Andy Murray, the Wimbledon champion, will tomorrow start the search for a new coach to replace Ivan Lendl, who helped the World No8 win two Grand Slam titles.
Murray underwent back surgery after last year’s US Open and then split from Lendl last month after two years together which produced wins at the US Open and Wimbledon.
Australian Bob Brett, who is on secondment to the Lawn Tennis Association to assess their progress under the new chief executive, Michael Downey, is considered the leading candidate to replace Lendl and has previously worked with Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic, Andrei Medvedev, Mario Ancic and Marin Cilic.
Murray will meet with his management to try and identify the right coach and said: "I haven’t spoken to any coaches or compiled a list yet and I will sit down and chat with my management tomorrow. I haven’t done that yet because it can be a distraction and I will see what happens in the next couple of weeks. I want to see which route I want to go down and make a decision – the person needs to be up for doing it.”
Murray, who will attempt to win the grass court Aegon Championships for a fourth time at Queen’s Club on June 9-15, is taking a break from the circuit after Great Britain’s 3-2 Davis Cup World Group defeat by Italy at the weekend and is not going to appear on court again until the Madrid Open on May 4.
He will then target the French Open which starts in Paris on May 25 and intends to step up his training after taking this week off.
He said: "If I want to go far at the French Open and Wimbledon I need to work on my fitness and some technical issues. I am not playing until Madrid and so I have time to take a bit of a break. I don't know exactly how long I will take off but I need to let my body recover. Although I maybe haven't won as many matches as in previous years, that doesn't mean that when you're at the tournaments you're not practising every day and preparing for those events.
"I haven't played loads on the clay in the last couple of years and I need to play more. I think I can play well on the surface. There are just things, intricacies of playing on clay, that I need to learn. The best way to learn is by playing matches like we did here, against guys who are very good on the surface. Hopefully I'll learn something and take that forward into the next few weeks."
