Andy Murray Names Amélie Mauresmo as His New Coach

Well this is a surprise! Defending Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has named former Wimbledon champion Amélie Mauresmo as his new coach, the first time in recent memory a top men's player is being coached by a former top women's player.

After spending his youth being coached by his mother, Andy Murray is turning to another woman to help him defend his Wimbledon title. 

Murray hired former top-ranked player Amelie Mauresmo as his coach on Sunday, saying the appointment is initially for the grass-court season. 

"I'm excited by the possibilities of the new partnership and Amelie is someone I have always looked up to and admired," Murray said in a statement. "She's faced adversity plenty of times in her career, but was an amazing player and won major titles, including Wimbledon."

Any excuse to see Mauresmo around major tournaments is a good one for me. I do think the practice of hiring former major champions on the men's tour (Boris Becker is coaching Novak Djokovic, Stefan Edberg is coaching Roger Federer, Michael Chang is coaching Kei Nishikori and Ivan Lendl was Murray's previous coach) is getting a bit silly and it is not clear what (if any) benefits it brings to the player.