Novak Djokovic and coach Andy Murray: A closer look at their early results Down Under
The Scot’s desire to succeed in his first coaching job may be his biggest contribution to the Serbian’s future.
How much Serbian, exactly, does Andy Murray understand? And will that be the key to his relationship with Novak Djokovic?
That’s what I found myself wondering midway through Djokovic’s second-round contest against Jaime Faria on Wednesday. He had won the first set over his young opponent easily, but—as is often the case during his Grand Slam matches—he wasn’t pleased with his play. And he was letting himself, his camp and anyone within earshot know it, in what sounded like his mother tongue (with Djokovic, it could also have been a mashup of half a dozen languages, one for each coach).
Murray, who has spent his tennis life doing the screaming rather than the listening, leaned forward and accepted the barrage of verbiage without changing his expression. He says he’s ready to be yelled at, and Djokovic says they don’t have any secrets from each other now that they’re working together—“all cards are on the table.” But maybe the less Andy gathers from Novak’s on-court rants, the better.
Of course, no matter who his coach is, it wouldn’t be a Djokovic match at a major without an out-of-nowhere outburst. At some point over a best-of-five-set slog, he needs to vent, to let out the nerves and replace them with a spark of aggressive energy.
Two matches into the Djokovic-Murray era, the Serb is looking, sounding, playing and ranting very much like he has at the Slams over the past three or four years. That’s mostly for the better, but also a little bit for the worse.
The better part is that he is into the third round and, equally important, he has held up well over the long haul against two opponents—Nishesh Basavareddy, 19, and Jaime Faria, 21—who are a little more than half his age.
“I’m satisfied with the win. I really like the way I started the match and finished the match,” Djokovic said after beating Faria in four sets. “Overall another big test. Another three-hour match, back to back against the youngsters.”
The “worse” part I mentioned above is that Djokovic is still dropping sets early in the event, to players ranked well below him. Often, this doesn’t catch up to him at the tail end of the two weeks, but occasionally it does. The 2021 US Open, where he had nothing left for Daniil Medvedev in the final, and the 2024 Australian Open, where he went out to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, come to mind as moments when greater efficiency would have served his 35-plus-year-old body well. Djokovic acknowledged as much on Wednesday.
“I wish maybe I stayed a set less on the court today,” he said.
Devoted Djokovic watchers have their eyes peeled for any hint of Murray’s influence. A few of them on X believe that he’s playing more passively, more positionally, and not trying to close out rallies as quickly. The Australian TV commentators during the Faria match seemed to agree. They thought Djokovic was holding back on his forehand, and urged him to take a few big rips to get some of the tension out of his arm.
The Serb is looking, sounding, playing and ranting very much like he has at the Slams over the past three or four years. That’s mostly for the better, but also a little bit for the worse.
A more tactical, patient and risk-adverse game with Murray at the helm wouldn’t be a surprise; that’s how he liked to play. In recent years, Djokovic has led the trend toward running around and trying to hit as many forehands as possible, and focusing on the serve-plus-one. We’ll see if that changes under Murray, who didn’t rely on his forehand as much as Djokovic (and never hit it as well). In general, though, the two rivals had similar styles, and I’m guessing any changes that Murray tries to make will be at the margins.
But coaches don’t need to make big tactical shifts to help a player. Just as often, it’s about how they motivate and inspire their charge, how much urgency they instill, how much the player wants to work and win for them. On that front, Djokovic’s early comments about Murray are promising.
He says Murray has pored over the videos of his matches, and likes to analyze opponents and dive into the numbers. Djokovic likes numbers and analysis as well, and this may mark a return to the more data-driven approach he used when he worked with tactical analyst Craig O’Shannessy. That seemed to be downplayed under the more old-school regime of his last coach, Goran Ivanisevic.
Most important, though, may be the simple enthusiasm and desire to succeed that Murray will bring to his first coaching job.
“He’s very meticulous, he’s a very dedicated professional,” Djokovic says. “He gives me motivation, inspires me really to be spending time on the court. We communicate a lot. We talk about a lot of different things. He's trying to understand me on different levels, speaking to other team members that know me better.”
For a 37-year-old player who has won it all, it’s hard to think of anything more important than having a coach who “inspires me to be spending time on court.”
Murray’s next goal may be getting Djokovic to spend a little less time on it in his first-week matches. The fewer sets he plays, the fewer rants—in Serbian or any other language—he can throw his coaches way.