THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 4, 2023

Andy Murray

Press Conference

A. MURRAY/R. Peniston

6-3, 6-0, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the press conference for Andy Murray.

We'll go straight into questions.

Q. Is it nice to finish a match before 6:00? Normally you're playing quite late.

ANDY MURRAY: It's still quite late by the time you get done with all your stuff. The matches are also pretty quick, fast matches today, which is good.

Yeah, I was literally just out there. It's already 7:30. By the time I get home it will be 8:30, 9:00. That's even with the matches finishing quick.

Yeah, this has been one of the earlier finishes over the last few years.

Q. How was it having Roger Federer watching your match? Did you get to speak to him afterwards?

ANDY MURRAY: I saw him briefly when I came off the court. Yeah, I mean, obviously like during the Laver Cup last year, he was obviously sitting on the side watching the match there. I only remember one other time having him there, like I said, on the court when I played Stan Wawrinka in the Olympics.

Yeah, obviously brilliant to have him around the event. I'm pretty sure he will be around the sport a lot. I know he loves tennis. And, yeah, great to have him back here.

Q. I wonder how happy you were with your tennis today, your level? How much more you'll need for round two, whether it's Thiem or Tsitsipas?

ANDY MURRAY: I didn't start the match how I would have liked. It's always different conditions playing under the roof. Especially when you consider last few days have been quite cool, pretty breezy outdoors, then playing in those conditions is a bit different.

But yeah, as the match went on, unforced errors, I cut them out. I was pretty ruthless at the beginning of the second and third sets. There was no sort of dip in intensity or anything. I got ahead early in those sets, did well.

So, yeah, I was pleased with everything, apart from the beginning.

Q. Back on Roger again. You said it's great to have him around. He's right there at the front, is it a little bit weird having one of your rivals in your eyeline? Maybe you didn't see him, but I wonder if it was at all strange.

ANDY MURRAY: I didn't find it strange. I mean, it was nice to have him there. I think Sampras has sat up there and watched Roger and Rafa, those guys. I've sat and Rod Laver has been at a bunch of matches at the Australian Open, what have you.

Yeah, I guess it can be strange, but it's also nice to have them there. Yeah, I've had experience of it in the past. I mean, I don't find it too much of a distraction, to be honest.

Q. Tell me if I'm imagining things, but is there anything slightly different about your service motion?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, a little bit. I made a slight change at the beginning of the grass season. It came about kind of, yeah, I was just messing around in practice. Seemed to work, so... Stuck with it.

Q. Is it a bit less arch in the back?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, I don't know if that has been a consequence of me making any change. I wasn't trying to get less arch in my back. I was just trying to take less of a step. I used to sort of sway quite far back on my serve with my back leg, also the arm I toss the ball from would come back with me quite far.

Yeah, so I just tried to simplify the beginning of the serve, and that was it.

Q. Your second most convincing scoreline ever here. The last couple of years you've had some battles and long matches. How much confidence do you take from getting that done so quickly?

ANDY MURRAY: I mean, not so much confidence. Yeah, obviously what happened and has happened at a lot of the majors that I played in the last few years, I've had lots of pretty long matches early on in the tournament. Yes, you can recover from them, but it's not like I had a really long match in the first round and the next one has been like straightforward. I've had multiple long matches one after another.

So, yeah, I mean, any time you get the chance to finish a match quickly and can conserve some energy is a really positive thing. It's not necessarily confidence that I gain from it, it just means that hopefully the deeper I go in the tournament the fresher I will be.

Q. You said on court that you were nervous at the beginning. Was that just standard first-round nerves or were you more nervous than usual? If so, do you have any idea why?

ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I always get nervous at the beginning of Wimbledon. I like that. I like to feel that way. Yeah, I mean, it's great. If I was going on the court and felt flat, didn't have any emotion when I'm walking out there, that's something that would probably be a bit wrong.

But yeah, there's also, like I said, you are playing in different conditions. It's not the same playing with the roof closed. It's more humid. It was extremely loud at the beginning with the rain. The court is a little bit, I've always found it a little bit hard to move on, a little bit slippy, especially at the beginning of the event when the roof closes. You throw that uncertainty into a first-round match at Wimbledon, it can create a few more doubts than normal.

Q. Your thoughts on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe? She watched you in solitary confinement seven years ago. What did it mean to invite her and have her in the Royal Box?

ANDY MURRAY: It was brilliant. Yeah, she was able to come along. I got to see her very briefly after the match. I spoke to her a while back.

