JUDY Murray might have jokingly compared his physique to that of Fred Flintstone when she was 'best man' at his wedding, but Louis Cayer has done more than most to make British tennis a less prehistoric place. After 12 years contributing to Canada's efforts as Davis Cup coach then captain, this affable Canadian has become a bedrock of the stuffy Lawn Tennis Association system, where seven years' service has seen him ascend to the post of "doubles leader" and head of high-performance coaching.
It was Judy Murray who first saw what Cayer had to offer. Impressed by a session he gave to Israeli doubles duo Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in Monte Carlo, she suggested the Canadian might be open to working with her son Jamie. Cayer, who had been living in England with his fiancee Stella Crownshaw for three years, agreed and before long, on the strength of Murray's recommendation, LTA chief executive Roger Draper was taking his services in-house.
While Cayer and Jamie briefly went their separate ways, his re-hiring as a full time coach some three years back sparked the recent renaissance in the elder Murray sibling's career. Part of Davis Cup detail ever since the days of John Lloyd, he has been captain Leon Smith's right hand man throughout the journey from the brink of Euro/Africa Zone III and will delight in this unlikely triumph as much as anyone if it arrives this weekend in Ghent.
"I know a lot of my Canadian friends are so jealous, seeing me now, part of a Davis Cup final," Cayer told Herald Sport. "When you work for a national federation the dream is always to win Davis Cup or Fed Cup. They send me e-mails saying 'can't believe you are experiencing that' but also wishing me all the best.
"It will be great if it happens," he added. "It will re-write history, 79 years of it, and that would be quite a fantastic achievement. I feel part of the team, because I have been there for so long - it isn't like I just dropped in. I have been part of the journey and am very close to the Murray family so it is nice to see them doing so well. I just hope there are no injuries and they can get the job done."
Cayer had a positive record with Canada - working with players such as Daniel Nestor and Sebastian Lareau - only to find that clay court ties in places like Argentina and Brazil were frequently too daunting a task to overcome. From the first moment he came into contact with Smith, he knew he was working with somebody special. Perhaps that is why he recommended him to the LTA hierarchy.
"I remember during my first year at the LTA they asked me to run a camp and I was on one court with Leon, and also on another court with some other coaches," recalls Cayer. "And I realised right away if I was asking something to get done on Leon's court they would all get it straightaway and get good at it, while on the other court it was not always as good as it was on his court. So right away I was scouting him for the LTA and recommending he should become Davis Cup captain. He didn't become Davis Cup captain because I said that to the LTA - don't get me wrong! - but he was already on the way where I could identify him as becoming a really top coach.
"I could appreciate right away that his leadership skills are just phenomenal for a young man," added Cayer, who also had a spell working with Colin Fleming. "It is always team first - he is not afraid to chose a player over another player because maybe a certain player won't like him. It is very important for a captain to be able to bring these skills into a tie."
While it always helps to have the No 2 singles player in the world, Cayer has also made the doubles one of Britain's strongest suits. He rehearses stats which say Britain have won the often pivotal rubber on the Saturday in nine of Smith's 11 ties, and that winning the doubles corresponds with winning the tie on 75% of all Davis Cup encounters. There are plenty of permutations out there before the personnel can be confirmed for this Saturday's doubles rubber but the presence of Dominic Inglot in the team means Andy Murray needn't play three matches in three days if he doesn't have to. Belgium have a similar dilemma, over whether to play David Goffin alongside Steve Darcis.
"We are lucky to have a player like Inglot around because Jamie and Inglot could win the doubles and Andy knows it," said Cayer. "It removes some pressure. If Andy plays doubles because we twist his arm, because otherwise we have no chance, then he would feel the burden of having to play the three matches. If he is in a position where he can choose to play, or ask to play, then he will play because he is such a great player. But no-one is putting a gun to his back and making sure he does. We think it will be Goffin and Darcis or maybe Bemelmans and Darcis but until we get there we just don't know."
Considering he was contemplating his future in the sport not so long ago, Jamie Murray's ascension to the seventh best doubles player in the world is quite a tale. A runner-up twice in Grand Slam finals with Peers, they could quite easily have ended up as the best doubles partnership on the planet had they made good on a promising position against the Bryan Brothers at the ATP World Tour Finals this week.
But the tennis world doesn't stop turning for long. The pair have already agreed, "mutually", to move on, a switch which will allow Jamie to play with world class doubles player Bruno Soares of Brazil. "It just shows you the potential of Jamie," said Cayer. "He and Peers finished fourth as a team in the world I think this year and he has the potential to be No 1 in the world. That would be quite exciting.
"I read once that there are even more splits in business partnerships than there are when it comes to divorces from marriages," he added. "So it is not surprising that after three years they are splitting. It is quite frequent on the tour and three years is a good turn. Maybe two or three years ago Soares would not have accepted to play with Jamie. Perhaps that relationship will help him win a slam next year but it is always difficult to predict."
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