Andy Murray Splits With Coach Ivan Lendl

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has split with coach Ivan Lendl after a mutual end to their two-year partnership.

Lendl helped Murray to Olympic gold at London 2012, his maiden grand slam title at the US Open before the 26 year old became the first male singles champion at Wimbledon for 77 years last summer.

After missing the end of the 2013 season after back surgery, Murray, currently world No.6, has failed to reach a major final since succeeding at SW19 but the split with the eight-time grand slam champion comes as a shock.

"I'm eternally grateful to Ivan for all his hard work over the past two years, the most successful of my career so far," said Murray.

"As a team, we've learned a lot and it will definitely be of benefit in the future. I'll take some time with the team to consider the next steps and how we progress from here".

Lendl, 54, added: "Working with Andy over the last two years has been a fantastic experience for me.

"He is a first class guy. Having helped him achieve his goal of winning major titles, I feel like it is time for me to concentrate on some of my own projects moving forward including playing more events around the world which I am really enjoying.

"I will always be in Andy's corner and wish him nothing but great success as he too goes into a new phase of his career."

Murray confirmed Lendl as his new coach at the turn of 2012 and the pair achieved immediate success together as the Scot reached his first Wimbledon final where he lost to Roger Federer before he returned to the All-England Club to beat the Swiss in the Olympic singles final at London 2012.

Such an improvement then saw Murray claim his first grand slam title at his fifth attempt after defeating Serbian Novak Djokovic in five sets at Flushing Meadows.

Despite the 2013 season being littered with injury, Murray still reached the Australian Open final, where he lost to Djokovic, before exacting revenge at Wimbledon by succeeding Fred Perry as the first British men's singles champion since 1936. The title would later help Murray claim the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.

After relinquishing his US Open title after losing in the quarter final against Stanislas Wawrinka and then guiding Great Britain into the Davis Cup World Group after beating Croatia, Murray was forced to miss the rest of the year after back surgery, ruling him out of the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

A return to grand slam action saw him defeated in the quarter final in Australia by Federer but playing a winning part in GB's defeat of USA to set up a Davis Cup quarter final against Italy next month is a rare moment of success in an otherwise troubled year.