by his friend and longtime rival Novak Djokovic to be the Serbian great’s new coach, Djokovic wrote on Instagram: “He never liked retirement anyway.”
Never even liked tennis anyway.
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) August 1, 2024
The news that one former World No. 1, Djokovic, had enlisted another, Murray, to become his coach, took everyone by surprise when it was announced on social media. That two players, both 37 at the time, who helped define men’s pro tennis in the 21st century would now be on the same team, indeed, was history in the making. It simply was unprecedented.
As it happened, the Murray-Djokovic partnership lasted about six months, from November 2024 until May 2025. Murray coached Djokovic during the 2025 Australian Open, which included a quarterfinal win over current World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, before they mutually decided to end their agreement due to a lack of desired results and the partnership not achieving all its goals, despite enjoying the deepened friendship.
Recently, during an exclusive interview with The Tennis Podcast at Roehampton Club, a year on from the start of Murray’s surprise coaching partnership, the 38-year-old British great – a winner of three majors and two Olympic gold medals – was asked what it was like to coach his long-time rival Djokovic and, just as importantly, what he learned from the experience.
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Murray on coaching Djokovic: ‘I was fully invested’
“I had just finished playing a round of golf and when I got home, I spoke to him about the possibility of coaching and, you know, it was totally unexpected at the time,” Murray said, recalling how he was approached by Djokovic to join his team. “I wasn’t missing the sport in a what where I was like, oh you know, I’m desperate to start coaching and get on the road again. … My expectation was that it was going to be extremely challenging.
“Novak, like myself, is a challenging character in terms of the way he goes about his … His tennis is extremely demanding,” Murray expressed during The Tennis Podcast interview with hosts Catherine Whitaker, David Law and Matt Roberts. “I fully expected that. I look back on it and I’m glad that I did it. You know, it’s an amazing experience that I’ve had. … Obviously, it didn’t last that long. I put everything into to it that I had. I tried my hardest to help him.
“It was unfortunate what happened in Australia with the injury, but I watched him play in that tournament ridiculous tennis in that tournament. Amazing, just so so good, so impressive what he’s doing.”
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Djokovic retired from his Australian Open semifinal match against Alexander Zverev, after losing the first set 7-6 (5), due to a worsening left leg muscle tear he suffered during the quarterfinal round against Alcaraz.
“After the injury, it was certainly a difficult few months for him, but also I think for the team and all of us,” Murray recalled. “So yeah, I was disappointed. Probably didn’t get the results I would have liked for him. But I learned a lot about what coaching is. And because it was throwing yourself in at the deep end, you find out a lot about yourself and some of your strengths, some of your weaknesses as a coach and things that maybe you need to work on.
“I was fully invested. I’d committed to a skiing holiday before I took the job and I explained that to him. But I was sitting there at 11 p.m. Watching videos of his matches over in Australia, editing videos to send to him. I tried my hardest to help. …
“There’s loads of things that you need to do and making sure that everything is done correctly. So making sure that the racquets are right, that the practice court is booked and that the practice partner is appropriate and that the videos around the match are done.
“I viewed that as being my job. It wasn’t like Novak said, ‘Please be the one getting my racquets and stuff.’ I wanted to do those things because you’re then in control of it.”
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Murray noted the importance for a coach to bring a good energy. “You don’t want your team to come out and be super flat on an important day, but also nervous energy is not what a player in my opinion needs before they walk on to play the semifinal of a Grand Slam,” he said.
“You need to bring an energy, a bit of confidence as well. So that the player feels like you believe in them. I’m aware from a psychological perspective how important those tings are. So it’s something that if I ever coached again, I would work on and try and do a better job of it.”
Murray added: “I felt like it was quite clear as to how he need to play [against Alcaraz]. But there’s a difference between seeing a strategy and actually going out on the court and executing it as well as he did. In my opinion there are very few people in the world that can do that. So you could give a guy ranked No. 50 in the world the best strategy you want to play against Alcaraz, but he is still going to win that match.
“Whereas Novak is that good that he is able to executive a strategy perfectly because he is so good. So yeah, I felt like the strategy for the match was a good one, but he played a ridiculous tennis match as well. And that’s why he won the match.”
