Britain's number one Tennis player, Andy Murray, seems to have quickly adapted his coaching backroom staff to fit in with Amelie Mauresmo's happy news. His 35-year-old French coach is expecting her first child this August. Murray had originally planned to introduce the former Swedish player Jonas Bjorkman into his coaching set-up to assist Mauresmo, but the baby news has prompted a slight re-think. The Swede, who once soared as high as world number four, is now set to play a far more integral part in the Scottish player's preparations for the summer.
Murray has known of Mauresmo's Pregnancy since February, so in that respect has had some time to decide how best to accommodate the potential disruption to his training plans. Bjorkman was lined up in March on a trial basis, initially believed to be two weeks. His participation in Sweden's version of Strictly Come Dancing pushed their initial contact back though.
First impressions of the new partnership have been favourable after they joined up in Barcelona at a training camp last week. So much so that Bjorkman is set to spend the entire summer in Murray's corner. They will team up for Wimbledon and right through until September's US Open has been completed. Mauresmo will remain as his main coach until after Wimbledon, when her maternity break will (hopefully) seamlessly see Bjorkman take over the reins.
The Scot is currently playing in his first tournament since his marriage to Kim Sears last month, at the BMW Open in Munich. Although he now wears his wedding ring with pride when off court, his meticulous regime requires him to remove it when playing tennis. To do so would most likely cause blisters to his hands, so watch out for him potentially wearing it on a chain in future matches.
As a former champion at Wimbledon, Murray will have high hopes of regaining the title he won in 2013. He may well be interested to learn that the prize money for this year's event is set to rise. Should he become the champion again, he would walk away with a cool £1.88 million, which is £120k up on last year's top prize.
In total, Wimbledon is set to increase the prize purse by 7% this year to a staggering £26.75 million.
