Andy Murray joked during his trophy ceremony that Ivan Lendl “just got lucky” that the Scot captured the Wimbledon trophy only five weeks into their reunion.
But Murray’s mother, Judy, believes Lendl deserves a lot of credit, even though he’s only rejoined the team recently.
Lendl coached Murray to the US Open title in 2012 and the Wimbledon title in 2013 before the pair parted ways in early 2014 because the Czech-born American was no longer willing to commit to all those weeks of traveling.
Murray rehired Lendl last month following his French Open final defeat to Novak Djokovic and the world No2 has not lost a match since, winning 12 in a row on grass to win the Queen’s and Wimbledon titles.
“I think he’s been very focused on the job at hand across Wimbledon, with Ivan in his corner because the first time that he started to work with Ivan, the whole focus in the slam, you have to win seven matches in 13 days,” Judy said on Sunday.
“You do not get excited about winning round one, two, three, four, five, or six. You’re allowed to be excited about winning seven if you happen to get there. But with everything else it’s just another step on the way and as soon as the match is finished, it’s onto preparing for the next match.
“So the focus and the resetting of the focus if you start to lose it a little bit, is one of the things Ivan helped him with enormously with the first time he worked with him.
“And I think because he’d worked with him before it was easy for him to jump back in and just go ‘I know exactly what you have to do to win a slam and we’re going to be on it from the start’.
“And they have been, the whole team has been. So I think Ivan should take a lot of credit for what he brings to not just Andy but the rest of the team as well.”
Judy, who coached Murray when he was young, described her son as a man “on a mission” during his final against Milos Raonic on Sunday and said it was a match-up that suited him well.
“I think today was probably as good as I’ve seen him play,” admits Judy.
Murray is often criticised for getting angry on court and losing his temper. Judy says he’s always been “temperamental” during matches but that it is something that does not necessarily need to be eradicated from his behaviour.
“When he was very young, because he’s a perfectionist and he always wanted to win, he was very temperamental as a young player, very temperamental,” she says.
“But I actually thought going to Spain helped him a lot with that because he was a small fish in a big pond, he was playing with older players and they just kind of deflected it all. I think that helped him a lot.
“But it’s part of who he is, and you wouldn’t want to change it, you just have to temper it.”