Mats Wilander predicts the quicker surface at the Australian Open this year will favour Andy Murray the most, assuming the Scot is fit and fully recovered from his surgery.

The courts in Melbourne Park are reportedly faster than in previous years, according to the players who have been practising there for the past week and while Rafael Nadal has voiced his apprehension to such news, Wilander says the other top contenders, particularly Murray, should welcome the change.

“I think Murray is a better player on faster courts so I think he will benefit the most from it if he’s ready to play,” said Wilander on the sidelines of the Qatar Open.

“For (Roger) Federer it’s obviously perfect, but against the best players. Against lesser players, it’s probably worse because faster the court, the worse you can be and still cause problems for the better players because you can rely on the serve.

“I don’t think it suits the big guys, (Juan Martin) del Potro and (Tomas) Berdych because I think the ball might be coming too quick for them to get to it because they play from the baseline.”

No coaching desire

Wilander, who won seven Grand Slam singles titles between 1982 and 1989, says he has no intention of following the suit of his former rivals Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker into the world of coaching.

The Swede, who previously coached Marat Safin, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Tatiana Golovin, says he can’t see himself adding to any of the top players’ games but can see how Edberg and Becker can help Federer and Novak Djokovic respectively.

“Edberg can help Federer with his volley skills make him more confident when he comes to the net. That’s really the only place Federer can go to have a chance against the best players in the world because it’s not going to be possible from the baseline only ,” explained the 49-year-old.

“With Becker and Djokovic, I think he can help him with the mental part. Not that Novak is weak mentally, but if he does have a weakness, now that it’s not the serve, I think mentally he’s not as strong and not as stubborn as Nadal.

“Of course we’re talking about perfection. I think for him to be perfect, he can be upset one moment, and then he has to be back, not just in his mind but also in the other players’ eyes. And that’s what Becker was so excellent in doing. He’d get angry, but as soon as he got it out you were like ‘oh my God he’s back’ straight away.”

Wilander says it comes as no surprise that the top players are now looking to ex-champions for help.

“I think the most important thing to realise is that all these guys who have got new coaches have won majors. It’s not possible for a player that has won six majors to get a coach, who first of all, has never won a major as a player, or hasn’t won a major as a coach. So Paul Annacone and Roger Federer worked because Annacone helped (Pete) Sampras win so Federer trusts in Annacone’s judgement. So there’s not that many choices,” added Wilander.