How Maria messed up Murray's recipe for success by firing Connors after one match

By MALCOLM FOLLEY

Published: | Updated:

Andy Murray singles out Ivan Lendl as the man responsible for the life-changing events of the past year which saw the Scot end Britain’s 77-year wait for a Wimbledon champion, grab an Olympic gold medal and lift the US Open title.

As the 26-year-old prepares to defend his title at Flushing Meadows where the US Open begins on Monday, Murray insists Lendl’s appointment as his coach in January last year was a turning point.

‘Mentally, to get over that final hurdle at the US Open helped a lot,’ said Murray. ‘A lot of credit goes to Ivan. For me, it was a great appointment.  He’s a great person to have working with me, because he lost his first four Grand Slam finals like me and he knew what that feels like.’ 

Dream team: Andy Murray (right) has enjoyed huge success since appointing Ivan Lendl as his coach

Dream team: Andy Murray (right) has enjoyed huge success since appointing Ivan Lendl as his coach

Contrast Lendl’s appointment to that of Jimmy Connors as coach of Maria Sharapova.

She wanted to ape Murray’s recipe for success and decided the American was her man because, like Lendl, Connors had won eight major titles and was a winner. Having not beaten Serena Williams since 2004, Sharapova wanted him to give her a mental edge. But the move proved farcical. She fired him after one match when she was beaten in Cincinnati. 

‘What a show of immaturity, what a wasted opportunity,’ said British Davis Cup captain John Lloyd. ‘She made more than 60 unforced errors. Whose fault was that?’

Game over: Maria Sharapova sacked her coach Jimmy Connors (below) after just one match

Game over: Maria Sharapova sacked her coach Jimmy Connors (below) after just one match

Game over: Maria Sharapova sacked her coach Jimmy Connors (below) after just one match

Sharapova is the world’s highest-paid woman athlete and earned $23million last year. And last week, in another bizarre move, she claimed she planned to change her name for the US Open to Maria Sugarpova, the name of a confectionery that sweetened her bank balance by $9m. A day later she withdrew from the tournament, citing a shoulder injury.

Connors, who will be in New York to sign copies of his autobiography, The Outsider, is still mystified. ‘He was barely with her long enough to get her phone number,’ said Lloyd.

Sharapova will have plenty of applicants for the vacancy; but she does not have to look further than Murray and Lendl to see what might have been.



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