The prime coaching jobs in tennis are rarely up for grabs, yet a former top 10 star has revealed he turned down the chance to join the camp of two of the biggest names in the history of the sport.
Roger Federer and Andy Murray didn’t have too many coaches over the course of their career, with the true greats of the game earning the right to be highly selective when adding key members to their team.
Severin Luthi and former top 10 star Ivan Ljubicic were among the experts who worked in Federer’s team and he was also coached by his one-time idol Stefan Edberg for a couple of years.
As for Murray, the most successful moments of his career came as he worked alongside Grand Slam-winning great Ivan Lendl and he also worked with former world No 1 Amelie Mauresmo, Brad Gilbert, Miles Maclagan, Alex Corretja and Mark Petchey.
Now it has emerged that both Federer and Murray also tried and failed to add former British No 1 Tim Henman to their coaching pools, as he made the revelation in the latest edition of the Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast.
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“I had two coaching offers, Federer and Murray, and I said no to them both. So I think I sort of set the bar pretty high,” said Henman.
“If you’re going to coach on the tour, it’s a big commitment. I talk about my media work and, you know, I’m going to the Slams and a few other events, you know, I might be on the road 12 weeks, which again is a perfect balance.
“I think realistically, if you’re to work with any player, let alone a top player, I think you’re going to double that. And I don’t have the desire to be back on tour in that capacity.”
The reunion of Henman with his old rival and Davis Cup team-mate Rusedski on the podcast confirmed that any animosity between the duo has long since evaporated, with one half of the duo that dominated British tennis in the 1990s and early 2000s suggesting the media hype around their relationship may have been exaggerated.
Rusedski moved to Britain from Canada in 1995, just as Henman was emerging as the big hope of tennis in his homeland and he could have seen the arrival of a newcomer as a threat, but he insists that was never the case.
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“Greg and I had some bumps in the road along the way, but I didn’t really see him as a competitor when he came over,” reflected Henman.
“He wasn’t really on my radar as my ranking was lower at the time. I had a lot to do to get into the conversation and once we rose up the rankings and then I get to 50 and Greg’s, you know, probably around there, maybe a bit higher, then suddenly we’re knocking on the door of the top 30, the top 20.
“I think we, I always felt that I had a perspective of where I wanted to be in, in world tennis and the ranking. Yes, of course I’m aware. I would be rather be British No 1 than British No 2, but you know, it was, it was to a certain extent secondary to what we both wanted.
“You’d much rather be British No 2 and No 10 in the world than British No 1 and 95 in the world. And I think that’s where Greg and I changed the landscape. All of a sudden there was belief that we could compete for big titles.”
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