On Wednesday 19th March 2014, the world of tennis was hit by some surprise news. In December 2011, Murray appointed Lendl in his quest for a Grand Slam. Twelve finals, four ATP World Tour titles, two Grand Slams and a gold medal later, the pair called time on a hugely successful partnership. Lendl, a dad of 5, simply didn't have the time for it anymore. The pair is clearly still on good terms; Lendl watched some of Murray’s recent matches in Miami.

Before this announcement, Murray hadn't had a bad start to the year, but he hadn't had a great one either. Despite only getting past the quarter finals of one tournament, Acapulco, he is recovering from back surgery and isn't yet at his best. How long it will take for him to be back to his best? Who knows? These things take time.

Murray has slipped to 8th in the world after this tough period, and he really needs to improve on his weakest surface, clay, to keep pace with Djokovic and Nadal at the top of the rankings. Last year, the best clay result he could get was a quarter final in Madrid. He has never reached a clay court final, a terrible statistic for a player of his calibre. Having grown up on fast-paced hard courts, he spent time at the Sánchez-Casal Academy in Spain, a place full of clay courts. It's a wonder how he is so poor on the red dust compared to hard courts.

However, Lendl believes Murray can do well on the clay. Before the duo split up, he said 'I think clay is a very good surface for Andy, a lot clay matches come down to conditioning, which is his strength, and patience, which is also his strength... I think he was always complaining that the back was an issue on clay'.

Failure to improve his ranking could mean playing the likes of Nadal and Djokovic as early the quarters of Masters and Grand Slams, and it would take a lot for Murray to overcome 3 of the world's top 4 in consecutive matches. By no means would a quarter final defeat be bad on the clay, but the 2 time major winner should be targeting finals. 

Murray will play on the clay during the Italy versus Great Britain Davis Cup match in Naples on the 4th-6th of April, but has decided to skip Monte-Carlo, meaning his next clay court outing will be in Madrid at the start of May.

Regaining a top 3 ranking could take even longer for Murray. If he fails to improve on the clay, he'll then have a lower seeding at Wimbledon, the tournament where he earned over half of his current points total. However towards the end of last year he missed several hard court tournaments and a successful end to the year could see him back at the top. Can he return to his stunning best? Let’s hope so.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Harry Cairns
Tennis writer.