Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray haven’t decided whether to continue their player-coach partnership.
Djokovic hired his former rival as his coach for the Australian Open, where the Serbian reached the semifinal round. A thigh injury forced the No. 7 seed Djokovic to retire Friday after losing the first set to No. 2 Alexander Zverev of Germany in a tiebreaker.
Both Djokovic and Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner, were noncommittal about whether they would continue to work together.
“I don’t know. We both were disappointed with what just happened, so we didn’t talk about the future steps. We are so fresh off the court,” Djokovic said in a post-match news conference.
“I’ll definitely have a chat with Andy and thank him for being here with me. You know, give him my feedback, which is, of course, positive, and see how he feels and we make the next step.
“We are still hotheaded and disappointed, so it’s kind of hard to switch the page and start talking about what the next steps are. I think we both need to cool off a little bit and then we’ll have a chat.”
Murray retired after the Paris Olympics last summer and told reporters the experience on Djokovic’s team had been a good one — and a learning one.
“Obviously there’s a lot of things that as a player, you know things are different when you’re coaching, there’s a lot more that you need to help with in terms of communication around the team,” he said. “You’re not just thinking about yourself like you are when you’re a player. I’ve certainly learned a lot but there’s a lot more still for me to learn, that’s for sure.”
While Djokovic, 37, is set to play next month at the Qatar Open, it was unclear Friday whether his injury would prevent that. He said in his news conference that he tore a muscle in his left thigh during his quarterfinal victory over Carlos Alcaraz.
–Field Level Media
