Lendl and Murray out to spoil Djokovic´s Golden Slam plans

Ivan Lendl hopes he and Andy Murray can scupper Novak Djokovic’s hopes of achieving the so-called Golden Slam in 2016.

World number one Djokovic defeated Murray in the final of the French Open this month to complete a career Grand Slam and become just the third man in history to hold all four majors simultaneously.

The Serbian will be targeting further success at Wimbledon, the Olympic Games in Rio and at the US Open in 2016 in order to be the first men’s player to achieve a Golden Slam.

However, Lendl, who has returned as Murray’s coach for a second spell, hopes they can throw a spanner in the works.

“In tennis there is the career Grand Slam, there is four in a row, there is the calendar year Grand Slam and the Golden Slam. He [Djokovic] has a chance to do that this year,” said Lendl.

“Obviously Andy and I would like to ruin those plans if we can. But, if you go back in history, in [19]38, when Don Budge won, and Rod Laver won in ’62 and ’69, those were calendar year grand slams. But I don’t believe there was another time when someone held all four [simultaneously].

“So, if you start looking at it that way, it’s phenomenal. You can make the argument that in ’38 and ’62 all the pros didn’t play. But ’69 was incredible and that’s what puts Rod in the conversation of greatest of all time with Roger [Federer].

“We will never settle that argument, but it’s a fun one to have anyway – and Novak is holding all four.

“It’s something that hasn’t been done for a long time, almost 50 years, hasn’t been done by anyone else other than two men – so you have to respect that.”