Andy Murray has rubbished talk of a rift with coach Amelie Mauresmo after he crashed out of the Miami Open with a three-set loss to Grigor Dimitrov.
Mauresmo watched on from a different part of the stadium to the box where the rest of Murray’s team and family were located as the world number two produced more than 50 unforced errors in a 6-7 (7/1) 6-4 6-3 loss to the Bulgarian.
Murray, who received a violation from the umpire for smashing his racket during the second set,
“I’ve just been trying to find different ways to improve my focus on the court,” Murray said.
“I also did the same thing at the O2 Arena as well, so I’m trying to find different ways to improve and that’s something I’ve tested to see if that might help.
“If I’d had a falling out then Amelie wouldn’t be here at the tournament. We had dinner with all our families last night, so we certainly haven’t fallen out. It’s one of those things that when I win no one says anything about it, and then when I lose that’s an excuse. I don’t think that is the reason for me hitting 50 unforced errors in this match.”
The defeat, in which Dimitrov showed the sort of form which propelled him into the top 10 of the world rankings in 2014, brought to an end a difficult American hard-court swing of the season for Murray, who is still facing challenges of life as a new parent.
He lost to Federico Delbonis at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells a fortnight ago and he has won just two ATP World Tour matches since the final of the Australian Open in January.
However, Murray’s position at No2 in the world rankings is safe for the moment, but the Scot will need to rediscover his form quickly if he is to avoid being overtaken by Roger Federer in the coming weeks.
Having lost in the Miami final to Novak Djokovic last year, Murray will see his points total drop by 555 to 7,815 when the world rankings are updated at the conclusion of the tournament next week.
That will leave him just 120 points ahead of third-placed Federer.
