Andy Murray keen to bolster the support structure ahead of 2015 season

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  • Cast about: Andy Murray still looking for the right team.

    Andy Murray’s search for the perfect team continues, the Scot admitting he is looking to add a new coach to help him during the weeks where Amelie Mauresmo will be unavailable to him.

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    Murray, who begins his 2015 season with an opening clash against Feliciano Lopez at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, has made some radical changes to his coaching staff over the past six months.

    After parting ways with Ivan Lendl last March, Murray hired Frenchwoman, former world No1 Mauresmo in June.

    In November, Murray announced he would no longer be working with long-time friend and coach Dani Vallverdu and fitness trainer Jez Green but will keep on Mauresmo as head coach.

    Reports later indicated that Loic Courteau, Mauresmo’s former coach, is a new candidate for team Murray and the world No6 confirmed that the Frenchman was recommended to him, but that he is still looking for someone – preferably based in Miami or London – to fill in the void that has been created by Vallverdu’s departure (he is now coaching Tomas Berdych).

    “There’s a good chance I will add someone else,” Murray told reporters at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

    “When I stopped working with Dani – he was doing about 40 weeks a year with me, Amelie is doing 25 weeks a year. So there’s obviously some weeks there where I’m going to need some more help and some more guidance, and it’s about finding the right person for me.

    “Amelie suggested Loic who she obviously worked with when she was playing and felt that he was a very good coach for her.

    “My feeling is that having someone that’s based in Miami or London, where I live, for the weeks when I come back from tournaments, so I have someone there all of the time, would be more beneficial for me. But I haven’t spoken to Loic, but I’m sure Amelie has spoken to him. But I personally haven’t.”

    While Murray has set no deadline for himself to decide on a coach, the 27-year-old explained that it’s a decision he’d like to make sooner rather than later.

    “When I decide on the right person, that’ll be when it’s done. But obviously, for example, in February, Amelie has done the majority of December and is doing all four weeks of January but I won’t spend, maybe one week, with Amelie in February. So obviously that’s a period where it would be good for me to have someone there,” he added.

    “Whether that’s a new coach or someone that I’ve worked with in the past, or someone that I’m friendly with that I can practice with… obviously the sooner the better in those cases but it has to be the right person.”

    In December, Murray spent a little over two weeks training in Miami with Mauresmo before flying to Dubai last Saturday, where he had a few days of practice with James Ward at the Aviation Club.

    He says it was the first quality time he’s managed to have with Mauresmo since they teamed up and that he’s expecting to see the fruit of their work together soon.

    “We had a lot of good conversations with me and the whole team when I was in Miami. Everyone agreed on the things that I should be doing moving forward in terms of how I’m going to try to approach matches, how I’m going to play the game, how I’m going to play in practice,” said Murray.

    “Because it’s one thing, there’s a certain game style you want to play on the match court but you’re lazy with it in practice, you’re not doing it all the time. If you want to make changes it needs to be consistent, you need to do it all the time through practice and through matches. Everyone I think has bought into that. I don’t want to say exactly all of the things we’ve been working on but I feel like it went very well in Miami and hopefully I can start the year well.”

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