The BBC is reporting that Andy Murray has split with coach Miles Maclagan.

—Ed McGrogan

LONDON (AP)—Fourth-ranked Andy Murray is splitting with coach Miles Maclagan after less than three years.

A statement on the British player’s website on Tuesday said that “following a review of his coaching needs, Andy has parted company” with Maclagan.

The statement says “the situation” will be reviewed after the U.S. Open from Aug. 30-Sept. 12.

Still searching for his first Grand Slam title, the 23-year-old Murray has been coached by Maclagan since he replaced Brad Gilbert in 2007.

Murray thanked Maclagan for “his positive contribution to my career. We have had a lot of success and fun working together.”

Murray is in Los Angeles competing in the Farmers Classic—his first tournament since losing in the semifinals at Wimbledon.

UMAG, Croatia (AP)—Olivier Rochus has upset fifth-seeded Philipp Petzschner 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of Croatia Open on Tuesday.

Rochus didn’t face a single break point. He will now face Andreas Seppi, who defeated Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Seppi now has a 7-2 record since early July, reaching the semifinals in Hamburg and the quarterfinals in Bastad, Sweden.

Potito Starace beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0, and Jan Hajek beat Gerald Melzer 6-4, 6-3. He will meet Melzer’s brother, Jurgen, in the next round.

Stephane Robert beating Olivier Patience 6-3, 6-2. Robert will next meet top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who had a bye in the first round.

Also advancing to the second round were Pablo Cuevas, Simone Bolelli and Ivan Dodig.

ISTANBUL (AP)—Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia has defeated second-seeded Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Istanbul Cup.

Third-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia easily advanced to the second round Tuesday by beating Poland’s Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-0, while No. 5 Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria defeated Tatjana Malek of Germany 7-6 (4), 6-2.

STANFORD, California (AP)—Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic beat Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-2 Monday in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic, ending a two-match losing streak to the 26th-ranked Russian.

Former top-ranked Dinara Safina of Russia, plagued by a lower back injury much of the year, lost to Japan’s Kimiko Date Krumm, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, in a match that lasted two hours, 22 minutes.

Ivanovic, another former No. 1 player currently ranked No. 63, her lowest in five years, was awarded a wildcard into the event.

“The main difference is fitness,” Ivanovic said. “I’m able to maintain rallies and it has put me at ease. I always felt like I was pulling the trigger early and going for my shot without much confidence.”

After an early exit from Wimbledon, and losing five of her previous seven matches, Ivanovic returned to training with gusto.

“I’ve been working pretty much every day since then,” she said. “It feels good and gives me confidence. It’s been tough because I began to doubt and question many things. It’s a process and I’m trying to be in the moment and not get too far ahead of myself. I felt like I’ve got the joy back, like when I was 16 and 17 and first coming to the tour.”

Safina extended her losing streak to six matches after dropping out of the top 20 for the first time in four years.

“One day you’re playing for a championship and the next day you’re playing in the first round,” Ivanovic said. “I hope she can get things straightened out.”

Date Krumm also beat Safina in three sets in their only other meeting—a 2:34 marathon in the first round of this year’s French Open.

Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska needed three sets to beat South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers, 7-4, 4-6, 6-3 in her first-round match.

“It was hard for me out there; this was my first match in four weeks, and I was playing on a hard court,” Radwanska said. “The first match is always the tough one and it doesn’t matter who is standing on the other side. You have to fight with yourself and try to stay in the match. This was a good test for me and I’m very happy to have won the match.”

The 11th-ranked Polish star recorded both of her aces in the third set and won both of her break points. Radwanska, who reached the semifinals at Dubai and Indian Wells, and the fourth round at Wimbledon, has won four of her last five matches after winning four of her previous 10.

Scheepers, ranked 91st, had a strong run at the French Open earlier this year, reaching the fourth round as a qualifier and making her debut in the top 100 on June 7.

In other first round matches, Olga Govortsova of Belarus defeated Russia’s Alla Kudryavtsena, 6-1, 6-1 and Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova downed American Hilary Barte, 6-2, 6-2.

by Pete Bodo

The pool of specialists at the apex of any field is relatively small, so it’s hardly surprising that Roger Federer has made an aggressive move to address his declining fortunes by hiring Paul Annacone, the coach best known for shepherding Pete Sampras through his glory years. I felt this was a good fit two years ago (feel free to check out my original post on the subject, based partly on an extensive conversation with Annacone), and I still believe that if there’s a right guy for Federer, it’s Annacone.

A lot can change in tennis in a few years. Annacone finished with Sampras not long after Pete played—and won—his last major in 2002. Annacone went on to coach Tim Henman and work in the developmental trenches for both the USTA and British Lawn Tennis Association. But developing youngsters and dealing with bureaucrats never seemed to be the best use of Annacone’s talents, among which the most valuable one might be his grasp of a thoroughbred tennis champion’s way of thinking. As he told me two years ago:

“I honestly felt Pete was the best player I ever saw. I felt like the biggest thing I could do was figure out what I wanted to say, and find the way he needed to hear it. Because the great ones are tricky that way. They need the support and reassurance, because they live with a tremendous amount of self-inflicted pressure. But they also like to have that pressure alleviated, without feeling that someone else is doing that for them.”

