In its courting of anything that moves in tennis, IMG has tried time and time again to lure Andy Murray away from his various management companies. Now that it has lost its superstar player, Roger Federer, the chances are that it will intensify its efforts.
The biggest shock to reverberate through Roland Garros yesterday concerned the departure of Federer and Tony Godsick, his long-time manager, from the company founded by the late Mark McCormack that has prided itself on being the biggest and the best, but has fingers in so many pies in tennis that it is hard to determine who represents who and what.
Murray has been represented by Octagon, acegroup and is now with XIX Entertainment, an arm of CAA Sports, while those who walk around this sport with the smartest briefcases and shiniest shoes have tried and failed to persuade the family that he would be better off in IMG’s clutches. IMG is confident it would have tied him to bigger and better deals than anyone has yet managed for the world No 4.
Be that as it may, losing Federer will be seen as a massive blow to the credibility of IMG, the company that has a long-time relationship with the All England Club, sells the Wimbledon television rights and which, in its latest venture, will produce Live@Wimbledon, the championships’ expanded live radio and video broadcast service that starts this year. Wimbledon emphasised that IMG was awarded this contract after a “competitive and transparent tender process”.
With Rafael Nadal a client through his friendship with Carlos Costa, a Spanish former professional who is his manager, and knowing that Novak Djokovic is contracted to CAA, it is likely that IMG will make further discreet overtures to Murray, as they have before.
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One of its tennis managers said to The Times this week: “We cannot believe he will go through his playing career without wanting to work with us once.”
Federer was circumspect about the break-up of his relationship with IMG last night, as he prepared for a fourth-round meeting at the French Open with David Goffin, a lucky loser from Belgium who played in the Davis Cup tie against Britain in Glasgow in April. “We’ll see what happens from here in the next weeks, months and years, but right now it is confidential and I am very relaxed about it, which is the most important thing,” Federer said.
Murray had other things than contracts and deals on his mind last night, although he must have been settled by a decent practice, exchanging shots and light-hearted banter with Ivan Lendl, his coach whose backhand is often as sharp now as it was when he was winning this championship almost 30 years ago. Murray did not look like a man in too much pain from the back spasms that left him almost motionless on court during his second-round win over Jarkko Nieminen, the Finn, on Thursday.
Did he feel as if he had dodged a bullet against Nieminen? “If something like that happens, if you’ve been in big losing positions and then suddenly you come back and win, you can start to relax into the tournament a little bit,” he said. “In my case, if I feel great on Saturday and my body’s OK, then I’ll be more relaxed than if my first match had been a bit smoother.”
Today, Murray meets Santiago Giraldo, the world No 50 who is great friends with Dani Vallverdu, the Scot’s hitting partner. “I am from Colombia and he is from Venezuela so we are close,” Giraldo said. “Against Murray I will try to be focused on myself. I can’t be focused on him because that would not be good for me. I did not play well against him in Barcelona recently but I feel better on these courts.”
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So, too, does Goffin, the elfin-faced right hander who lost in the final round of qualifying to João Sousa, of Portgual, but sneaked in through the back door when Gaël Monfils, the Frenchman, withdrew before a ball was struck. Even in his illustrious career, Federer has not played a lucky loser in the last 16 of a grand-slam event. Told he was Goffin’s idol, Federer said: “That is the not the first time that has happened.”