Andy Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan is plotting his downfall in the Wimbledon third round on Saturday.
Coach admits his new charge has a 'slim chance' against No.4 seed
Andy Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan is plotting his downfall in the Wimbledon third round on Saturday.
Maclagan, who worked with Murray between 2007 and 2010, will be more than just an interested spectator when the Scot faces his new charge Marcos Baghdatis.
Speaking about the Cypriot's hopes against Murray, former Great Britain Davis Cup player Maclagan said: "He has a chance, it's definitely slim.
"Andy's a heavy favourite. But what happened last night (Rafa Nadal's shock defeat) has probably made a lot of guys in the locker room sit up.
"The top guys will be thinking, 'Wow, we can be beaten', and the players think, 'We can beat the top guys'. You claw every bit of hope you can. Even a match that's not that even, the percentages are still quite small often."
Although Murray will not want to start looking too far ahead, Maclagan thinks Nadal's exit will have made a big impression on the fourth seed.
"It affects Andy a lot," Maclagan, 37, said. "His job will be to stay thinking about the next match. The pressure increases for him because everyone's looking to see if he's going to play (Roger) Federer or (Novak) Djokovic in the final now.
"People who aren't so into tennis forget there are other good players out there. But I'm sure he's paid a fair bit of attention to that result."
Discussing the situation of Baghdatis having Maclagan on his side, Murray said: "When I played him last year in Tokyo it was a little bit weird having Miles there.
"But I played him again in Brisbane and felt much more comfortable. Now I wouldn't have thought it would have any bearing on the match really."
Maclagan agreed with his former charge, saying: "It's past the awkward stage. It's been two years now, it's a long time. Marcos has played him twice, and metaphorically and literally we're in different boxes now."
Maclagan shared some friendly banter with Murray's team as they finished their respective practice sessions, with the Scot again hitting with British teenager Oli Golding.
Respectful
The relationship is respectful rather than particularly close, with Maclagan saying: "The tour's a small place so we see each other all the time. I still get on well with the guys.
"We never really had that relationship where we would talk on the phone all the time. We got on well but unfortunately for me there was a big age gap so we weren't round each other's house playing Playstation.
"I spent two and a half years with him so I have a huge amount of respect for the work that he does. I think it's very unappreciated."
After parting ways with Maclagan, Murray worked with a number of coaches on an ad-hoc basis before hiring Ivan Lendl at the end of last year to form one of the game's most high-profile partnerships.
Their association began well when Murray produced one of his best grand slam performances to fall just short of beating Djokovic at the Australian Open, but since then the gap to the top three appears to have widened.
Maclagan added: "I think in tennis in general it's not always about the specific knowledge, it's about the weight that comes with it. I hope, having been in his corner, that what I know about Andy carries that extra edge.
"The same as what Ivan Lendl has to say might be the same things I was telling him but it carries a lot of weight because he's got eight grand slams in his trophy cabinet."
