Mauresmo accepts Murray challenge

The Wimbledon champion is not afraid to break the mould and has certainly done so again by hiring the Frenchwoman to be his new coach, initially for the grass-court season.

Many names have been put forward since Ivan Lendl decided in March he no longer wanted to dedicate the time to the partnership that he had for the previous two years.

The spotlight first shone on Mauresmo when she was spotted watching Murray’s match against Andrey Golubev at the French Open last week.

She initially played down the speculation, but said yesterday: “Andy contacted me a few weeks ago and we started to talk about this possibility to work together.

“It’s not really something that I was thinking of doing when I stopped being a tennis player. Then we talked again a little bit more about his game, about different things.

“We came up with the will from both sides.”

Murray was coached by his mother Judy as a young player, but female coaches are relatively rare in professional tennise, certainly on the men’s tour. Mikhail Kukushkin is coached by his wife and Denis Istomin by his mother, while, of high-profile former players, Gloria Connors was a hugely influential figure in son Jimmy’s career.