Australian Open Betting / Ralph Ellis / 19 January 2010 /

With a new coaching team, a new car and a new sponsor, Andy Murray demonstrated new found aggression in his first round victory at the Australian Open. But should we back him to win his first grand slam in Melbourne?

One of the great truths of life, never mind just sport, is that we never get to know what would have happened. For instance, might Tim Henman have won a Grand Slam if he'd been more ruthless and left behind his first coach David Felgate earlier in his career? By the time he did ditch his friend and went to work with Paul Annacone it was probably too late. But we'll never know.

At least nobody will be able to accuse Andy Murray of missing out through being sentimental. The British number one, having already gone through two top coaches in Mark Petchey and Brad Gilbert, has just given his support team yet another shake-up.

First to go, just before Christmas, was girlfriend Kim Sears. He binned her and bought a Ferrari. Now he's arrived in Australia with a few more left behind. Matt Little, one of his fitness trainers, is not wanted on voyage and neither is coaching adviser Alex Corretja. His personal website man, who spent much of last season following Murray around the world to update his fans, is also working from London. Where last year he needed three rows in the competitors' box to house all his support team, now they can be housed in seven seats, and two of them for mum Judy and her friend.

It's a sign that Murray, who will be 23 this year, thinks deeply about his strategy to break into the elite group of current tennis players who have won a Grand Slam. He's never been afraid to make tough decisions about his career. In fact, he's become the opposite to the loyal Henman, focused only on what's right for himself.

He's also ditched long time clothing sponsor Fred Perry at the start of this year, and that has actually added an extra twist to his coaching team. His tie-up with adidas gives him access to the coaching knowledge and experience of Darren Cahill whose CV includes helping inspire the Indian summer of Andre Agassi's stellar career.

The results of the streamlined approach, so far, are promising. His first round win over South African Kevin Anderson showed a new aggression, taking the rallies to his opponent where in the past his tactics have relied more on keeping the ball in play and waiting for mistakes.

That should comfortably be enough to see him through his second round match against Frenchman Marc Gicquel who beat Simon Bolelli in three sets this morning. But will it be enough to justify backing him at [2.34] to win his quarter of the draw in which the menacing figure of Rafael Nadal is lurking? Or yet to take him all the way to the title for which he is [7.2] third favourite?

I'd lay both. For all the promise of his opening round, it might just be too soon with the new slimmed down regime to expect anything quite so dramatic - and all the more so because the competition gets deeper every year. Henman didn't help himself by not trying new things. Murray might just be trying too much.

Five things you might not know about Darren Cahill

1. Born in Adelaide in 1965, his dad John was a legendary Aussie Rules footballer who played 15 years for Port Adelaide then won ten successive premiership titles as their coach

2. Darren played tennis instead, and his best achievement as a player was to make the 1988 US Open semi-finals.

3. He quit playing because of injury a year later - and started working with Lleyton Hewitt in time to make him the youngest ever year-end number one. He later also coached the oldest number one - Andre Agassi.

4. He teamed up with David Bowie's record producer Tony Visconti to promote a business consultancy firm

5. Last year he turned down an offer to work with Roger Federer because it would mean spending too much time away from his family in LA

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: