Novak Djokovic stunned the tennis world when he hired former rival Andy Murray as his coach for the Australian Open and now the 24-time Grand Slam champion has been backed to challenge for an 11th title in Melbourne next month.
Murray called time on his career after the Paris Olympics in August and he made a surprisingly quick return to tennis after accepting an offer to work with Djokovic in the first major of 2024.
“I’m going to be joining Novak’s team in the off-season, helping him to prepare for the Australian Open,” said Murray.
“I’m really excited for it and looking forward to spending time on the same side of the net as Novak for a change, helping him to achieve his goals.”
Djokovic admitted he was even surprised to find himself making a call to Murray to ask if he would join his team as he explained his thinking behind the move.
“I was going through a process of thinking about next season in the last couple of months,” Djokovic said to Sky Sports at the Qatar Grand Prix.
“I was trying to figure out what I need at this stage of my career, because I stopped with my (former) coach Goran Ivanisevic, who I was very successful with and worked for many years, in March.
“So I took about six months to really think about if I need a coach and, if yes, who that’s going to be and the profile of the coach.
“We were going through names and I realised that the perfect coach for me at this point would be someone who has been through the experiences I am going through, possibly a multiple Grand Slam winner, a former (world) number one.
“I was thinking about different people and a discussion about Andy Murray appeared on the table with me and my team.
“We were like, ‘okay, I’m going to give him a call and see how it goes’. It caught him a little off guard as well because he wasn’t expecting it.
“We connected really fast and he accepted it after a few days. I can’t be more excited about it.”
The Djokovic-Murray double act will be one of the big talking points at the Australian Open and experienced French player Gael Monfils believes it could be a winning combination.
Monfils has played Djokovic and Murray on numerous occasions over the course of his career and while he suggests world No 1 Jannik Sinner and French Open and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz are Australian Open favourites, he believes Djokovic will be a strong contender.
Monfils has lost all 19 of his matches against Djokovic, so it is no surprise that he has huge respect for the Serbian maestro and he believes the most successful male player of all-time still has more glory to claim at the end of his career.
“You look at Carlos, Jannik, Zverev and all the top ten will be contenders in Melbourne, but the top two will be Jannik and Carlos,” Monfils told Tennis365 at the UTS Grand Final in London
“Novak is still a contender for the Australian Open. Of course he can win one more Grand Slam in his career and why can’t it be in Australia, where he has won it so many times?