Sign up to our free Inside Tennis newsletter for Australian Open news and analysis sent straight to your inbox
MELBOURNE — Keen observers of Andy Murray’s career will have recognised an eerie echo of the past on Wednesday.
Six years ago, Murray played an open practice session with Novak Djokovic on Rod Laver Arena. A few days later, he tearfully admitted this might be his last ever grand slam.
His career went on much longer of course, via another hip surgery, but Murray was never the same again.
Many see that practice as the beginning of the end, such was the humiliating ease with which Djokovic pushed his old adversary’s aching bones around the court.
That session ended with Murray sitting on the bench, angrily gesturing strokes that his body would no longer allow him to play, while Djokovic kept hitting with his own team.
Fast forward to 2025, and Djokovic is sitting on that same bench, complaining about some struggle on return, while his new coach Murray stands in front of him, racket in hand, showing him what to do.
Australian Open organisers are determined to make the week before the year’s opening major as much of an event as the tournament itself, so it was ideal that Djokovic decided to practise with Jack Draper, the man whom Murray himself took under his wing and groomed to take over his mantle.
Draper, 23, has done so in one way – he is British No 1 – but a US Open semi-final and the ATP 500 title in Vienna is the far lower summit of his achievements. So far.
As such, Draper played the rare part of third fiddle on Rod Laver Arena, as more than 1,000 people flocked to watch rivals-turned-teammates Murray and Djokovic interact.
Their partnership is still very new: the two trained together for 10 days in Marbella in December but Murray spent Christmas and New Year with his family, learning to ski among other things.
Djokovic saw in 2025 with a tournament in Brisbane without his new coach before a rendezvous in Melbourne.
So if you would expect two men who have known each other for more than 20 years to have nothing left to say, nothing could be further from the truth.
In stark contrast to his own most frequent coach, the impenetrably taciturn Ivan Lendl, Murray’s running commentary only ceased during points; in between them, he was a constant voice in Djokovic’s ear.
Sometimes it was the serve, sometimes it was timing of the split-step on the backhand return, and on one occasion it was a line call, but whatever the topic, the conversation was persistent.
The only time Murray seemed to go quiet was during Djokovic’s moments of verbal flagellation after missing a ball.
No one could swear angrily behind the baseline quite like Murray so he probably knows not to interrupt that particular moment of catharsis.
Djokovic had three other long-term members of his team on court with him – coach Boris Bosnjakovic, fitness coach Gebhard Gritsch and physio Miljan Amanovic – but it was almost exclusively Murray doing the talking.
Perhaps it is because for the past two decades, detailed analysis has been taboo between Murray and Djokovic.
Two huge tennis fans, they naturally talked shop over the years, but never about each other’s games.
It seems likely that some of Murray’s advice has been in his head for years and has contributed to the 11 victories the Brit garnered against Djokovic over the years, including in a Wimbledon final.
But now the hunter has turned gamekeeper, and the fences are being built higher and higher.
Constant technical detail in practice is not a new approach for Djokovic. He is well-known for his exhaustive, granular practice sessions, quite different from the likes of Roger Federer, who could easily hit for 10 minutes the day before a match and then call it a day.
But Murray seemed to bring another layer of intensity, mostly technical, but also congratulatory – “brilliant, brilliant,” he muttered when Djokovic hit a running backhand pass into a minuscule gap in Draper’s defences, offering his charge a low-five – sometimes before the point was even over.
Seeing Murray in that role has a strange duality: it is both surreal and natural.
This was the first time we had seen him on Rod Laver since a five-set victory over Matteo Berrettini in January 2023, a vintage Murray comeback during a sell-out night session that could hardly have been more different from the midday sunshine, a half-full stadium and the former world No 1 standing at the back of the court in tracksuit bottoms.
But there is also a feeling that this is exactly where Murray has always belonged.
He has only been retired five months and a coach for just two weeks of work, yet he was striding to the net to discuss the next part of the session with Draper’s coach James Trotman, muttering in the ear of Bosnjakovic and (gingerly) jogging to pick up balls like he had been doing it all his life.
Murray the player always looked a little ungainly. Murray the coach looks anything but.
