“Looking forward to the start of the season and competing in Australia alongside Andy (Murray),”– said Novak Djokovic as he announced the new addition to his team. This surprising announcement comes just a few days after Rafael Nadal’s retirement. And has everyone thinking: what is going in the mind of the last Big 3 standing in the circuit? While everyone ponders over it, Former American pro Andy Roddick– may have some reasoning to justify this twist, as he relates to the Brit legend.

On the podcast, Served with Andy Roddick, dated November 26th, Jon Wertheim and Roddick talked about this interesting partnership. Murray will be working with Djokovic only for a few weeks and Roddick sees the reasoning behind it. The American veteran is convinced Murray wouldn’t have accepted the job on a pro-rata basis if it was any other player.

“I guarantee you Murray ticks the same way. I can almost promise you this without it being from his mouth. There’s no chance that if he’s working with a player that’s not Novak, who’s, I don’t know, let’s call it a player who’s eight in the world, who’s not Novak, and all of a sudden you make progress and that person gets to five in the world, and you almost win a slam or something like that, and then you’re over your weeks committed, midway through the season on a prorated basis,” Roddick said.

The former US Open champion further added, “You’re going to feel shi–y for not committing fully because the what-if question will not die. I don’t think you have that what-if question as much with someone who’s already sitting as the greatest ever.”

Rightly so, Djokovic is World No.4, with 24 Grand Slam titles, and is looking forward to adding one more to his collection. Hence, Murray joining him for a short period certainly makes sense. The Serb already seems to be in the last swing of his career and has explored his potential in the circuit to the fullest. However, when it comes to a lower-ranked player or a young player, Murray working on a pro-rata basis would have left him with doubts and what-if questions.

After participating in the Asian swing without a coach, Novak Djokovic finally has one. However, no one would have anticipated that the rivals would join hands. Nonetheless, it has happened and Murray would be joining Team Djokovic in the off-season, to prepare him for the upcoming Australian Open. While Andy Murray’s mother has an interesting reaction to their collaboration, an ex-pro also changed his view on Novak Djokovic.

Murray’s dynamic pairing with Novak Djokovic has been welcomed by an ex-pro

For the first time in 2 decades, none of the Big 3 players was able to win a Grand Slam in 2024. Novak Djokovic made it to the finals of the Wimbledon Championships just 20 days after rehab from the surgery. But a titleless year made everyone think that the Serb’s retirement was not far away. However, Djokovic appointing Andy Murray as his coach has everyone excited, and some even changed their pessimistic stance towards the Serbian Ace.

Nicolas Mahut, the 5-time doubles Grand Slam champion, opened up about this surprise collaboration. He said, “Taking Andy, who was his rival for years and has known him since they were kids, is a very clever move. It will give him a little boost—he’ll want to excel. I truly feel we’re about to witness a super Novak, I was quite pessimistic. I didn’t see him winning a Grand Slam in 2025, I honestly thought his career was winding down.”

Novak Djokovic already has 10 Australian Open titles to his name and is looking to pick the 11th one in 2025. And, Murray’s mom, Judy Murray, has her popcorn ready as she eagerly waits in anticipation as well, like us, for their partnership to unfold.