Yeah, it was very emotional talking to her and hearing her story and stuff. Yeah, it was brilliant that she was able to come along and watch. It was her first time here. Glad she could make it. Yeah, she seemed happy that I got the win. Yeah, it was good.

Q. Will you watch Stefanos and Dominic tomorrow? Do you root for them to play for four hours?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, I don't know when they're playing. I don't know what the schedule is. I'm practicing at 1:00 tomorrow, so I guess there's a chance they might be playing at that time.

I will definitely watch some of the match in the evening to look at what they're doing and how the match has gone, see how they're both playing. I probably won't watch it live.

It's obviously been tricky for everyone today. Even guys that didn't finish their matches yesterday not finishing today. Yeah, lots of hanging around. It's tough for the players that got rained off.

As much as prefer to play outdoors, like that's one of the positives of getting to play under the roof. Although the conditions are different, you get to finish your match and you get the consistency in the schedule. It's positive in that respect.

Q. To that end, how important, if you're planning to go deep into a tournament, is it to have the knowledge you will play pretty much every other day and look after your body accordingly? Is it the physical thing that can stop you from going deep or is it the tennis side? Which is the biggest concern?

ANDY MURRAY: I'm not concerned about either. I'm playing well enough to beat most of the players, I think, in the draw if I play well. Physically, I feel good. Yeah, physically I feel absolutely fine right now.

You don't plan and prepare for the matches that I had earlier this year in Australia or when I played Stefanos at the US Open, or whatever. I hope my matches don't go on that long. If they do, I've prepared well enough to be able to deal with them.

You see how you recover physically from them. But I'm not concerned about either of those things. It's not something that I worry about each day whilst I'm here or in the buildup.

Q. You've already spoken about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Could you expand a bit more on why it is you wanted to invite her to come watch you play.

ANDY MURRAY: Well, firstly, she hadn't been to Wimbledon before. After, yeah, I spoke with her, and the story she told me about watching my Wimbledon final while she was in a cell, yeah, I felt like I wanted to invite her to come along and watch the tennis in totally different circumstances. Hopefully, yeah, a much more enjoyable experience.

Yeah, that was what I felt after speaking to her. I wanted to see if we could get her to come along.

Q. What advice would you give to Ryan now for him to get to the next level?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, he's been very unlucky the last year or so. He obviously got an injury here. I think it was maybe towards the end of his first-round match that he won and has had multiple injuries in the last 12 months or so.

First and foremost, obviously getting the physical side right, which again you can do all of the right work and just get unlucky, as well.

Yeah, I mean, I don't really feel comfortable sharing that here. If he or his team ever wants - which I practice with him - to talk to him about it, if his team or he ever wants to discuss his game or what it is that I feel.

I'd probably give a better perspective now having played against him of the things he could maybe work on a little bit. I would always be there to give that advice. But it just really doesn't feel appropriate for me to do it sitting here just now, yeah. Sorry.

Q. You said you feel you could beat most of the players in the draw. How far do you let your mind skip forward, if you win on Thursday? It could be Ben Shelton. How far do you let your mind move on, how important if you win on Thursday you could get into a deep run in this tournament?

ANDY MURRAY: I hadn't actually looked at the draw, so I didn't know who the seed was in my section. I got asked the other day. I didn't know it was Tsitsipas and Thiem that I played the winner of until someone mentioned it to me the other day.

I'm trying to play each match. You don't know which players are going to get through. The person who asked me was, You might play Tsitsipas in the second round. Thiem is up a set just now. Maybe you play him. There's no guarantees that Ben Shelton gets through to the third round. There's no guarantees that I do either.

Yeah, my mind will be on the next match on Thursday. Thiem and Tsitsipas both have great pedigree. Both played extremely well in the slams over the years. Very experienced.

Yeah, my mind will be on that one.

Q. The day before you won your first Wimbledon, Marion Bartoli won the title. Do you have some nice things to say about her, her personality or about at the ball?

ANDY MURRAY: We didn't dance, I can tell you that (smiling).

But, no, I always got on really well with her. She was always unbelievably nice, really nice person. I hope she wouldn't mind me saying this, but a lot of people looked at the way she trained, the way she practiced and stuff, found it quite strange because it was very different, it was very unorthodox to a lot of players out there.

She was always putting like hundred percent effort into everything she was doing. My opinion on all tennis players is that the best thing you can say about them is they reached their potential. I totally believe that she did that.

Yeah, what an amazing run she had here. Very, very different way of approaching the game. I've not seen some of the stuff that I saw her doing like in the gym or the practice court, I've not seen many other players doing that sort of work.

Yeah. It worked for her. She had a brilliant career.