‘I don’t see the Novak Djokovic-Andy Murray partnership paying off’, says former ATP star

Ewan West 06 May 2025 4:31 PM

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray at the Australian Open

Former ATP pro Steve Johnson has admitted he is finding it “very weird” to watch Novak Djokovic struggle as he weighed in on the great Serb’s collaboration with Andy Murray.

Djokovic hired his former rival Murray as his coach during the off-season in a move that stunned the tennis world.

The duo have teamed up at four tournaments so far, and there have been both highs and lows in terms of results.

In his first tournament with Murray in his box, Djokovic made an impressive run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open having downed Carlos Alcaraz in the last eight, before a hamstring injury stopped him against Alexander Zverev.

The 37-year-old also reached the final at the Miami Open after five dominant straight-set wins before he fell to Jakub Mensik.

Djokovic lost his opening match at the other two events: in Indian Wells and Madrid.

Speaking on an episode of the Nothing Major podcast, Johnson gave his thoughts on the success of the partnership following Djokovic’s disappointing loss to Matteo Arnaldi in Madrid.

“Yeah, the Murray partnership is starting to pay off because of all the anger that Novak is showing in practice, Murray’s demeanour finally getting into the Novak brain on the practice court,” the former world No 21 joked.

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“But I mean, it worked at the beginning of the year in Australia and there’s nothing — he (Djokovic) has completed the game of tennis. What is there left to win other than a Grand Slam?

“So, I think it’s just hard for him to get his juices following for these 1000 level tournaments when the only thing that’s gonna further his legacy is a Slam title.

“So, unless we see something different at Roland Garros and Wimby (Wimbledon) in the summer, it’s hard to see right now and it’s very weird to watch Novak playing tennis because he had an entire aura of invincibility during the entirety of out careers. So it’s very strange to watch him lose matches like this consecutively.

“It’s weird to see, and I don’t see the Murray partnership paying off, but it would be a weird timing to have them not be together for Wimby, like they partner all year then they’re not together for Wimby?

“So my assumption is that it goes to Wimby, then I don’t know. Because that would be weird if he, like, fired him in Queen’s. For sure, I think Murray is in the box for Wimby. No doubt.”

Djokovic and Murray are likely to join forces at the French Open, which is the Serbian’s next scheduled tournament.