It would be difficult for Murray to dominate the game: Lendl

 Ivan Lendl threw up his own Iron Curtain on Wednesday when reporters probed about the state of Andy Murray's mind and his game as Britain's newly minted Grand Slam champion switches his focus to the Australian Open.

"I never get into the details of his game with anyone because it not necessary for anyone other than Andy to know," the Czech-born Lendl said in familiar taciturn style.

The former world number one - now a US citizen — steered Murray to the US Open crown in September, ending Britain's wait for a men's Grand Slam singles champion which had stretched back to 1936.

Like Murray, Lendl lost the first four Grand Slam finals he contested but then went on to win eight, failing only at Wimbledon. Now Britain's barren spell is broken, many expect Murray to emulate his coach and win several more, but Lendl cautioned it would be far from easy.

"Well obviously that is the goal," he said when asked if Murray could win in Melbourne. "But tennis is very difficult at the moment with (Novak) Djokovic, (Roger) Federer, (Rafael) Nadal and Andy all very good at the moment so it is going to be difficult to succeed. "Yes he does have a chance but I can't make any predictions."

A question on whether Murray could now dominate the sport was rifled straight back like a Lendl service return of old. "I am not going to go there," he said. "The only way to answer that is to take one match at a time, one tournament at a time and see what happens."

Lendl said it was impossible to compare eras. "I think there are many eras in the game and there have been many good players at the same time," he said.