In her latest Sky Sports column, Laura Robson reacts to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic extending their coaching partnership, looks ahead to the ‘sunshine double’ of Indian Wells and the Miami Open, and gives an insight into a busy few weeks in her role as tournament director for the return of women’s tennis to Queen’s…

Andy Murray continuing with Novak Djokovic is really positive news. Andy has four young kids and probably doesn’t want to do all of these weeks on the road now that he’s just stopped playing, so I’m sure that after the Australian Open, it just took them a minute to figure out their schedules.

I think it was a case of picking and choosing which tournaments they partner up at, and it sounds like he’s going to be at Indian Wells and Miami coming up in March.

It should be really interesting to see how their partnership evolves, because it seemed like they were just getting to know each other and trust each other with the game plan and tactics. I think you need to build that communication with any coach that you start with, and it takes a bit of time, so the fact that they’ve given themselves another few months makes a lot of sense.

The ‘sunshine double’ of Indian Wells and Miami is very, very tough for any player to pull off, because it’s totally opposite conditions – even though it’s two hard-court tournaments. It’s a really long stint – both events are 12 days – and it’s just a massive change conditions-wise, to go from one to the other as Miami is so hot and humid, compared to being in the desert of Palm Springs.

Indian Wells, in particular, I always struggled at, because it’s much slower than you think. It doesn’t always favour the Brits, who in general, prefer slightly faster conditions and a pacier hard court that plays more lively, because you get a bit more out of your shots.

Katie Boulter is coming off a foot injury, so she’s hoping to be match fit again for it, while Emma Raducanu has been out in the Middle East trying to build on the form we saw from her in Australia. She is competing really well and making sure she’s trying to do the right things on the court.

I don’t think she’s in any rush, really, to employ someone new, just for the sake of it. It has to make sense for her and it has to be the right person. There’s not too many amazing coaches around who can travel full-time, so options are pretty limited. You wouldn’t want to go into a new partnership without 100 per cent confidence.

Another ATP final for Jack Draper, he had a few weeks of training back in London after the Australian Open to try and get back to one hundred per cent physically, and it shows with the form we’ve seen this week in Qatar. Some quality wins and a tough final against Rublev [losing 7-5 5-7 6-1} but a week he can be really chuffed with.

The young guns are firing!

I’ve also been very happy to see Joao Fonseca and Mirra Andreeva doing so well on tour recently. They were my two picks at the start of the year to have breakout seasons, so it’s going well for me so far – although we’re only in February.

Andreeva is still only 17, but I feel like we have known her for a long time already. We’re just waiting for that super special Grand Slam result from her, and it feels like this is the year for it. I think clay is an incredible surface for her, it allows her to show off her movement and what a great athlete she is. Let’s see what happens in Paris!

Fonseca, meanwhile, got everyone excited in Australia, because he plays such a big brand of tennis for an 18-year-old – his forehand is absolutely huge – and the shot-making is what gets people fired up. It was just an amazing week for him to get his first ATP title in Argentina this month, and hopefully he can build on that momentum going forward.

I first saw him play in person [when tournament director] at Nottingham last year. He ended up losing to Billy Harris in a match that started on grass and finished indoors… We ended up having to move them as it was the only second round that hadn’t finished yet due to horrific British weather. After what was a tough day for him he still came and said thank you to everyone that worked for the tournament.

He’s got a really good head on his shoulders, and you want to see someone like that do well. So since last summer, I’ve been a big fan, and have been hoping to see that breakthrough.

Taking over as Queen’s club women’s tournament director…

I’ve been busy recently with my new role as tournament director for the first women’s tournament back at Queen’s since 1973, which will be part of the lead up to Wimbledon this year. It’s hard to know what to expect. Obviously, I’ve got Nottingham to compare it to, but as a brand-new tournament, it just feels like there’s that much more work to be put in.

The men’s event has been running for so long, and we want to bring something individual to the women’s event, making sure that it’s got its own identity in some ways, its own personality and vibe. We’ve finalised a lot of things: the match schedule plan and a few player names were released this week, which had a super positive reaction.

We’ve got Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys, Daria Kasatkina, Boulter and Raducanu announced so far, with a few more to come in the pipeline. It’s exciting for the girls, who have seen the men’s event on TV or have heard about the history of the club and the tradition.

That makes my job very easy in a way. You don’t need to convince people much to come and play… and I think the entry list is really going to reflect that.

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