Murray's coach reveals winner's poker face ahead of Cilic clash

By Mike Dickson for the Daily Mail

Published: 16:30 EST, 1 July 2012 | Updated: 16:32 EST, 1 July 2012

Throughout his 14 attempts as a player to win Wimbledon, Ivan Lendl always hid his emotions, and so we should not surprised that he is similarly enigmatic when it comes to trying to coax a title out of Andy Murray.

Whether the 25-year-old Scot is going through one of his spasms of angst or hitting a glorious winner, Lendl's reaction is pretty much the same in the coach's box.

Not only do old habits die hard, they have been reinforced since he retired as a player in 1994.

That is because one of his main preoccupations since then has been developing three of his five daughters into top-class golfers, and the experience has taught him that you are always better off maintaining a poker face.

So when Murray takes on another towering Croatian today, Marin Cilic, in the relatively alien surroundings of Court One, do not expect Lendl's expression to be much different.

'I've had a lot of training for it with my girls playing golf (they are top-class college players in America), following them or caddying for them. I've never showed any emotion because it can transfer to the players,' he said on Sunday as Murray emerged for practice from his late-night victory.

'It's served me well with my daughters and I don't see this as being any different,' Lendl added.

'Yes, Murray's a man and they were just children and this is a higher level, but the principle to me is just the same.'

Lendl jokes that he is not like Dani Vallverdu, Murray's close friend and hitting partner, who gets so animated that, according to Lendl, he might fall over the wall and topple onto the playing arena.

Away from the court, there is virtually nothing that Lendl does not like to joke about - it acts almost as a self-defence mechanism or stress-reliever - but he will be well aware that the coming week is potentially the biggest since he teamed up with Murray at the start of the year.

Lendl does not wish to over-complicate matters and scoffs at suggestions that a Murray triumph could ever relate to his own disappointment of failing to add Wimbledon to his eight Grand Slam titles.

'You guys are over-thinking. You're way out of the ballpark - you're so far out of left-field, you have no idea,' he laughed.

The reason he was hired was, above anything else, to help Murray produce his best when it most matters, as Lendl himself was able to do from the 1984 French Open onwards.

There could be bigger tests to come for Murray and Lendl later in the week but Cilic remains a tough start to it - you get rid of one towering Croatian (Ivo Karlovic) in the second round and then another one pops up in the fourth.

As it happens, this gentle giant, 23 years old and standing at 6ft 6in, is also searching for a major breakthrough like Murray, although the quest is less public.

When Cilic broke into the top 25 four years ago, many expected him to make fairly swift moves towards the pinnacle but it has never quite happened.

His own coaching situation is fascinatingly different to that of Murray. The British No 1 has a great ex-player with a high-profile but little coaching experience; Cilic has had a long association with Bob Brett, never much of a player but among the most experienced mentors on tour, with Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic on his CV.

The veteran Australian took Cilic into his academy in San Remo as a 15-year-old and still travels with him regularly.

Brett's priority on Sunday will have been the recovery of his player after a five-hour, 31-minute epic against American Sam Querrey on Saturday, which will surely have sapped him at some level.

If the rain does its worst today, he might not mind, and could be thankful that being away from the Centre Court roof gives him an extra day's rest.

'Court One is going to be a factor if it rains - beyond that, I don't see it as a problem,' said Lendl.

'I don't know if the conditions are different there. It looks wonderful, I haven't been here for 19 years and it's phenomenal what they have done in that time. The practice courts now are better than the main courts were then.'

Murray leads 5-1 in career meetings, but there have been some close calls.

In a Davis Cup match on the same Court One five years ago, the 18- year-old Cilic took Murray to five tight sets.

In their biggest match, the 2010 Australian Open semi-final, Cilic won the first set and was leading until the Scot hit a staggering down-the-line winner over his left shoulder facing backwards that turned the contest around.

'I guess every game will feel like a Cup final now,' reflected Murray in the early hours of Sunday morning after seeing off Marcos Baghdatis.

'Marin and I played each other in the juniors. He had a long match with Querrey so I'm hoping he will be tired, but we've seen guys have come back well from long matches this year,' added Murray.

Against Querrey, Cilic hit only fourteen aces in the 68 games and three tie-breaks it took to win, which shows his serve relies more on accuracy and spin than sheer power, different to his compatriot Karlovic.

Murray goes in having handled three very different opponents, the diminutive Davydenko, the giant Karlovic and the flashier Baghdatis.

Opponents are coming at Murray in all shapes and sizes this year.