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Mumbai: Among all the enterprising and left-field faces to have sat in the coaching box of Novak Djokovic - and it's a rich spread - Andy Murray's stint was the shortest.

Yet not quite the sweetest.

The Serb, through his career of going from a temperamental young talent to a certified great stamped by 24 Grand Slams, has made some surprising choice of coaches. Right from Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic and Radek Stepanek to, more unofficially, Andre Agassi. Even by those standards, Murray was a shock.

It ignited a spark in Djokovic at this Australian Open where he reached the semi-finals, before fizzling out to a split days before the French Open. Djokovic said he "couldn't get more" out of the partnership that only lasted six months, and that for the moment, he did not need a coach.

"I'm not in a hurry to choose," Djokovic said in Geneva where he is playing ahead of the French Open desperate for form, "or to know if I'll have someone else by my side or not. I don't know."

And that, as the man who turned 38 on Thursday tries to navigate through a "different chapter of my life", is what appears different this time to the past coaching shake-ups by Djokovic. He seems a bit unsure, still searching for answers from a coaching lens at this stage of his career that, evidently, he couldn't get out of Murray.

In almost each of the Serb's previous coaching moves, he was clear about what he sought.

Djokovic's game and early pro steps were shaped by Marian Vajda, his long-time coach who was with him for 15 years across two stints from 2006 to 2022. In late 2013, after losing four out of six Slam finals, the then six-time Slam winner roped in Becker. The German legend was known for his fighting grit in big matches, and Djokovic, by then technically ripe, needed that mental push to get over the line with Slams at stake. From 2014 to 2016 when the partnership ended, Djokovic won six out of nine Slam finals.

After experimenting briefly with Stepanek and Agassi and a Slam-less 2017 season, Djokovic hit another reset, knowing well the buttons he needed to press. Vajda was brought back for some familiarity and stability, and Ivanisevic to strengthen one of his rare weaker weapons. Not only did the Djokovic serve elevate, but his Slam count also touched record-breaking highs through the six-year partnership.

Djokovic brought in Ivanisevic to add extra fuel to an already well-oiled machine, much like Rafael Nadal roped in Carlos Moya deep into his career to add dimensions to his game that aided his ageing body.

Djokovic turning to Murray had a lot to do with the Brit being his contemporary who had, as Djokovic explained, "been through the experiences that I'm going through". Murray was also more in-tune with his younger rivals in Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

It had shades of Roger Federer replacing Stefan Edberg, an icon who added more attacking flair to his game, with Ivan Ljubicic in the final chapters of his career. Ljubicic was just three years older than Federer, and knew too well the game of Federer's biggest rival then - Djokovic.

That Federer- Ljubicic association fetched the Swiss three more Slams in his late thirties. This Djokovic-Murray association settled for a premature end after a promising take-off.

What the 38-year-old 24-time Slam champion truly wants from his next coaching flight, should he wish to get on board, could be another complex question staring at him as he searches for answers of form, confidence and road ahead.

"The challenge is for Novak to find someone that he has respect (for), who he can learn something from," Becker told The Independent. "That's very difficult because he's so good and knowledgeable. He's done everything there is to do in tennis and that's the difficulty he has."

For now, the Serb will have two low-profile but familiar faces in his box in Paris (Serbia's BJK Cup captain Dusan Vemic and assistant coach Boris Bosnjakovic). Who next, if at all any, is anybody's guess. Including, it appears, Djokovic's.