John McEnroe has a ‘theory’ about Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray’s ‘crazy’ partnership

Tennis great John McEnroe admits he has one or two concerns over Novak Djokovic’s decision to appoint Andy Murray as his coach as he also jokingly offered a bizarre theory about the future of the partnership.

Djokovic stunned the tennis world in November last year when he announced that he would team up with Murray – who retired only a few months earlier – during pre-season and at the 2025 Australian Open.

Although Murray had been tipped to go into coaching following his brilliant playing career, few thought he would return to the sport so quickly after hanging up his racket and no one would have predicted he would join the 24-time Grand Slam winner’s set-up.

But for the three-time Grand Slam winner it was an opportunity he could not turn down as he stated: “[Novak] asked if I would be interested in helping, which I obviously wasn’t expecting.

“I said to him: ‘Look, I need to think about it and talk to my family.’

“So I spoke to them, and after a couple of days, I thought that it was a pretty unique opportunity and experience.

“I thought it would be a good idea to try it.”

Former world No 1 McEnroe welcomed the partnership, but admits the age gap could be an issue while he also offered his weird theory.

“The coaching situation with Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic is fun, but it has got to be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” McEnroe said on Eurosport’s Australian Open Courtside.

“I remember being in Australia when they told me that Murray was going to be coached by Ivan Lendl, my great rival and nemesis from way back when. I thought about it and said, ‘Oh my god, this is going to work!’ But there [was] a big age gap.

“There’s a one-week age gap between Novak and Andy and he just stopped playing. My theory is that Murray is going to coach Djokovic for the next couple of months, and then he’s going to find out everything he needs to know about how to beat Djokovic, and then he’s coming back!”

Despite McEnroe’s prediction of a “fun” partnership, Murray has already warned that there won’t be too much “messing around”.

“At times it’s very enjoyable. But high performance is not supposed to be laughs and jokes and messing around,” he said.

“In all the times I’ve been on tour, I haven’t seen that from any of the best players in the world.

“I’ve seen it from some of the lower-ranked players, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re not there.”

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The two-time Wimbledon winner added: “It’s about making small changes to things and trying to help him and improve with the whole team

“I know it’s not easy out there – it’s stressful and at times he’s going to want to vent towards his team and his box.

“Providing that he’s giving his best effort and trying as hard as he can, I’m absolutely fine with him expressing himself how he wants.”

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