Andy Murray needs a 'clean slate' after difficult year, insists Barry Cowan
He must also address record against top players
Saturday 22 November 2014 15:58, UK
Andy Murray needs a change of coach to rediscover the form that won him the US Open and Wimbledon, says Barry Cowan.
When Andy split with Lendl I felt Mats Wilander would be a great candidate just to improve certain aspects of his game and also to get him to believe that he can beat the very best again.
The British No 1 has endured a difficult 2014 with Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, culminating in a 6-0 6-1 thrashing by Roger Federer at the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Cowan feels that Murray must act quickly to get back to his successful prime under Ivan Lendl’s tutelage.
“I think it’s time Andy has a clean slate,” he told Sky Sports News HQ. “I felt that after Wimbledon.
“He’s got an incredible back-room staff, great trainers, great physios but I think at Andy’s age of 27 it’s the perfect time to make a few adjustments.
“It’s not going to happen with Lendl coming back. In the era of super-coaches, there’s talk of the great work that they’ve done.
“When Andy split with Lendl I felt Mats Wilander would be a great candidate just to improve certain aspects of his game and also to get him to believe that he can beat the very best again. Because when we saw that match on Thursday [against Federer], I didn’t get the impression in the way that Andy played that he truly believed he could win that match.
“The big question mark that you can’t escape – and Andy can’t escape – is his record against the top players is poor. Some of the big matches, he didn’t really show up at the start. He needs to address that.
“When he was with Ivan Lendl for that Wimbledon final, anyone who was there or watched it, thought ‘this is a different Andy Murray’. He looked ready to win.”
Dream final
Cowan also said that Roger Federer’s decision to withdraw from the ATP World Tour Final against Novak Djokovic was disappointing yet justified.
He continued: “Roger has played 83 matches and been incredibly healthy. He played an amazing match against Stan Wawrinka, saving four match points. We thought we were set for the dream final.
“One thing would have been in Federer’s mind. The Davis Cup final starts on Friday. Three matches, two singles, one doubles, all of clay in a competition he’s never won.
“As disappointing as it was, it was probably the right decision.
“If this was the Grand Slam final and was his last match of the year, he would have played.”
