DANIELLA MATAR
Associated Press
MILAN (AP) — Ivan Lendl is not planning on returning to coaching “anytime soon” after turning down a request from fellow Czech Tomas Berdych.
Berdych announced this week that he talked to Lendl, who ended a successful two-year stint with Andy Murray in March, but Lendl was “too busy” to coach him.
“I don’t think so anytime soon,” Lendl said on Thursday, when asked if he was planning to coach again. “You never know. I always feel the situation has to be right, the time has to be right. It could be in six months or maybe four years.
“I enjoyed it enough to consider it again, but at the moment I enjoy playing and having a bit more free time. When you travel 25 weeks a year, that’s a long time, and at my age I didn’t want to do it at the moment.”
Lendl helped Murray win the 2013 Wimbledon and 2012 U.S. Open and Olympic titles before ending the partnership after deciding he could no longer commit the necessary amount of time.
Berdych had long said he would like to work with his countryman but tweeted on Monday, “I had a great time talking about tennis with Ivan Lendl today. Result? Ivan would like to help me, but he is too busy…”
Lendl was in Italy with John McEnroe, Goran Ivanisevic and Michael Chang ahead of senior tour matches in Genoa and Milan.
Ivanisevic recently coached Marin Cilic to victory at the U.S. Open, where he beat Kei Nishikori, coached by Chang.
McEnroe said he had no plans to follow them into coaching.
“These three have done very well, I’m the only one here who hasn’t,” he said. “I don’t know. It’s not impossible. But no one seems to be asking me, I don’t know why.”
McEnroe joked that he should coach Italian player Fabio Fognini, who is renowned for his eccentric behavior. Earlier, McEnroe and Ivanisevic laughingly agreed that Fognini was their successor through his similar mentality and style of play.
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