Murray says 'weird' Lendl likes to smack his opponents with tennis ball during practice

London, Apr 15(ANI): Tennis ace Andy Murray has revealed coach Ivan Lendl indulges in some strange things during practice, and one of them is to try and intimidate his opponent by hitting them with tennis ball while practicing.

Murray, who began working with Lendl at the start of this year, admits that some of his coach's methods are a little weird.

"All he wants to do is hit people he's practicing with. He's been trying to get me to do it. He says: 'as soon as this guy comes to the net, just try to hit him'," The Daily Mirror quoted Murray, as saying.

"That's his sense of humour. If he gets hit with the ball his reaction is to laugh. That's what gets him going, I guess, weird things like that. If a ball pops up on top of the net, his style is just to absolutely nail them," he added.

"I'm sure you've seen the videos of him hitting (Vitas) Gerulaitis on the forehead in matches. That's what he loved doing. Almost every player I've spoken to has a story about him hitting them in practice. It's what he did," he said.

Murray has won one tournament, reached two finals and narrowly lost to world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open since appointing Lendl as his coach.

"I think just having him around is kind of a calming influence on me. When I look up to the box and see I him there I feel much calmer," Murray said. (ANI)