Tuesday 10 May 2016 18:54, UK
Andy Murray says he considers his two years spent working with coach Amelie Mauresmo a definite success.
Murray failed to add to his two Grand Slam titles under Mauresmo but says other highlights, such as two Australian Open finals, a Davis Cup triumph, and the first clay court titles of his career point to his improvement.
And the British World No 3 thinks the fact the duo have now split up should not be seen as evidence that it is difficult for a woman to coach one of the top players.
"It did work," said Murray. "For two years, the results that we had were good.
"Unless I win a Grand Slam, then maybe ultimately that's how people may judge whether it worked or not but, when she first came into the team, I was really struggling.
"For me, the time we spent together was positive. It's just a shame I wasn't able to win one of the major events, because that's what both of us wanted.
"When she came on board, my results actually really picked up."
Mauresmo took six months off from coaching last year to give birth to her first child and, in her statement announcing the split, mentioned that "dedicating enough time along with the travel has been a challenge for me".
However, Murray does not think Mauresmo's gender was a factor in the split.
"In my opinion, it's nothing to do with Amelie being a woman," said Murray. "It's a case of it takes a lot of time to do the job well and properly. It's not easy to do that for four, five years in a row.
"Roger Federer stopped working with Stefan Edberg at the end of last year, because Stefan wanted to spend more time with his family. No one sort of batted an eyelid about that."
Regarding the specific reason his partnership with Mauresmo ended, Murray added: "Obviously in Australia (where he reached the final in January), it started well - but between the Australian Open and Rome, we only spent 10 days together, in Miami.
"It became difficult with the amount of time required to do the job and the amount of time we were able to work together.
"It (the post-Australian Open period) was just such a long period of the year, an important period where I was struggling, as well, where we weren't getting to work through that together.
"It's unfortunate but those things happen."
The French Open starts on May 22 but Murray says there is no rush to name a replacement for Mauresmo.
"I haven't really thought too much about a new coach," he said.
"It's something that I will speak to my team about over the next few weeks and try and find something that works. I want it to work long term, so I will take that into consideration as well."
