Andy Murray appoints Amelie Mauresmo as coach

British number one Andy Murray has appointed former women's world number one Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach.

Mauresmo, 34, is currently France's Fed Cup captain and will initially work with Murray for the grass court season.

Murray, 27, will start the defence of his Queen's Club title this week before defending his Wimbledon crown.

"I'm excited by the possibilities of the new partnership and Amelie is someone I have always looked up to and admired," the Scot said.

"She's faced adversity plenty of times in her career, but was an amazing player and won major titles, including Wimbledon.

"I have a very strong coaching team already in place, but I think Amelie brings with her experience and tactical expertise and will push us all to improve.

"Everyone I know talks very highly of Amelie, as a person and coach, and I'm convinced that her joining the team will help us push on - I want to win more Grand Slams.

"I've always had a strong female influence in my career. With my mum especially she listened extremely well and that's something I needed right now."

Mauresmo said that Murray had first contacted her "a few weeks ago" and it was "a bit of surprise".

The Frenchwoman added: "I guess it is a big story and a step forward [for female coaches] but that is not my big concern right now.

"I'm happy about the new challenge. I want to help Andy, it is the only thing I have in mind right now."

Mauresmo has committed to being Murray's coach for a "significant amount of weeks" although she later added: "We are going to do the grass court season and then we'll talk after that."

Murray has been without a coach since the departure of Ivan Lendl in March, with the pair having worked together for two years in which the Scot won Olympic gold, the 2012 US Open and last year's Wimbledon.

Mauresmo's appointment comes after the French Open in which she watched Murray's first-round win over Andrey Golubev.

Murray, who was coached by his mother Judy earlier in his career, went on to reach the semi-finals where his challenge was emphatically ended by Rafael Nadal.

Mauresmo is a former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion.

She coached Frenchman Michael Llodra during the 2010 grass court season, also having worked with Victoria Azarenka and coached Marion Bartoli to her Wimbledon victory last summer.

"I'm really excited to be able to work with Andy," added Mauresmo.

"He's an amazingly talented tennis player and I feel I have plenty to offer both him and the team around him."

In terms of male players working with female coaches, Russia's Andrei Chesnokov was coached by Tatiana Naumko in the 1990s and Tim Mayotte travelled with Billie Jean King in the 1980s.

Among current players, Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, the world number 49, is coached by his mother Klaudiya.

Jimmy Connors and Marat Safin were other leading names of the past to have worked with their mothers.