Victoria Azarenka left Andy Murray red-faced during an exhibition match against Novak Djokovic by demanding he be substituted out for the Serbian’s primary school-age son.
The pair were facing Djokovic and Qinwen Zheng in the mic’d-up charity match – part of ‘A Night with Novak’ – at a packed Rod Laver Arena ahead of the Australian Open.
And Murray’s return to court more than five months after handing up his racquet went south, with the Brit fatiguing end losing 4-3 in a single-set Fast4 format game.
The Scot recently he admitted he had ‘hardly hit a ball’ since retiring at the Paris Olympics and appeared laboured on court, though his antics were likely exaggerated for the humorous contest, as made clear by his comically loud grunting and moaning.
At one point, two-time Aussie Open champion Azarenka asked for Djokovic’s 10-year-old son, who was sat nearby, to replace the former British number one.
‘Novak, I heard your son is a very good player, can I substitute him for Andy?’ she aksed, to much laughter.
Victoria Azarenka jokingly asked for Andy Murray to be subbed off for Novak Djokovic’s son during an exhibition match
The Serbian’s 10-year-old boy, Stefan, declined the request in front of the Australian crowd
Murray went on to hit a winner on the next shot, but looked out of sorts on his return to court
Djokovic did ask his son, but he wiggled his finger to signal that he would rather not.
‘I think he would do better than Andy,’ quipped Djokovic.
However, just to silence his doubters, Murray hit the winning shot in the very next play to stick himself and Azarenka in the tie-breaker, though they eventually lost it 5-4 to lose 4-3 on games.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, 37, who retired in August after a glittering 19-year career, is part of his long-time rival’s coaching set-up for the Australian Open.
And Murray has told all on the process that led to him coaching Djokovic and how he expects the partnership to work.
‘Novak had messaged me, just wanting to chat. It was just before Shanghai (at the end of September) and we’d exchanged messages and missed calls and stuff,’ he said.
‘Then I was playing golf and I was on the 17th hole and the guy I was playing with said to me, “Do you know what’s next?”. I was like, “No, not really”. He said “Do you have any plans to do any coaching?” And I said, “Honestly, I can’t think of anything worse to do right now”.
‘Then 30 minutes later, I was in the car, I called Novak and he asked if I would be interested in helping, which I obviously wasn’t expecting. I said to him, “Look, I need to think about it and talk to my family”.’
The ‘Night with Novak’ ahead of the Australian Open was mic’d up and done for charity
Murray has been coaching Novak in the build-up to the tournament in Melbourne
Zheng Qinwen teamed up with Djokovic for the quick match, which they won 4-3
But after talking things through with his wife Kim and their four children he decided an opportunity to work with his former nemesis was one he couldn’t refuse.
‘I spoke to them and after a couple of days, I thought it was a pretty unique opportunity and experience,’ said Murray.
‘I thought it would be a good idea to try it together, spend some time in the off-season through Australia and see how it goes for both of us, because it’s a little bit different. It’s not the usual kind of set-up. So it made sense to trial it and see if it works. And then we said we’d make a more definitive decision after the tournament.’
The obvious question was how Kim reacted to the prospect of Murray returning to work in the sport so soon after kicking the habit.
‘My wife was very supportive of it,’ he said. ‘I was actually going to be in Australia anyway for a few days during the tournament. She was surprised, obviously, that he’d asked me, but she was really supportive.
‘Maybe if it was a younger player, where it was maybe long term, you might be looking at five, six years potentially… I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case with Novak, but you never know if he’s doing well!’
He added: ‘I know it’s not easy out there. It’s stressful and at times he’s going to vent towards his team and his box. Providing he’s giving his best effort and trying as hard as he can, I’m absolutely fine with him expressing himself how he wants.’
