Andy Murray has added fellow British player Jonny O’Mara to his coaching team ahead of the grass-court season, i has learned.
Murray is due to start his grass-court season on Monday in Surbiton, where he faces Hyeon Chung in the first round.
The 36-year-old is still working with Ivan Lendl and will continue to call on the services of Great Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith and LTA coach Mark Hilton.
But i understands Murray wants a more constant voice in his players’ box which O’Mara will be able to provide, while Smith and Hilton will continue to drop in and out as other commitments allow.
O’Mara, 28, has already been working on court with Murray and was with him when he played in Bordeaux last month, his last tournament on the clay where he lost in the first round to Stan Wawrinka.
O’Mara, who has been ranked inside the top 50 in doubles but had no singles success to speak of, has since been training with Murray in the UK on the grass.
No contract is understood to have been signed, but Murray is believed to have asked O’Mara to commit to around 12 months working with him, which would also require him to set aside playing commitments in favour of Murray’s schedule.
This summer in the UK, Murray will play Surbiton and then the Queen’s Club Championships, before heading to Wimbledon.
The three-time grand slam champion will be defending points from reaching the final of the ATP 250 event in Stuttgart, but it is currently unclear whether he will return to Germany to play there or prefer to play in London. He missed Queen’s, the traditional pre-Wimbledon tournament, last year after injuring an abdominal muscle in defeat to Matteo Berrettini in Stuttgart.
Given Murray’s ambitions to challenge for a grand slam title again, and that he believes his best chance to do that is at Wimbledon, his grass-court swing is even more important.
The two-time SW19 champ has made achieving a world ranking good enough to make him a seeded player a stated aim, because the more favourable draw would allow him to conserve energy against weaker players in the early rounds.
With relatively few points available at Surbiton – even winning it would only earn him 125 points and he is defending 45 from last year – there is particular focus on Queen’s as he tries to bridge the gap from 66 in the world to the top 32 who are seeded at slams.
But winning a fifth title at the Queen’s Club, which is likely to be what he needs from his week in west London in order to jump up the rankings, will be hard work given the quality field that has been assembled. World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz, Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini and Taylor Fritz are among the eight top-20 players entered into the tournament.