Andy Murray splits with coach Amelie Mauresmo: Influential Frenchwoman will be a hard act to follow

Andy Murray failed to win a Grand Slam title while being coached by Amelie Mauresmo, but there can be no doubt about the Frenchwoman’s huge influence on his career. Mauresmo stepped into the breach after the end of Murray’s highly successful association with Ivan Lendl and helped the Scot through both his recovery from back surgery and his climb back up to his highest position at No 2 in the world rankings.

In becoming the first woman other than a family member to work permanently with a Grand Slam champion, Mauresmo also struck a major blow for female coaches. Her appointment in the summer of 2014 was greeted with cynicism in some quarters, but she has proved that there is absolutely no reason why women coaches should not enjoy success working with leading male players.

Mauresmo’s appointment at the end of the 2014 French Open did not go down well with everyone in the Murray entourage. Dani Vallverdu and Jez Green, the Scot’s assistant coach and fitness trainer respectively, were both unhappy about the lack of consultation with them over the recruitment. It was not until the end of the year, when Vallverdu and Green left the Scot’s camp for pastures new, that Murray felt everyone around him was pulling in the same direction.

The 2014 season had been particularly difficult for Murray, who missed the last three months of 2013 after having back surgery to cure a long-standing problem. He took time to rediscover his form and qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the end of 2014 only after a gruelling autumn schedule in which he finally earned the ranking points that secured his place in London. Nevertheless, his crushing 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Roger Federer at the O2 Arena in his last match of the year showed how much work he had to do.

However, by the time Murray headed Down Under for the start of the 2015 campaign he was in a much happier frame of mind. Mauresmo’s calm and level-headed approach appealed to Murray and her attacking instincts as a player helped to develop aspects of the Scot’s game that did not always come naturally to him. Their mutual respect was evident.

From the moment he reached the final of the Australian Open at the start of last year it was clear that Murray’s career was back on track. He went on to win his first clay-court titles, in Munich and Madrid, and played some excellent tennis at both the French Open and Wimbledon, reaching the semi-finals of both events before losing to Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer respectively.

In the spring Murray had added Jonas Bjorkman to his coaching entourage, which was just as well when Mauresmo informed the Scot that she was expecting her first child in the summer. Her son Aaron was born in August.

From the conclusion of Wimbledon through to the end-of-season World Tour Finals, Bjorkman was the main figure in Murray’s corner. The Scot beat Djokovic to win the Montreal Masters in August – that has been his only win in 12 of his 13 meetings with the world No 1 since the Wimbledon final of 2013 – but he suffered a disappointing fourth-round defeat to Kevin Anderson at the US Open and did not progress beyond the group stage at the World Tour Finals.

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Bjorkman left the Murray entourage at the end of the year as Mauresmo returned to work. All seemed well when she worked with the Scot at the Australian Open, where he again reached the final, but it later became clear that she was having trouble juggling with her commitments as a mother, as Murray’s coach and as captain of France’s Fed Cup team. Following Melbourne the only tournament where they worked together was the Miami Masters in March, where Murray suffered a disappointing third-round exit, though the Scot took all of February off following the birth of his daughter.

With Mauresmo staying on as French Fed Cup captain, it was no surprise that it was the work with Murray that would be the part of her life she would have to sacrifice. In talking to Mauresmo about their future partnership Murray had stressed that he needed his main coach to be on the road with him for at least 20 weeks of the year. Mauresmo was initially happy to continue with that arrangement, but came to realise that it would not work in the long term. She needs to devote considerably less time than that to her Fed Cup job.

After Murray’s disappointments in Indian Wells and Miami he has enjoyed an excellent start to the clay-court season. He reached both the semi-finals of last month’s Monte Carlo Masters, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in three sets, and yesterday’s final of the Madrid Masters, where he lost a close contest with Djokovic, having beaten Nadal in the semi-finals.

In Madrid Murray was talking about linking up with Mauresmo again here this week at the Rome Masters, only for his management to release today’s statement announcing their parting of the ways.

Murray dropped today to No 3 in the world rankings, but he will be the favourite to reclaim the No 2 position in time for the start of the French Open in 13 days’ time. As a minimum Federer has to reach the final here just to stay ahead of Murray. Both men are due to play their first matches on Wednesday.

Working out his coaching arrangements for the future will be a big challenge for Murray, but he usually gets those decisions right. Mauresmo, nevertheless, will be a hard act to follow.