Andy Murray spoke out in favour of female coaches following his win over Tomas Berdych in the semi-final of the US open yesterday.

The Scot is currently working with Amelie Mauresmo under whom he lost in the quarter finals of both Wimbledon and the US open last year, leading to negative coverage.

“A lot of people criticised me working with her,” said the former Wimbledon champion. “And I think so far this week we’ve showed that women can be very good coaches as well.”

Mauresmo, who took over from multiple Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl, would have been delighted to see Murray fight back to defeat Berdych. After losing the first set on a tie break, the Scot recovered to win the semi-final 6-7 (6), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.

Murray will now meet Novak Djokovic or Stan Wawrinka to seek his first Australian Open title, having improved under Mauresmo, a two-time Grand Slam winner and former number one.

The Scot also highlighted the improvement made by Madison Keys, who lost to Serena Williams yesterday, under former US star Lindsey Davenport.

“Madison Keys, who reached the semis here and had her best tournament, is also coached by a woman, Lindsay Davenport, and I see no reason why that can’t keep moving forward like that in the future,” Murray added.

“I’m very thankful for Amelie for doing it. It was, I would say, a brave choice from her to do it and hopefully I can repay her now in a few days.”