Bjorkman was also someone Andy spoke to re possible coach position, back before Amélie's appointment, post Lendl.

EddietheEagle wrote:

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That's not Jonas in the photo, more like Berdych. The latter used to play with a Dunlop.

-- Edited by EddietheEagle on Thursday 12th of March 2015 10:13:22 AM

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 Thanks - I had my doubts about it!

Not meaning to be crude, but I thought she batted for the other side (so to speak)?

Many congrats to her, I hope all goes well.

Way up on the spectrum I know, but I doubt she's his employee. And as an independent contractor she has no maternity entitlement, in this country anyway.

wimdledont wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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This being a tennis forum, I'd been trying to come up with an alternative tennis expression, but gave up so early in the morning.

All about still having a family I guess.

I hope Andy is genned up on employment law in respect of leave both before and after the upcoming event.

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 Back in the day, I think that "female tennis professional" was the polite euphemism. 'Friend of Martina'?

 

No offence meant.

 

RE Andy's coaching, I was just wondering if we aren't all ignoring the most important figure in Andy's development -  not Mauresmo, nor Lendl, Leon Smith nor JudyM. Not McClaggan, nor any of the LTA-hired specialists...

 

All hail the 8-year-old Jamie Murray, for cruelly using his snotty kid brother as target practice/ballboy, as Jamie put in the hours of serving practice that would eventually lead to the adult Jamie winning Wimbledon.

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I would imagine that a desire to beat his older brother was definitely a big motivation for young Andy

To further develop my thesis on the central importance of Jamie...

Andy has always, and does still, play like a younger brother. Brilliant returner; fantastic passing shots on the run, when he can only just reach the ball. These positives...

But those idiotic choices of the 'cheeky' dropshot, having forced a mid-court dolly-drop from Federer at 30-30 in a critical game on his own serve. And then... I could smack this into the corner... but I bet you can't reach this cheeky dropshot Roger... 12 year old Jamie couldn't... oh...

On here, wed have a thread on "Andy's tactics against the big boys". And, to his own cost, Andy can occasionally play like a little boy, playing a bigger boy.

More generally, I think that these days Andy is held up as such an example to other players of how to make it as a pro player - with all of the emphasis being on his current fitness regime.

It is my fairly unshakeable belief that this is very wrong. And that Andy is the player he is today because he put in the first few thousand of the 10,000 hours of practice which leads to excellence PLAYING tennis, because it is such a great GAME.

These days, he might be WORKING terribly hard, and training, doing circuits and weights. But his core fitness is based on a childish joy in playing, and playing, and playing until you are so tired that you can't stand up. Spend 10,000 hours playing tennis; then worry about your fitness. It worked for the Williams sisters.

But he could acquire that core fitness later, as he has. Do weights; at an age when it is legal to do weights without adult supervision...

But Jessica Ennis Hill is never going to win Wimbledon.

Extraordinary number of siblings at the top of the game... Kichenoks, Williams, Murrays, Radwanskas, Pliskovas...

I strongly suspect that this is not as a result of their genetic nature, but because, as an accident of their nurture, they all had acceess to practice partners who gave them thousands of hours of competitive practice, and court-time.

Serena ends up as WTA WR1 not just because Richard spent a long time shouting at her, but also because she was putting in dozens of hours per week trying to match the planet Venus.

The myth seems to be expanding that, if I can beat you at the decathlon, I will beat you at tennis. But, particularly for kids, better 10 hours on a tennis court than 100 hours in a weight room (which would probably be illegal); doesn't matter how hard you've hit it, if you hit it out.

So I'm getting very off-topic, but , wrt juniors development, if they want to emulate Andy... first spend 10,000 hours playing, hitting tennis balls "in"... then worry about your fitness.