Andy Murray wants coach to replace Ivan Lendl by French Open

Andy Murray will begin the search for a coach to replace Ivan Lendl on Wednesday and hopes to have someone in place by next month's French Open.

The Briton, whose partnership with Lendl ended last month, says he does not want to "rush [the process] and make a mistake".

Murray, 26, next plans to play at the Madrid Masters, which begins on 5 May.

"The plan is to think exactly what I need over the next week, two weeks," Murray told BBC Sport.

"There's a lot of factors you need to look at and I would hope I would have someone in place by the French Open, but I don't want to rush it.

"I don't want to get someone just because they've won a lot of tournaments or were great players."

Murray and Lendl enjoyed a hugely successful two-year period together in which the Scot won Olympic gold followed by the US Open and Wimbledon titles.

Since having back surgery last September, Murray has slipped to eighth in the world rankings, and he will need to perform well over the clay-court season if he is to get back near the top four - and the higher seeding that brings - by the time he defends his Wimbledon title in June.

"[A new coach] needs to be the right fit for you and they need to get on well with your team too, because otherwise it's very hard to make it work," said Murray, who was speaking at the launch of the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club, where his friend Ross Hutchins is the new tournament director.

"It's going to be an exciting few weeks because getting a new coach can make big differences, as you saw with Ivan.

"Since I've finished with Ivan, I've played a tournament in Miami and then went pretty much straight to Davis Cup, and I haven't really sat down and thought about what I think my future holds.

"So that's what I need to do over the next couple of weeks and then hopefully find the right person."

Murray was part of the Great Britain Davis Cup team that lost to Italy in the quarter-finals last weekend, and he admitted winning the tournament had always been an unlikely prospect.

It was the first time Britain had reached the last eight since 1986 and, had they beaten Italy, their semi-final opponents would have been a Swiss team led by Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.

"Tim [Henman] and Greg [Rusedski] were both in the top 10 at one time, I think, and they didn't manage to win a match in the World Group and they were a great doubles team as well," said Murray.

"That shows how difficult it is to win at that level, even when you have top singles players, so to expect to win the competition for us would have been unrealistic.

"But this last three, four years, has been an incredible run when you think where we started from."