"It’s not magical, it’s a process": Former French player predicts how long Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray will work together

Former world number 25 Jeremy Chardy believes there is a likelihood that Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic and Britain’s Andy Murray will continue working together for more than one year. The 37-year-old, who is regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category, had a rather below-par outing in 2024 according to his own high standards.

It was the first time in seven years that Djokovic failed to win a single Grand Slam in a season. He also finished winless in terms of ATP titles in the calendar year. His only big achievement in 2024 was winning an Olympic gold medal for his country as he defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 7-6. Those performances pushed Djokovic to sign his former rival Murray as the new head coach for the 2025 season.

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The decision was a surprising one considering that the 37-year-old, who is regarded as the greatest British player in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category having won as many as three Grand Slam titles, retired from the sport recently after taking part in the Paris Olympics’ doubles category with Dan Evans.

Former French player Chardy, who has also become coach after retiring from the sport and is now working with the world number 14 Ugo Humbert, has recently spoken to Daily Express where he highlighted the likelihood of Djokovic and Murray working together for more than a year.

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“For me, they will go for the full year on the big tournaments and if it’s going well they will continue,” he said. “When you’re an athlete, you know that nothing is magical so it’s not because Andy is coming that it’s going to change everything but we need six months to start to see improvement and to be able to do some work. It’s not magical, it’s a process, you need to believe in the process, believe in the direction you are taking. If they have decided to work together, it means they believe they can do something really good together. I’m not really surprised because I think the only goal of Djokovic is to win another Grand Slam and I think Andy is one of the best in tactics and I think he took him to try to find a way to win against the best player like [Jannik] Sinner, [Carlos] Alcaraz and to work on that. It’s very serious. [Novak] not here to have fun. He will play less tournaments because he starts to get older, physically it will be more difficult for him, but I’m sure he’s going to prepare to be at the peak at every Grand Slam and if he has Andy in his team, he’s 100 per cent sure he will help him.”

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