INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The phone call came earlier this month, not long after Andy Murray lost in the French Open final. With Wimbledon fast approaching, the world’s No. 2-ranked tennis player wanted his former coach, Ivan Lendl, back on his team.
But did Lendl, now 56, want to go back to coaching, which meant going back on the road?
The current Windsor resident and former Grand Harbor resident, an accomplished amateur golfer, was planning to spend the summer on the course – not the courts – and had entered several tournaments, including the Connecticut Open in his summer-home state.
So it wasn’t an easy decision.
Lendl, though, enjoyed his previous work with Murray, who won the 2012 Olympic gold medal, 2012 U.S. Open championship and 2013 Wimbledon crown but hasn’t taken home a Grand Slam trophy since the two ended their two-year collaboration in March 2014.
Apparently, Lendl enjoyed it so much that he was willing to give it another try: Three Sundays ago, the eight-time Grand Slam champion agreed to reunite with Murray and promptly flew to London, where the fiery Scot went on to win the Queens Club tournament for a record fifth time.
Now, with the 2001 Tennis Hall of Fame inductee in his corner, Murray is hoping to end his Grand Slam drought at Wimbledon, which began Monday.
Asked by Vero Beach 32963 why he decided to rejoin Murray’s team this summer, Lendl responded via text message: “It just felt right, and the timing was right as well. It’s good working with Andy.”
In interviews with the British press, Lendl elaborated . . . sort of.
“A lot of people ask me what made me do it, and I can’t answer it,” Lendl told reporters, adding that his health – he has undergone two hip replacements – and Murray’s motivation to knock off No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic contributed strongly to his decision.
“I don’t think it was one thing,” he continued. “It’s a combination of many, many things. And what changed, or what was the final thing when I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ I really don’t know myself.
“Andy and I have always stayed in contact,” he added. “I enjoyed working with Andy in the past, and we parted on good terms. It should be fun to be part of his team again.”
Lendl, 56, will work alongside Murray’s full-time coach, former British Davis Cup player Jamie Delgado, and his existing support team. Murray previously worked with former Wimbledon women’s champion Amelie Mauresmo, but they split last month.
Murray said he was hoping for a long-term relationship in which Lendl will work with him for up to 20 weeks per year.
“He’s coming in at an important time, with Wimbledon about to start,” Delgado told ESPN last week. “But, in a way, I think that’s a good thing. You’re straight into the mix.”
Murray, 29, said he trusts and believes in what Lendl tells him, and that he expects the former No. 1-ranked player to have a positive impact on him and his team.
“The most successful period of my career was while I was working with Ivan, and I know what he can offer,” Murray told reporters in London. “With the experiences he’s had, he psychologically helped me in the major competitions, and they’re obviously the events I’m trying to win.
“I hope he can bring that same experience and those same benefits that he did last time.”
When Lendl and Murray parted two years ago, they issued a joint statement in which Lendl said he no longer wanted to spend the time on the road required to be a full-time coach.
Having recovered from a second hip-replacement surgery, however, Lendl said he feels younger, sleeps better and is getting fitter. He’s also able to travel more comfortably.
“I don’t mind living out of a suitcase, and I don’t mind the longer trips – let’s say to London or to Australia,” Lendl told BBC Sport.
He misses home when he’s away – “Being at Windsor is preferred to being on the road,” he wrote in a text message – but he said he enjoys seeing his tennis friends and former opponents, all of whom have been supportive of his coaching efforts. Among those rivals from yesteryear is Boris Becker, who coaches Djokovic.
Since splitting with Lendl, Murray has lost three Grand Slam finals, all to Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion. Djokovic is chasing the calendar-year Grand Slam, which no man has accomplished since Rod Laver in 1969.
“Obviously,” Lendl to BBC Sport, “Andy and I would like to ruin those plans if we can.”
Last fall, Lendl joined former Vero Beach resident Mardy Fish as a part-time coach with the U.S. Tennis Association’s Player Development Program. In fact, Lendl held a training camp for 15- and 16-year-old boys at Windsor last November.
Then, earlier this spring, Lendl was seen observing young Americans at the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, a $10,000 USTA Futures tournament played here at The Boulevard Tennis Club. He said he will continue to work with the USTA program, which could give budding U.S. players opportunities to hit with Murray.
First, though, he wants to help Murray win a second Wimbledon championship.
“There are obviously things we are going to work on that are more important than some others,” Lendl told BBC Sport, “but I’m definitely not going to be specific.”