Coach change part of Murray`s bid to reach the top

London: Andy Murray`s burning desire to become the game`s top player and to win his first grand slam singles title prompted him to sack his coach Miles Maclagan, the British world number four said Wednesday.

Murray, who is competing in this week`s LA Open, felt he and Maclagan had drifted apart in the way they viewed his development and that it was imperative for him to be comfortable with his coaching structure. "It was obviously a hard decision and one that wasn`t the nicest thing to have to take," Murray, 23, said on a conference call a day after parting company with Maclagan. "But it wasn`t that tough to make up my mind because we were quite far apart in what we thought. It wasn`t necessarily something that Miles wasn`t bringing (as a coach)." Murray added that he, Maclagan and his part-time adviser, former Spanish professional Alex Corretja, had met in Miami earlier this month to discuss the best way forward. "Between the three of us, there were different ways of seeing things, what I felt was beneficial to me and what Miles and Alex felt was beneficial to me," he said. "I need to be comfortable in the setup that I have ... have a hundred percent confidence that everyone that`s working with me believes it`s the right thing to do." Australian Darren Cahill is widely believed to be Maclagan`s likely successor but Murray has said he will review the situation only after the Aug. 30-Sept. 12 US Open. Meanwhile his quest to become the game`s best player continues. Becoming Better "I want to become better, try and get to number one in the world, try and win grand slams," the British number one said. "I don`t think I need to make huge changes in my game. I just need to become a better player all around.” "I`ve had good results against (Roger) Federer. I`ve beaten (Rafa) Nadal a couple of times in slams. I`ve been to the latter stages of quite a few slams." Murray, who has previously been coached by Briton Mark Petchey and American Brad Gilbert, has yet to win a grand slam title despite several close calls in recent years. In the 2008 US Open final he was taken apart by Federer and he fell to the Swiss maestro again in this year`s Australian Open title match. Earlier this month, Murray was beaten 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 by Spanish world number one Nadal in the last four at Wimbledon. "It`s easy to start over-thinking things and over-analysing things," said Murray, who reached a career-high second in the rankings in August last year. "I don`t think there`s a problem with my game.” "I just need to get better, and that`s something that maybe hasn`t happened the last four or five months. Hopefully by getting a new coach and a new coaching team in place, that will help me do that, and hopefully achieve my goals." Although yet to win an ATP title this year, Murray was in high spirits for his first tournament back since Wimbledon. "Now I feel good again," said the Scot, the top seed this week who will face American qualifier Tim Smyczek in the second round on Thursday. "I feel confident after the way Wimbledon went. I kind of saw what the problems were, what I needed to do to get back to playing top-three, top-four tennis again. I addressed it." Bureau Report