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MUTUA MADRID OPEN


May 5, 2016


Andy Murray


Madrid, Spain

A. MURRAY/G. Simon

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations. That was an early start for you. Did you feel it took you a little bit of time to get going?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was not so much the early start. Just very different conditions to last few days. It was quite cool and a little bit breezy and the conditions were a little bit heavier. In the beginning both of us made a lot of mistakes in the net. Last couple of days the ball has been a lot livelier. Took both of us a bit of time to adjust to that.

After the first six or seven games really started to hit the ball well. I served well throughout the match. It was a good performance. Yeah, took a bit of time to get used to the conditions.

Q. You say the conditions were a bit different today. Generally here do you feel the conditions favor you a bit more on a clay court with the altitude because it plays a bit faster?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it does. I mean, the court is obviously -- it's not so much the speed of the court. It's just the ball flies through the air a bit quicker because of the altitude. Serving is a little bit easier. Get more free points on your serve which obviously helps anyone with a big first serve.

Also helps a bit on the second serve too. Not as easy to return.

Yeah, until last year I hadn't actually played that well here. Hadn't had great results at this event. Just depends a little bit on the day and who you're playing against. You play against some of the bigger servers, it's tough as well.

Q. Are you satisfied with your performance today and surprised how fast it was?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I mean, normally against Gilles it's always a complicated match because of the way he plays. He always makes it very difficult. There are a lot of long rallies.

Because of the conditions, because it was a bit faster, I was able to get a lot more free points on my serve. I don't think he had any break points in the match, so that helped. I served very well.

Yeah, it was a good performance. I played smart tennis. That was the difference.

Q. Are you pleased with how you're playing your way into these tournaments and improving with every match similar to what you did in Monte-Carlo?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think so. You know, I mean, I spoke about it in Monte-Carlo, that obviously you want to come into tournaments playing as best you can. Sometimes you don't. Monte-Carlo was coming in after a few tough weeks and confidence was a bit low. Then managed to work my way into the tournament here.

Just different conditions against a tough opponent in the first round who played very well. If you manage to get through those tricky matches you get another opportunity every day and every round to improve and learn from the mistakes that you made in the first or the second round.

Hopefully continue to improve as the week goes on. Yeah, I've won some tough ones which I had been losing. You know, Miami in Indian Wells I lost some close ones at the beginning of the tournament that maybe I should have won. Managed to turn that around, which is good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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