The aspects of Annacone’s personality and methodology that ought to make this a good fit aren’t based on evolving theories of tennis technique or strategy. Federer is a fully formed player and a consummate professional, closer to the end of his career than the beginning. He’s done the heavy lifting of career already (16 Grand Slam singles titles). Clearly, he wants to squeeze the last drops of juice out of the orange, a task that ought to be a relatively easy undertaking. But it’s never that simple for the Federers and Samprases of the world, because of the pressure they feel—can’t help but feel—as the chorus of critics grows more and more voluble. And as the currents of age erode the bedrock of their talents.

It drove Sampras nuts, near the end of his career, when all anyone wanted to know was, “When are you going to retire?” Sampras was convinced that his well of greatness had not run dry, but he grew quietly desperate. He couldn’t banish the voices of those critics and pundits from his head. He ended up firing Annacone and thrashing around with a few other coaches (ironically, Jose Higueras, a former part-time coach of Federer’s, was one of them) before he swallowed his pride and re-hired Annacone to make a final, successful push.

Federer isn’t in such desperate, late-career straits. But we can assume from his decision to revisit (for what, the third, fifth, ninth time?) the issue of whether or not he needs a coach that his recent inconsistency and failure at the last two Grand Slam tournaments has cut deeper than he originally let on.

So, does Federer need a coach? Absolutely not.

Will Federer’s life be easier and the frustrations and obstacles be made more navigable if he has a coach?  Absolutely.

Annacone was not a coach cum travel agent cum bag carrier cum pizza runner. Pete Sampras was not a player who needed or wanted a valet masquerading as a coach. Theirs was a relationship of mature men, committed to a common purpose—Sampras’s pursuit of greater glory (I’m confident saying that, having been Sampras’s co-author on his autobiography, A Champion’s Mind). Annacone’s job could just as appropriately be termed “wingman.” It’s valuable to feel like you’ve got someone watching your back when untold legions are trying to stick a knife in it.

The independent-minded, self-starting, semi-control freak Federer never really needed a wingman when the times were good. Oh, he had plenty of help along the way early in his career, starting with the late Peter Carter, who coached Federer through his formative teenage years (Carter was killed in an automobile accident at age 37 in August of 2002). But Federer achieved greatness and fulfilled his potential as something of a savant and loner. And once the times became good for Federer, they stayed good. That helps explain why none of his coaching relationships after Carter’s death really seemed dynamic, or especially productive. Now, his smooth road has become bumpy.

Great players often have to re-invent themselves, in their own minds if not in a way that’s conspicuous to most fans. Federer’s new identity is likely to have a slightly harder edge; he won’t be seen as floating above it all, but as a veteran grappling with the assorted frustrations, challenges and setbacks that accompany the aging of a player. Annacone will certainly help him understand and deal with those; he’ll prop him up in those moments when Federer will be tempted to feel bitter, or self-doubting. What Federer is really saying, with this hire, is that he’s in it for the long haul. We should all be glad for that, because he could just as easily have decided to play out the string quietly, thinking, Who needs this? Who needs to keep hearing, Federer is finished, or, What’s wrong with Federer?

It’s somewhat eerie that Annacone himself was hired after Sampras lost Tim Gullikson, who, like Carter, died an tragic and untimely death (Gullickson, who brought Sampras to the threshold of greatness, died of brain cancer in 1996). It’s one of those things that will bond coach and player together, even if it’s discussed rarely, in a quiet moment over a room service dinner for two.

Which brings up another, slightly mundane aspect of Federer’s decision: His children will be toddlers soon, and I doubt that Federer’s wife, Mirka, will want to be dragging them around the globe, dropping them off at the tournament day care center while she sits in the player guest box, playing with her Blackberry. Federer seems dedicated to spending a fair amount more time on airplanes, and in hotel and locker rooms. He’s likely to become a dad who goes to work every day and travels a fair amount, while his wife and children build a home life. It will be good for him to have a companion on the road.

It used to drive Annacone slightly batty when Sampras would choose to play on an opponent’s terms, rather than his own, just to show that he could do it and still win. Before Pete played a guy like that, Paul would gently remind him, “Just go out and show him you’re Pete Sampras, and he’s not. Shut him down.”

In the coming months and years, Federer will likely need to be reminded from time to time that he’s Roger Federer and the other guy is not. Annacone is the right man to do that reminding, for he knows what words to use, and what those words suggest Federer do when it comes to the X’s and Os of the game. About which Annacone also knows a great deal. 

Check in tomorrow for more on this development by TW contributor—and Federer expert—Andrew Burton.