Andy Murray has already been offered a new job for his retirement after sharing his wish to get into coaching. The three-time Grand Slam champion was honoured with a ceremony on Wimbledon’s Centre Court on Thursday night after he and his brother Jamie lost their first-round doubles match.
The 37-year-old still has mixed doubles to come with Emma Raducanu and will play in the Olympic Games before officially hanging up his racket.
But he could walk into another role whenever he wants, as Leon Smith has offered to sacrifice his own position so Murray can take it.
The former world No. 1 was asked whether fans would see Murray return to Centre Court as a spectator in the years to come when he made his plans clear. “I would probably be more comfortable up there in the coaching box,” he replied.
Murray’s career isn’t even over yet but he has already been offered the Davis Cup captaincy role, as current team leader Smith shared his wish to see the two-time Olympic gold medallist replace him. “He’s just, that generosity of time, now that he’ll have more of it and he can give more. What he does in the future, he’ll obviously need time,” Smith told the BBC.
“I like the fact that he said he’d like to be in the coaching box rather than anywhere else because he will be an amazing asset for British players in whichever role he wants.”
The Glasgow native has been Britain’s Davis Cup captain since 2010 but he would be happy to pass the torch onto Murray. Smith continued: “Whether that’s as a personal coach to someone or, you know, he can knock on my door and take my Davis Cup job whenever he wants because he’d be amazing at it. Whatever he wants to do, he’ll make the right choice as he always has done.”
Smith famously coached the British squad to lift the Davis Cup trophy back in 2015, with Murray clinching the trophy for his country. Britain faced Belgium in an away tie for the final and the team were in trouble when Davis Goffin won the first match of the weekend to put Belgium in the lead, beating Kyle Edmund.