Andy Murray tried to end speculation about the state of his relationship with former coach Amelie Mauresmo by declaring “we certainly didn’t fall out”.
As if surviving a five-set thriller against wily Czech Radek Stepanek in the first round of the French Open was not exhausting enough, the British second seed was then quizzed on why he ended his two-year partnership with Mauresmo.
A sequence of interviews by the two grand slam champions seemed to suggest that things had turned frosty between the duo before they parted ways.
However, Murray said that was far from the truth. “Me and Amelie have a good relationship,” said the 2013 Wimbledon champion, whose alliance with Mauresmo two years ago created a buzz after he became the first high-profile male player to hire a woman coach. “We certainly didn’t fall out.
“The reason we stopped working together... was the fact that we literally are spending hardly any time together in a three-month period right before major events coming up. And she was not able to help me during that period.”
Murray won seven trophies under Mauresmo’s guidance, including his first two titles on clay. However, the Frenchwoman has not been regularly on the circuit with Murray since giving birth to her son Aaron last August.
Mauresmo had indicated that the union ended because she felt she could not “take things further anymore” with Murray before adding: “Andy is complex. On court, he can be opposite of what he is in life. It can be confusing.”
But Murray clarified that wires had simply got crossed.
“I did an interview before anything that Amelie had said had come out. And the last two days... I was supposedly hitting back at Amelie’s comments and disagreeing with everything that she said and that we had a really tough breakup,” said Murray.
“That simply is not true. When we sat down in Madrid... it was far from heated. We spoke very calmly,” Murray added. “To say that the reason that we stopped working together is because of my behaviour on the court, that is not true. In Madrid when we spoke, we didn’t discuss that one time.”
Responding to Mauresmo’s observation that he was a complex character, Murray admitted there are still things he needs to work on to curb his tendency to shout at his entourage when things are not going his way.
“On the court... when I’m losing I get very frustrated. When I’m winning, obviously I’m happier,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s complex or not. It’s actually quite simple, to me.”