Andy Murray will put Nick Kyrgios relationship at risk if coaching wish comes true

Andy Murray has revealed he could turn his hand to coaching when he finally calls time on his illustrious playing career. And he has named world No 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas as one player he would love to work with. Tsitsipas was a beaten finalist at the French Open last year and has also reached four Grand Slam semi-finals so could well be in touching distance of winning one of the majors. But the ace had a public fallout with Nick Kyrios at Wimbledon. And if Murray does end up coaching the Greek player, it could put his close relationship with Kyrgios at serious risk.

Murray is now 35 years old and has fallen to No 52 in the world so will surely be thinking about life beyond his playing days sooner rather than later. And he has already had his say on the players he would like to work with.

“Female player would be Emma [Raducanu] and male player would be between [Carlos] Alcaraz, Tsitsipas and Jack Draper,” Murray said. “They work hard, they seem like they love the sport. Alcaraz and Tsitsipas haven’t won a Slam yet. They’re obviously still very young and I think they have the potential to do it.”

While Murray could be the man to help Tsitsipas finally win a major, a link-up could spell the end of his relationship with Kyrgios, who he often trains with. The Greek and the Australian went head-to-head with each other in the third round of Wimbledon earlier this month as Kyrgios overturned a one-set deficit to win the match in four sets before eventually going on to reach the final.

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But following the encounter, Tsitsipas branded his opponent a “bully” due to his behaviour on court. “It’s constant bullying,” said the 23-year-old. “He bullies opponents. He was probably a bully at school himself. I don’t like bullies.

“I don’t like people that put other people down. He has some good traits in his character as well. But he also has a very evil side to him which, if it’s exposed, it can really do a lot of harm and bad to the people around him.”

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And Kyrgios hit back: “I’m not sure how I bullied him. He was the one hitting balls at me, he was the one that hit a spectator, he was the one that smacked it out of the stadium. I didn’t do anything. Apart from me just going back and forth to the umpire for a bit, I did nothing towards Stefanos that was disrespectful, I don’t think. I was not drilling him with balls. I was just competing at Wimbledon and I did it.”

There is clearly no love lost between the two tennis stars and their feud could get in the way of a Murray and Tsitsipas tie up. Earlier this week, Kyrgios’ mum revealed how Murray helped save her son’s life during his battles with mental health and self harming. And the players are clearly close. So the Scot will have to think long and hard about any future coaching relationship with Tsitsipas.