swerte gaming Andy Murray Surprised By 'Unique Opportunity' To Coach Novak Djokovic

Murray and Djokovic are gearing up for the Australian Open Murray and Djokovic are gearing up for the Australian Open

Andy Murray acknowledged his "unique opportunity" to coach Novak Djokovic was completely unexpected. (More Sports News)swerte gaming

The pair joined forces in November and are gearing up for their first major tournament together at the Australian Open, where Djokovic has been drawn to play Nishesh Basavareddy in the first round.

Their agreement only extends until the end of the season's maiden slam at Melbourne Park, with the Serb targeting a record-breaking 25th major title.

Murray spent a week-and-a-half with Djokovic in Spain during pre-season, and the three-time major champion revealed the opportunity to work with him came out of the blue.

"I was actually playing golf," Murray told Sky Sports. "We'd actually been exchanging messages. Novak had messaged me just wanting to chat.

"I was on the 17th hole of the golf course and the guy I was playing with said to me, 'Do you know what's next?' I was like, 'No, not really'. He said 'Do you have any plans to do any coaching?' And I said, 'Honestly, I can't think of anything worse to do right now'.

"And then 30 minutes later, I was in the car and I called Novak, and then we had a conversation, and he asked if I would be interested in helping, which I obviously wasn't expecting.

"I said to him, 'Look, I need to think about it and talk to my family'. So I spoke to them and, after a couple of days, I thought that it was a pretty unique opportunity and experience."

What we have all been waiting for...Andy Murray has arrived in Melbourne to begin his partnership with Novak Djokovic#AO2025 pic.twitter.com/sk8tf4CwiM

Meanwhile, South Korea were knocked out by the defending champions, India, with a 1-4 defeat in the semi-final. In their pool stage encounter, South Korea had previously played to a 2-2 draw against their next opponent, Pakistan.

On the other hand, China have qualified for their maiden Asian Champions Trophy final. Their journey to the summit clash has been a rollercoaster ride. They started with a defeat to India but bounced back with a 4-2 win over Malaysia. The hosts then faced a 2-3 loss to South Korea and were also routed 5-1 by Pakistan in the pool stage.

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 7, 2025

Djokovic will be looking to win the Australian Open for a record-extending 11th time, and that could potentially lead to an extension of the partnership.

Murray, who was a five-time finalist in Melbourne, has not ruled out of the possibility.

"My wife was very supportive of it," he added. "I was actually going to be in Australia anyway for a few days during the tournament. She was surprised, obviously, that he'd asked me, but she was really supportive of it.

"Maybe if it was a younger player, where it was maybe long-term, [you] might be looking at five, six years potentially. I'm not sure that that's necessarily the case with Novak - but you never know if he's doing well."

"I thought it would be a good idea to try it together and spend some time in the off-season through Australia and see how it goes for both of us, because it's a little bit different. It's not the usual kind of set-up.

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"Soswerte gaming, it made sense to trial it and see if it works. And then we said we'd make a more definitive decision after the tournament."