British great Tim Henman believes Andy Murray might need to question his coaching relationship with Amelie Mauresmo unless the former Wimbledon champion can quickly return to peak form.
A disappointing 2014 campaign came to a suitably downbeat end for Murray on Thursday when he was eliminated from the ATP Tour Finals in humiliating fashion after a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing by Roger Federer.
Former British number one Henman is a good friend of Murray's, but he has been frustrated by his lack of aggression in recent weeks and claims there could be cause for the Scot to reassess whether Mauresmo is the right person to revive a career which has stagnated since he won Wimbledon last year.
"When you reflect on the match, for me his game had no identity," Henman said. "What was the plan out there? It was really the Federer show.
"Roger played fantastically well, but, for Andy to have an impact, he has to be proactive, and the thing that is always exciting about Andy is there's no shot in tennis that he can't hit. If he's got all these shots in his armoury, my question is why doesn't he use them?
"He has to look at the way that he can be more offensive and more proactive instead of letting these players dictate to him. He's got as good a two-handed backhand as Djokovic, but he doesn't use it as much. I'd be looking for him to really crunch the ball.
"It's about clarity of thought and that's when you've got to take a step back and look at the whole set-up, the whole team and his whole lifestyle and see whether that is working as well as it can. At the end of the day, he's the only one that can answer that."
Murray surprisingly turned to former female world number one Mauresmo in a ground-breaking partnership after Ivan Lendl brought an end to their hugely successful association in March.
The two-time Grand Slam winner appeared to have turned a corner after the US Open when he won three tournaments in five weeks, saving a combined 10 match points in two finals against Tommy Robredo.
Murray was applauded for his fighting spirit, but Henman did not see the matches as a positive.
"I haven't seen them (Murray and Mauresmo) practise but, to me, I don't think he has been playing the right way," Henman said.
"He had those 'fantastic matches' against Robredo - and Robredo is someone who is absolutely maximising his potential and he's had a great career - but Andy's in a different class to him.
"Andy should be dominating him and beating him 6-3 6-3. Three hours and 20 minutes on an indoor court? Something's wrong."
Source: AFP