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Murray on his life in retirement: ‘It’s good’
Murray, who retired from professional tennis following the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, conveyed a sense of happiness at finishing his career “on his own terms” despite physical struggles with his right hip, which he underwent a major hip resurfacing surgery in 2019. He expressed finding an unexpected joy being at home with his family, with no desire to return to competitive tennis. With a value of closure over a perfect ending, it was time for Murray to embrace life as a father.
Now, eighteen months into retirement, Murray was asked: “How’s life? How do you feel?”
“It’s good. I mean I was genuinely unsure what it would be like, whether I would enjoy it, whether I would miss tennis, how I would fill my days,” he said. “Before it came, I was a little bit nervous about it. I know it was the right decision to stop when I did. I don’t regret when I retired from tennis but, yeah, it’s been brilliant. I love being a dad and being home with the kids. It’s brilliant, I get to do everything with them. I’m in a very fortunate position to be able to do that.
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“Yesterday, 10 o’clock on a Monday morning and I got to go watch my daughter’s hockey competition for three hours in the pissing rain – but it was brilliant. I love getting to do that sort of stuff. I missed a lot of those things when I was playing tennis. I’ve been really enjoying that. …
“Within probably a week to 10 days of retiring, my perspective completely changed on my own career,” Murray said. “Like at times, you know, when I was in the middle of it … like number three in the world or four in the world … and it’s rubbish or you know you get to the final of the Australian Open for the fifth time and it’s a terrible result, you know. The media will help you feel that way at times as well.
“You know, in sports, it’s difficult in that sense in that you have a great achievement and you’re made to feel like it is a failure as well. When you’re in the thick of it and it’s your job and everything like, you know, disappointed when you didn’t win majors that you put so much into it, you feel a bit like you failed.
“But when I finished my career and I like, I went and watched my daughter running a cross-country race and she finished seventh and I was like, ‘oh my God, that’s unbelievable. Like, it’s so good.’ So, like as a parent, I’m like ‘that’s amazing.’ Like finishing seventh out of a hundred kids in like the local school area. But, when I was playing tennis, like we finished second in one of the biggest competitions, you’re like, this is just a disaster. It’s just not an ideal way to look at things. It’s hard to get happiness and pleasure out of the sport when you know that is the mindset.”
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Meanwhile, Murray and his wife, Kim, have been married for 10 years. He’s the father of three daughters and a son, ranging in age from 4 to 9, and is enjoying family life at home in Leatherhead, Surrey, England.
“I don’t cook. I’m a terrible cook. I used to cook more,” Murray quipped. “There’s a recipe that you follow [in a meal kit] but the problem for me is that I will follow the instruction down to a T, and so if something isn’t going quite right, I have no idea how to make adjustments … I retired from cooking as well as tennis.
“I was still playing at the end, but there were quite a few periods when I was at home through the injuries, I wasn’t playing quite as much. For my eldest daughter, it was quite a big change for her, quite a big adjustment. She was finding it hard if I had to be the one to take her to school, or to pick her up, take her to a club or being around her friends, that was something she was finding difficult. If I was getting any attention she struggled with that.
“It was only last week when I picked her up from netball, it was the first time that she actually walked next to me back to the car.”
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Murray admitted that he doesn’t watch much tennis on TV these days and hasn’t hit tennis balls since he finished coaching Djokovic. “I was in a good place but I always felt I would want to coach at some stage,” he said.
“It’s something I knew I would enjoy doing. If I didn’t take [the opportunity], I might look back on it and think that might have been interesting – I could have learned a lot – or, you know, potentially regretted it.”
Murray added: “I’m very lucky my wife agreed to let me go and do it for a period.”
These days, Murray finds himself in a good place. He’s at peace with how his tennis career turned out and the recognition he’s received being part of the Big Four with Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. For now, though, Murray is enjoying life after tennis, where his primary focus is being a husband and father to his children. No regrets.
Andy Murray will always be the absolute GREATEST 4th best tennis player in the world. The very fact he eventually managed to ascend past the monoliths of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to sit at number 1 is simply astronomical…
Forever underrated. pic.twitter.com/XwLBg3xvfH
— Scott Barclay (@BarclayCard18) November 21, 2025
