Andy Murray accuses rival players of sexism while being coached by Amelie Mauresmo

Andy Murray's partnership with Amelie Mauresmo was a landmark event in tennis. It was the first instance of such a high ranked and prominent player picking a female to coach him at the senior level. The announcement came soon after Murray called it quits with his longtime coach - Ivan Lendl. The reaction of the tennis community to Murray's appointment of Mauresmo highlighted the rampant sexism hidden in the outwardly progressive men's tennis scene. 

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Mauresmo was judged harshly just because she was a woman: Murray

Ahead of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, reports started surfacing about Murray's new female coach - Amelie Mauresmo - who had herself been the World No. 1 in her playing career. Talking about his decision to pick the Frenchwoman as his coach, Murray revealed that  "it was a bit of a no-brainer" for him to pick a former female No.1 as a coach. 

"Before I started working with Amelie, I was chatting to Darren Cahill and he said what about some of the top former female players? To me, it was a bit of a no-brainer", he said to his mother, Judy Murray, during Sky Sports' new show Driving Force.   Murray has always been a proponent of the Women's Tour and has advocated for equal pay for women. 

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While female coaches are few and far between in the Men's Senior circuit, many of the biggest names in the sport - including current World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Goran Ivanisevic and Marat Safin among others - owe the beginning of their careers to women. Murray himself was coached by his mother, Judy, in his formative years. 

"I started getting messages from other players, from their coaches saying that they couldn't believe I was playing this game with the media and that I should tell them tomorrow that I was considering working with a dog. I never had experienced that before because I'd never worked with a female coach on tour" recalled Murray. 

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Andy Murray Grand Slams record

Murray's time with Mauresmo was short-lived. Coming off of a back surgery Murray dropped to No.10 after his quarter-finals exit from Wimbledon and would eventually fall out fo the Top 10 for the first time since 2008. Just after ending his partnership with Mauresmo in June 2016, Murray won his second Wimbledon title - his third and last Grand Slam title. He has said that not winning a Slam during his time with Mauresmo remains one of his biggest regrets. 

He also said that he felt Mauresmo was "harshly judged by a lot of people, purely because she was a woman" and was questioned for Murray's failures to win matches. He noted that this was not something generally that happened with male coaches on the Tour. 

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Image Credits: AP