The most surprising part is the timing. Murray only retired from playing four months ago. That time was shared between his family and his golf clubs, but as he told the Control the Controllables podcast last year, he's often bored until Wednesday lunchtime, when his kids are at school.
The opportunity to work with Djokovic is unlikely to come up again and having lost four Melbourne finals to the Serb, he may believe he will never have a better chance of winning the Australian Open.
Jokes aside, there don't seem to be many downsides. Djokovic has not currently competed in any events prior to the Australian Open, leaving Murray free to enjoy the Christmas holidays at home after some work together in the off-season.
Their training sessions in Melbourne will be a blockbuster and it will be exciting to see how their relationship develops and whether Murray could be part of Djokovic's team at some of the year's other Grand Slams.
“They've always gotten along well, but I don't think it would have been as close as it might have been when they were younger – and not now,” Delgado says of their relationship.
“There was just so much at stake. But they had great respect for each other.”
“Andy always spoke so highly of him [Djokovic’s] game and how difficult it was to play against him. The respect was huge.”
The last major act of their playful rivalry was the race for number 1 in the world rankings at the end of 2016.
“When me and Novak talk, we don't talk about tennis, rankings, the games we play against each other,” Murray said earlier this year.
“Maybe that will change when we’re done playing.”
