This content was published 7 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Parting company with a coach is never easy at the best of times but Andy Murray’s split from Amelie Mauresmo comes just a fortnight prior to the French Open and the busy grass season that follows.

But explaining the move upon his arrival in Rome, Murray believes it was in the interests of both parties to happen now. He will be coached in the interim by Jamie Delgado, stepping up from assistant coach, but made no secret of his desire to find a permanent replacement to Mauresmo.

However Murray conceded it may not be an easy task to find someone willing to spend most of their year on tour.

“It is difficult,” he said. “It isn’t easy to find someone to commit 35-40 weeks of the year – especially if you’re going for the ex-players who have spent 20 years of their life doing that.

“They just don’t want to do it all over again. I haven’t really thought too much about a new coach. But it’s something that I will speak to my team about over the next few weeks and try and find something that works. I want it to work long term, so I will take that into consideration, as well.

“The time Amelie and I spent together was positive. It’s just a shame I wasn’t able to win one of the major events, because that’s what both of us wanted. It took a lot of hard work to get back to a level where I’m competing with the best players again.”

Murray was runner-up in Madrid last week but has never made the final in Rome, although withdrew mid-competition in 2013 and 2015. But the second seed is confident of no repeat this year.

“I feel fine,” he said. “I feel better than I did at this stage last year. That’s for sure.”