Murray wants to learn from Mourinho

The 2013 Wimbledon champion has become friendly with Mourinho since using Chelsea’s training ground, which is near his Cobham home, during his recovery from back surgery last year.

London — Andy Murray says he wants to learn the secrets of Jose Mourinho’s success as the former Wimbledon champion fine-tunes his challenge to regain the All England Club title.

Murray battled to a three-set victory over Gilles Muller in Friday’s quarterfinals of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club and then caught up with Chelsea manager Mourinho for a quick chat and a picture that he posted on his Instagram account.

The 2013 Wimbledon champion has become friendly with Mourinho since using Chelsea’s training ground, which is near his Cobham home, during his recovery from back surgery last year.

And given Mourinho’s vast success, including leading Chelsea to the Premier League title and League Cup last season, it is little surprise that Murray is keen to get a few tips from the Portuguese coach. “I haven’t met him long enough or in a situation where I could do that,” Murray said.

“But I’d love to chat to him about those things to understand what it is that makes him great.

“The consistency of his success is pretty incredible really.” Murray was below his best against Muller, but he admitted he was still relieved to have put on a winning performance in front of Mourinho after falling flat the last time he was in attendance.

“I said to him that this was a slightly better performance than the last time he came to watch me, which was at the O2 finals last year when I played against Roger (Federer),” he said.

“I think he seems to be quite interested in tennis. He spent a few days obviously this week and maybe will come tomorrow or on Sunday.

“So, yeah, I met him a few times when I had my back surgery, I did a lot of my training and rehab in the Chelsea training ground near to my house. I met with him a few times and he’s a fun guy.”

While Murray has a good rapport with Mourinho, he stopped short of grilling the boss about transfers, in particular Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech’s proposed move to Arsenal. “It looks like that’s pretty much done now. No, I actually didn’t ask him about that!” Murray laughed.