Andy Murray is determined to improve as a coach after his first grand slam experience with Novak Djokovic.
Whether the pair will continue to work together remains to be seen but the experience appears to have whetted the Scot’s appetite.
“I always knew that I would enjoy coaching,” he said. “I never thought otherwise, but there’s things that I’ve learned about coaching that was maybe a bit different than what I expected.
“There’s certainly areas of coaching that I will need to get better at moving forwards and learn a bit more about – for example, the technical side of the game.
“As a player, I would understand the basics, but not extremely well like some very experienced coaches. Some of the guys that I’ve worked with over the years have been very strong in that area.
“I think the ex-players generally would be quite good with strategy and understanding the psychology and stuff having played. But obviously there’s lots of other areas to coaching as well that I need to learn about.”
Djokovic has been glowing in his appraisal of Murray’s efforts, and the 37-year-old added: “There are certain things that I’ve really enjoyed about it.
“I’ve enjoyed the analysis. I enjoyed the matches and sitting at the side and trying to understand a bit better what’s going on, and seeing maybe how you could help a bit from the side.
“Preparing for the matches and those things is very interesting to me. I like that side of things. So it’s been some things that I’ve enjoyed and felt like I’ve done well, and other parts that I need to work on and probably wasn’t so good at.”
There's certainly areas of coaching that I will need to get better at moving forwards and learn a bit more about - for example, the technical side of the game
Much of the focus ahead of the tournament had been on whether Djokovic would lose his cool with Murray in the same manner he has with previous coaches.
But the Serbian generally stayed very calm during matches, even after sustaining a thigh injury during his quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz which ultimately ended his campaign.
Murray, too, was largely undemonstrative and sat in the courtside coaching pod, limiting his interaction with Djokovic mostly to words of encouragement along with a few longer discussions.
“It’s definitely harder playing, that’s for sure,” said Murray. “I would dispute people that say that it’s harder watching from the side.
“I know how stressful it can be out there playing the matches. I felt a lot of nerves and stuff in the build-up to the matches, but when I was watching it I felt like I was able to sort of switch that off and I felt calm at the side and was watching trying to do my job.
“Obviously, like at the end of the match with Alcaraz or important moments, you feel the nerves and things, but not to the same extent as when you’re playing.”
After Djokovic had clinched victory over Alcaraz for his best win at a grand slam in more than a year, he roared towards Murray and then gave his former rival an emotional hug.
“It was a cool moment,” said the two-time Wimbledon champion.
“I think everyone was pretty pumped after the match and considering how he was feeling but then the way that he played. It was unreal tennis. Incredible performance.
“We were all pumped at the side. I was surprised when he came over because we’d sort of celebrated after the match point. But he was obviously just pumped with the win and how he played and that he’d come through. It was a nice moment.”
