British sporting legend Andy Murray has revealed an ’embarrassing’ moment from his stint coaching former tennis rival Novak Djokovic.
Murray delighted fans around the world by joining Djokovic’s coaching team in November 2024, a mere three months after ending his career.
But the pair split in May 2025 after just six months with Murray having not returned to coaching since his spell with the 24-time major champion.
Murray has now reflected on his time with Djokovic on The Tennis Podcast, admitting he ‘probably didn’t get the results’ he would have liked for the Serbian and sharing a hilarious story over his first day in the job.
‘After the tennis session, his physical trainer was like “Novak is going for like a long slow run in the park, would you mind joining him”,’ Murray said.
‘I was like “oh my god”. I didn’t run since I was like 25, on the court I did but I never did as part of my training. I was like “it is my first day on the job, I can’t say no I’m not doing this”. I was like “yeah, no worries”.
‘Bare in mind I had not been staying in great shape since I finished, I’d been doing a bit but not loads. I told them that, and they said “it’s fine, it will be a gentle run”.
‘It was about 50 minutes he was running for in a park, there were a few hills in there, a very slow pace. After about four or five minutes my left calf cramped.
‘I was like “oh no”, but I can’t say anything because this is embarrassing. I finished and completed the 50 minutes, I was in so much pain.
‘When I finished I said to his team “you need to help me out here”.
‘I felt like I couldn’t stop, I didn’t want to show to him this is someone I’ve been competing against for such a long time and after five minutes he’s struggling training with me.
‘I did tough it out, but it was a pretty embarrassing moment for me.
‘I don’t know what happened whether I had not run for a while, whether I was dehydrated or if it was nerves. It was so slow, it was embarrassing.’
Murray ‘disappointed’ with coaching spell results
Djokovic reached the Australian Open semi-finals with Murray on his coaching team but struggled at later tournaments before their split in May.
‘I look back on it and I’m glad I did it,’ Murray added. ‘It’s an amazing experience that I’ve had.
‘It didn’t last long but I put everything into it. I was disappointed. Probably didn’t get the results I would have liked for him.
‘It was a good opportunity because I felt I wanted to coach at some stage and if I didn’t take it I might look back and think it would have been really interesting, I could have learned a lot, or potentially regretted it.’