Competitive fires burn long after final set Still a competitor: Ivan Lendl is coach and mentor to Andy Murray. A couple of days before the tournament started, someone asked me what it was like in my first few practice sessions with Ivan, whether I was trying to impress him. On one of our first dates, before I took her to the cinema, I took her to Brighton Pier to play on the arcades. Kim quite fancied herself on the air hockey and she thought I would be the chivalrous gentleman and let her win a few points. I was very young at the time (it was eight years ago) and I'm not sure I remember this, but Kim does - and she says that I didn't let her win a single point. When all the news broke about Novak hiring Boris and Roger hiring Stefan, obviously I spoke to Ivan about it. It's pretty relevant to all of us: what are the coaches going to bring to someone's game? I think the rivalry with John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors... that still remains to this day. Pretty soon after that, me and the guys started asking Ivan about his old rivals. How do you get on with them? We spoke to him about matches he'd played with them. But I think Boris and Stefan were two of the ones who Ivan actually got on pretty well with. Obviously, Michael Chang threw in the underarm serve against him [at the French Open in 1989 in the fourth round] so I think that's one that kind of hurts him a little bit, but I think Chang is the nicest guy. I think that the rivalry with John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors - that was the sort of rivalry that got to Ivan. When Ivan and McEnroe met at the French Open, it was just amazing: they started straight away when they saw each other - they just started challenging each other. It was like, 'When are we going to play?' I was warming down on the bike at the time. McEnroe was also on a bike. Ivan was saying: 'What are you doing on the bike?' McEnroe says: 'Oh, I'm just doing this ...' And Ivan's like 'Well, I can do that. I think they chat and stuff, but I think they are both still very competitive. It was the same even with Pat Rafter after he played doubles here with Lleyton. After the match, Rafter did an interview and he was asked if anyone was giving him any stick for playing - and Ivan obviously had been. Just before I went on to play my match, I heard the two of them talking but I couldn't hear exactly what Ivan was saying to him. But they never stop winding each other up. The good thing is that the weather is going to change soon. On my day off on Friday, it was still really hot but then it is supposed to get a lot cooler. I needed to try to stay out of the heat because we have only one last day of the heat, so you need to use it as an advantage: that half of the field had to go through that day of really hot weather. On our side of the draw, we've had our two hot days, so it was their turn to deal with the last hot day.