He’s spent his time recently competing on Sweden’s version of “Strictly Come Dancing,” but Jonas Bjorkman is swapping the dancefloor for the tennis court to help Andy Murray in his bid for a third grand slam title.
The former World No. 4’s stint on “Let’s Dance” came to an end earlier this month and he has wasted no time in joining up with Murray and his camp as the 27-year-old prepares for the upcoming French Open.
Bjorkman will head up Murray’s coaching team after an initial five-week trial period last month, with main coach Amelie Mauresmo having announced that she is expecting her first child in August.
The 43-year-old Swede is currently with Murray for this week’s BMW Open in Munich and will be by his side until at least the end of September’s U.S. Open, where the Scot will be aiming to win his second Flushing Meadows title after success in 2012.
“After Wimbledon, providing everything’s good, I’m going to spend the whole of the hard-court stretch through to the end of the U.S. Open with Jonas,” Murray, who practiced with both Bjorkman and Mauresmo in Barcelona last week, is quoted as saying by the Guardian.
“Then I’ll see what happens with Amelie because I don’t know, and I don’t think she knows, what her priorities are going to be and how she wants to deal with things. So we’ll just see for a few months.”
“Jonas will do pretty much all of the grass-court stretch,” Murray added. “And then potentially Amelie will be there as well, the week before Wimbledon and then Wimbledon as well.”
Mauresmo joined Murray’s coaching team last June after the current World No. 3 split with Ivan Lendl. Under Lendl, Murray won both the 2012 U.S. Open and the 2013 Wimbledon title, as well as Olympic gold in 2012.
Murray, playing his first clay-court match of the season this week, faces either Jan-Lennard Struff or a qualifier in the second round of the BMW Open.