Matosevic still cold on female coach

He’s on record again: Marinko Matosevic will never, ever have a female coach.

Not even a straight-sets whipping from Andy Murray at the Australian Open on Wednesday could sway him.

“My opinion still hasn’t changed on that and it won’t be changing,” Matosevic said after his 6-1 6-3 6-2 hammering at the hands of Murray at Melbourne Park.

And Matosevic’s opinion is a strong one.

The Australian landed squarely in the firing line last year when he first voiced it after Murray hired former women’s world No.1 Amelie Mauresmo.

“For me, I couldn’t do it since I don’t think that highly of the women’s game,” Matosevic said after a first-round win at Queen’s last June.

“But, you know, his mum coached him and she did a great job with him so we’ll see what happens.

“It’s all equal rights these days. Got to be politically correct.

“So, yeah, someone’s got to give it a go. It won’t be me.”

Seven months on and Matosevic still hasn’t changed his tune and was happy to explain why after winning just six games against Murray.

“It’s a different sport. I feel like women’s tennis is a different sport to men’s tennis,” said the world No.81.

Matosevic’s remarks are sure to once again cause a stir.

But they don’t bother Murray, with the Scot insisting he was good friends with Matosevic and certainly wasn’t trying to prove a point by unceremoniously dumping the Victorian from the Open.

“I was trying to win the match,” Murray said.

“If he wants to get coached by a man, that’s absolutely fine. I have absolutely no issue with it at all.

“I still think he’s a good guy. I get on well with him.”

Matosevic maintained his comments last year were blown out of proportion.

“If you go back and read back to that thing, there was not one bad comment towards Amelie or Andy or anything,” he said.

“The British tabloids just ran away with it.”

Matosevic has often been at odds with Pat Rafter and he also again challenged the Australian Davis Cup captain on Wednesday, disagreeing with the skipper’s advice to Nick Kyrgios to tone down his on-court antics.

“Not at all,” Matosevic said.

“Nick’s an entertainer. He’s a showman. When he’s playing, he doesn’t want to just win. He wants to entertain the masses.

“He seems to play his best that way. The tweener (shot between his legs) against (Rafael) Nadal (at Wimbledon), who would try that?

“Stuff like that; the big second serve, the big game. I love his on-court behaviour.

“He’s kind of similar to me. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. I’ve got big raps on Nick.”

Fellow Australian James Duckworth joined Matosevic in bowing out of the Open on Wednesday, the wildcard losing his second-round match 6-2 6-3 7-5 to French 24th seed Richard Gasquet.

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