"What a man" - Thanasi Kokkinakis hails Andy Murray for giving him coaching lessons
Former World No.1 Andy Murray was recently seen giving Australian Open 2022 doubles champion Thanasi Kokkinakis valuable coaching lessons ahead of the upcoming US Open.
The Brit gave some tips to the Aussie on his backhand side and what he needs to improve in that area. Kokkinakis later took to social media to thank the three-time Grand Slam champion for his coaching tips.
"What a man, Andy Murray," said Thanasi in his tweet.
What a man @andy_murray twitter.com/_actright/stat…
From the looks of it, it may be a viable option for the former Olympic gold medalist to take up coaching after he hangs up his racquet and calls it a day in his professional career.
"There is part of it I think when you announce that you’re retiring that I would imagine psychologically it’s quite difficult, as well" - Andy Murray on retirement
The former World No. 1 got pretty close to retiring from the sport in 2019 due to his long-standing hip injury. But he decided to continue with his career on the tour after opting to have hip-replacement surgery, and has been slowly climbing up the ranking spots since.
Following his recent loss at the Cincinnati Open, the Brit conceded that announcing retirement from the sport would be a big blow to him psychologically and that it would also bring a lot of pressure with it.
"There is part of it I think when you announce that you’re retiring that I would imagine psychologically it’s quite difficult, as well. There is a lot of pressure then, I think because you want to perform and because it’s the last couple of tournaments." said Murray.
Murray further added that he is unsure of how he will announce his retirement from the sport in the future, implying that it would be better to simply stop playing one day without any formal announcement.
"Just the whole situation puts a lot of stress on the performance. So I don’t know whether I would announce something or whether I would just stop and that would be it. I don’t know.” said the Brit.
@andy_murray Coming 🔜 @andy_murray
#CitiOpen https://t.co/bKJUCLDJrk
Murray will hope to have a few more years in him on the tour before stopping altogether. He is scheduled to play next at the US Open, where he won his first Grand Slam in 2012, beating Novak Djokovic in an iconic match.
Hopefully, Andy Murray can make a deep run at Flushing Meadows once again at the end of the month. He has shown recently that he can still go toe-to-toe with the best tennis players at the moment. He will also play in the Laver Cup at the O2 Arena in London for the first ever time, pairing up with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic later in the year in the team competition.