‘Djokovic was always trying to get me to eat vegan…I don’t want air sandwiches and chickpeas for every meal’ Andy Murray jokes after the split

Novak Djokovic due to play Cameron Norrie at Geneva Open semifinals after beating Matteo Arnaldi, is warming up for the French Open – albeit without a full time high profile coach. Andy Murray after announcing he was moving on frim the Djoker coaching job, announced his investment plans and plunge into business and athlete consultancy.

But the partnership yielded some funny moments beyond Murray telling UbiTennis,”It’s been a great ride. We both decided it was time to part ways.” His humorous take involved something the Scotsman joked he had to endure.

Talking about what he would not miss after five months as Djokovic coach, Sir Andy said, “One thing I won’t miss is the food. He was always trying to get me to eat vegan. Man, I don’t want air sandwiches and chickpeas for every meal.”

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The three time Grand Slam champion who used to dig his three boxes of spicy tuna, avocado, mayo sushi post matches, didn’t exactly warm up to the Serb’s servings.

But ‘air sandwiches’ was a clear giveaway for Murray stepping into the business career. In biz lingo, ‘air sandwich’ means, “a situation where there’s a clear beginning and end to a strategy or explanation, but the connecting middle ground is missing. It’s a strategy with a defined vision and action, but lacks the key decisions and details to bridge the gap between them, essentially leaving a void in the middle” according to AI. Murray who has a varied investment portfolio, runs a luxury property at Dunblane and is soon to don the suits, was clearly thinking of the next step in his life, when joking about Djokovic.

Air sandwich is not actually a sandwich.

Djokovic, who has had a torrid year, not really getting the wins during the Murray partnership, is still searching for his first clay-court win of the season after consecutive early losses in Monte-Carlo and Madrid. Geneva will be Nole’s final tournament before traveling to Paris for Roland Garros.

The BBC quoted Djokovic on the Murray association as saying, “We felt like we couldn’t get more out of that partnership on the court, and that’s all there is to it. My respect towards Andy remains the same, even more actually, I got to know him as a person. I think he has a brilliant tennis IQ, he has a very rare mind of a champion that obviously has achieved what he has achieved, and he sees the game incredibly well.”

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At Geneva, the Serb was joined by Dusan Vemic, who was previously part of his team, and assistant coach and analyst Boris Bosnjakovic. “At the moment, I’m not in need of a coach,” Djokovic said.

“I don’t need to rush in any context. I feel comfortable with the people around me.

In the next few tournaments, we’ll see what happens.”

Djokovic reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in his first tournament working with Britain’s former world number one Murray, before he was forced to retire through injury. His 2025 season was blighted by losing his first match in four of his past five tournaments and being beaten in the Miami Open final by Czech 19-year-old Jakub Mensik.

The French isn’t quite his most prolific venue as among his 24 major titles – which leaves him tied with Margaret Court for the all-time record – the French Open is his least successful, with three triumphs.

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“It’s a different chapter of my life that I’m trying to navigate myself through,” Djokovic was quoted as saying by BBC.

“I’m not particularly used to having this kind of circumstances where I would lose a consecutive match, tournaments, first rounds and so forth. I don’t think it ever happened for me in the last 20 years. But I knew that eventually that moment will come.

“I’m trying to do well, I’m trying to win more trophies, I’m trying to build my form for Roland Garros, and perform at the desired, necessary level in order to go far in the tournament and challenge the best players in the world. So yes, the motivation is still there,” he said.

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