Superstars: Lendl/Murray vs Hutchins/Fleming

 

Originally published on: 15/06/12 00:00

Ivan Lendl, Andy Murray’s coach, is determined not to let the busy summer schedule get in the way of a “Superstars”-style contest against the British doubles pair of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.
 
The idea was first hatched at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami in March, but has not taken place yet. Fleming and Hutchins have only just returned to the court after missing the clay-court season because of injury. “I think Ivan called us a couple of sicknotes,” Fleming said with a smile.
 
However, the plans have been revived at this week’s Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club. “Ivan talked to us about it yesterday,” Hutchins said. “It was actually going to be Andy and I playing singles, with Colin and Ivan playing singles as well. I think Andy would beat me, but Colin, who’s the better singles player out of us two, would beat Ivan. Then it would be the doubles, with Colin and I against Andy and Ivan. We wanted to do that on clay and on grass – and then have a golf competition to decide it.”
 
Hutchins recently had a hit with Lendl. “He plays very well,” Hutchins said. “He hits it great when he’s standing still.” Fleming chipped in: “Just got to get him moving.”
 
While Hutchins and Fleming conceded that Lendl would be the favourite to win the golf, they were more confident about the tennis. Hutchins said: “Ivan keeps saying: ‘Oh, I played Dani Vallverdu [a member of Murray’s coaching team] and I’ve beaten him the last two times.’ But then he failed to tell us he had lost something like 16 times before that.”

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