Dubai: Andy Murray admitted he was struggling without his coach Amelie Mauresmo ahead of this week’s Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
Mauresmo only accompanies the 27-year-old Briton to certain events as part of their agreement and the World No.4 had been trying to find someone to fill in for her during this period to no avail.
“I’ve spoken to a few people and made some pretty good progress with that. But there’s nothing for this week,” said the double Grand Slam winner of his coaching crisis.
“Obviously during Davis Cup week, we’ll have people around that can help that I know very well and then Amelie will be back for Indian Wells.
“In an ideal world it would have been good to have had somebody for these last couple of weeks. That hasn’t been the case, but I have spoken to a few people so I’m going in the right direction.”
Murray, who has reached the final in Dubai once [2012] in four appearances, said he has missed just having someone to practice with ahead of his first round tie with Luxemburg’s Gilles Muller.
“I think having someone there with you, for me anyway, is better. I just think for practice. Like today, for example, I was supposed to hit with [Fernando] Verdasco this morning and he cancelled at the last minute, so then it’s like what do you do?
“The tournament managed to sort out someone who warms up some of the players if the players don’t have anyone. He was a French guy who coaches here, who was fine, so I could do some drills with him and stuff.
“But it’s just if you have a coach around, it’s a lot easier to do basket drills or work on specific things and you can get constant feedback with what you’re doing, whereas – when you are on your own – if something like that happens, you have to come up with a training session yourself. It’s not perfect. That’s why most of the players try, when they can, to travel with their coach.”
Murray, who reached the final of last month’s Australian Open, added that he was using Dubai, where he is in the same half of the draw as Roger Federer, as preparation ahead of a crucial few weeks.
“With the Davis Cup, Indian Wells, Miami stretch, it’s an important few tournaments and if I wasn’t to play here, you end up practising indoors basically for four weeks and then play the Davis Cup and then arrive in Indian Wells late and only have three or four days in the heat there to prepare.
“It can be quite challenging conditions and obviously Miami is the same, so I wanted to basically come and hopefully get some good matches in warm conditions and play outdoors because all of the major events are outdoors and there’s Indian Wells and Miami coming up as well. This is a very strong field here as well, so you’re going to get good matches, whereas – if I stay at home and practise – there’s not many players around to play with really, so it made more sense for me to come and play here.”
