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Only heavyweight coach for me - Murray

Andy Murray has revealed that he would not have hired a coach without a grand slam title to his name.

Murray linked up with former world No. 1 Ivan Lendl at the turn of the year as he looks to end his wait for a first grand slam title, having spent a year-and-a-half without a full-time trainer after he parted company with Miles Maclagan in July 2010.

The world No. 4, who is preparing to kick off his clay-court season at the Monte Carlo Masters next week, is scheduled to spend around 20 weeks a year on the tour with Lendl, as well as some time at Murray's training base in Miami.

While many former players are happy to act as advisors or consultants, Murray admitted it was hard to find a coach with such vast experience who was willing to commit as much as he felt was necessary.

"Firstly I wanted to get a coach that had won majors, that's what I wanted," Murray said. "It's not something that I had always wanted in the past, but it's a lot harder than people think to get a coach that has won majors because a lot of them only want to travel for ten weeks of the year.

"The tennis season starts on January 1 and ends at the end of November. The grand slams themselves are eight weeks and also the week before that is a training week where you really need your coach there to prepare you so for the slams alone it is 12 weeks.

"Very few ex-players, especially guys as good as Ivan, want to travel that much. I think because he had taken 15-20 years away from the tour since he stopped he was willing to give me some extra time."

Murray believes he and Lendl, who lost his first four major final appearances before going on to win eight grand slams, share a similar approach to the sport.

"When we spoke to each other we got on well, we saw tennis in the same way," Murray said. "Also he went through a lot of the same things that I went through at the start of my career and he can help me with that too . So it has been a good fit."

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