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QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

January 4, 2017

Andy Murray

Doha, Qatar

A. MURRAY/G. Melzer

7-6, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You didn't know much about him. What did you make of his game and how aggressive he was playing?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I thought he was excellent. I mean, he moved well. His intensity throughout the whole match was great. His level didn't drop at all and he was really aggressive.

As soon as you dropped the ball short or in the middle of the court he was going for it off both sides. He wasn't afraid to come forward either. He moved forward a lot. Maybe didn't volley as well as he would've liked, but he was very, very aggressive and moved well.

Yeah, he's very, very good.

Q. You were serving for the match at 5-4. He broke you back. You can sense some frustration creeping in at that point. What was going through your mind?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know really. Obviously, yeah, you're annoyed that you got broken. I had match points in the game before. Obviously you think a little bit about that, that maybe the match should be over that stage.

I broke straight back. I had Love-40 in that game. That was probably the most positive thing for me. Each time he came back at me I sort of stayed strong.

Tiebreak I was up 6-2. He played some great, great grated tennis to get back to 6-All. Steadied myself and played some good stuff to get the win, so that was most important thing.

Q. Did you sense or expect that players might have more incentive to beat you now that you've got world No. 1 beside your name?
ANDY MURRAY: I have no idea, to be honest. I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, maybe it's different for each player. I mean, I don't really see the big difference between playing me when I was ranked 2 or playing me when I'm ranked 1. It's the same thing.

Especially guys maybe ranked slightly lower don't have so much to lose, so you're used to guys maybe going bigger than they usually do or being a bit more aggressive or playing a slightly higher level.

You get used to that I think over the years if you've been in the top the game for a while. I don't really know if being 1 or 2 or 3 makes any difference there.

Q. Did anything about him remind you of Jurgen at all, or not so much?
ANDY MURRAY: They're pretty different. Apart from being lefties, they're pretty different players. Jurgen, you know, he plays with maybe a bit more variety. Like he uses his slice a little bit more and flattens the ball out a little bit more on his forehand and is probably more comfortable up at the net.

But Gerald plays with very high intensity and is always focusing on the next point. Yeah, although they're both lefties, they play quite a different game style, in my opinion.

I think Jurgen has probably played some of his better tennis on quicker courts. I think Gerald has played predominantly on clay and slower hard courts.

So they're quite different players. Obviously both very, very talented and really good players.

Q. He seemed to pull off some outrageous shots and then he would miss things like by a mile. Was it difficult to expect what was happening?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't think he missed shots by a mile at all tonight. He missed a few bad overheads that he didn't smash well. He was wearing glasses, so I don't know. Sometimes when guys wear them they will find it hard in the evening with the flood lights when it's dark.

I don't know if that's an issue for him. I really didn't feel like he missed any shots by -- especially on important moments -- by big margins. He was ripping the ball close to the line.

Yeah, I think he played an excellent, excellent match. I was really, really impressed.

Q. Ideally you would have liked to come through that quickly. What is the positive aspect of coming through a test like that early in the season?
ANDY MURRAY: It was a really good match. I was happy with how I handled it. It wasn't easy because I was having to do a lot of defending and I wasn't able to impose myself as I would've liked because he was taking huge cuts every time he had the opportunity.

But the positive was in the important moments I stayed strong. I served pretty good when I needed to. I moved really well tonight, which is huge part of my game. So to be moving like that this early in the season is really positive.

Yeah, hopefully as the next couple matches go on I'll be able to get myself up a little bit closer to the baseline and start dictating a bit more myself.

Q. Maybe today you don't know much about your opponent, but normally you are well-known as a player who uses data and analyzes your opponent. Could you talk a little bit about not only today's match, but in general could you talk about the importance of using data and to analyze your opponents?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think it can be very helpful. You just have to kind of know what it is that you're looking for. You can find a lot of stats, a lot of data over many tennis matches, but if you don't kind of know how to use it properly, then, you know, it can make things more confusing when you go out on the court.

I think it's important. Some players don't like it at all because they feel like overcomplicates things. I feel like certain things can help a little bit before you go out there.

But, yeah, really just depends how you use it and how your coaches use it. Obviously I don't have the time to be doing it myself. It's up to the coaches to kind of produce that stuff.

Yeah, mine I feel do a good job of that.

Q. The WTA, they actually have an app. I don't know if you've seen it. Obviously they have the on-court coaching. They can look at a tablet and see live stats. Can you imagine doing that on the men's tour? Not on-court coaching, but having access to live stats and looking at them in the middle of the match?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, there are certain stats that I get my team to look at during my matches, and a lot of it is done live as the match is happening. So I'm happy kind of with what I have just now.

Yeah, I haven't seen the WTA stats or the app. I don't know exactly how it works or how many of the coaches and the teams use it.

But, yeah, I think that's a positive thing in tennis. It's sort of something that's a bit underused in comparison to other sports. A lot of ex-players that are coaching now didn't have that when they were playing, so some of them maybe don't think it's that great or useful.

It can be.

Q. Do you think that being the best player in the world makes your opponent play differently, aggressively when they come to play you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I kind of answered that earlier. I don't know if there is any like huge difference between when you're playing someone ranked 2 in the world to someone ranked No. 1.

You know, a lot of people say being ranked 1 the opponents sometimes go on the court and maybe don't believe that they're going to win. Some people think that the players go out and they're more aggressive and take more chances and have nothing to lose, so it makes it more difficult.

I go out with a game plan, and there are certain things I expect of myself when I'm out there. I take each match as it comes. It's always a challenge when you're playing guys you haven't played before because you don't know their game, patterns of play, so it's difficult to read.

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