US Open Betting / Ralph Ellis / 28 July 2010 /

Andy Murray is third favourite for the title at Flushing Meadows but after splitting with another coach he's not the most appealing bet in the book, says Ralph Ellis

Coaching Andy Murray has become the tennis equivalent of managing Manchester City. At any given moment you are always favourite to be the next one who gets sacked.

Miles Maclagan became the latest to leave Camp Murray yesterday as the British number one goes on searching for reasons - or should that be excuses? - for his sudden slump in form. At the age of just 23 our Andy will now be looking to appoint the fifth full time coach of his career, and you can't help feeling that the constant chopping and changing might be starting to hinder rather than help his progress.

I always felt that Tim Henman suffered from being too loyal for too long to his coach David Felgate, a journeyman player who brilliantly guided Henman to the upper echelons of the game but then lacked the extra edge to help him make the last jump to winning Grand Slam titles. By the time he did move on he was already 26 and it was too late even for the likes of Paul Annacone to make much difference.

Murray has taken the opposite extreme, even though like Maclagan they have all left with nice words - mainly, you suspect, as a result of some carefully worded confidentiality clauses in the compensation payments. It started when he ditched Mark Petchey because he apparently didn't like being told he had to work harder, carried on through Pato Alvarez and Brad Gilbert, and now his friend Maclagan has gone too because he wasn't happy with the growing influence of former world number two Alex Corretja. Word is that he was no enjoyed working as part of a two-man coaching team and when Murray, influenced as ever by his mum Judy, wouldn't change the set up they decided to part company.

Murray will carry on working with Corretja this week at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles where the Scot is [2.48] favourite to land the title in a fairly average field. He cut short a training camp in Florida last week for a last minute entry in an attempt to build some confidence before the US Open at the end of next month.

The Spaniard, who was originally brought in as a specialist clay court coach, will stay until at least then before a permanent decision is made.

Flushing Meadows is considered by most to be the tournament where Murray has his best chance on his favourite hard court surface - it was where he reached his first Grand Slam final. But the facts suggest otherwise - apart from that success in 2008 he's never been beyond the fourth round and the latest upheaval won't help his chances this time suggesting his current price of [6.0] to win the title is far too short. Rafael Nadal - who incidentally has only ever been coached by his Uncle Toni on the way to becoming world number one - is justifiably the [3.75] favourite with Roger Federer [3.9].

Five things you might not know about Alex Corretja...

Born April 1974 in Barcelona, his full Catalan name is Alex Corretja Verdegay

Parents Luis and Luisa encouraged his early promise as a tennis star and he won the Orange Bowl in 1990 turning professional a year later

Twice a French Open finalist he banked more than 10 million dollars in career prize money and won 17 singles titles - but never got beyond the second round at Wimbledon

His brother Ivan is married to professional golfer Paula Marti and runs a sports agency company which represents Barcelona stars including Xavi Hernandez and Sergio Busquets

His musical tastes might be a bit old for Murray - he lists his favourites as U2, Bryan Adams, Dire Straits and the Rolling Stones

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