Andy Murray hires Ivan Lendl as full-time coach

World no. 4 Andy Murray has hired former world no.1 Ivan Lendl to be his new coach as the Scot makes an attempt to get the Grand Slam monkey off his back in 2012.

The Czech legend won 8 Grand Slams in the 1980s and was considered to be one of the hardest working players of his time – bringing a new dimension of power tennis and physical training to the game.

After losing his first four major finals, Lendl went to win eight slams and became world number one. Murray, who has lost his first three, can now get some first hand tips from the Czech, on how to recover from those early setbacks and go on to be a world beater.

Murray is closing in on 25 and he knows that he may not have too long to break his jinx at the majors before the next generation of tennis like Milos Roanic, Bernard Tomic and Ryan Harrisson start threatening at the majors too.

The Scot opens his 2012 campaign in Brisbane this week, where on Sunday he teamed up with Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis for a first round win in the doubles draw. He is the top seed at the ATP 250 event and hopes to get his game in top shape for the Australian Open.

The year’s first Slam begins on January 16th and Murray, a two-time finalist here, will be hoping to go one better this year.