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WIMBLEDONJune 24, 2006Andy MurrayWIMBLEDON, ENGLAND ANDY MURRAY: Obviously I played pretty well at Nottingham last week. It's tough conditions, slightly different court, I think I won't be playing till Tuesday so I'll have another couple of days practice and I'll feel pretty good. Q. Playing Nicolas Massu in the first match, how do you feel about your prospects? ANDY MURRAY: I think it's obviously a tough match playing against Andy (ph). The seeds is always going to be difficult and grass obviously is a slicker surface but on hard court so you can play well on quicker courts. Yeah it's going to be difficult. I'm going to have to play well if I want to win. Q. What do you know about Nicolas Massu? ANDY MURRAY: I've seen him play a lot. I've not practiced with him but I've watched him play a lot of his matches before. Q. When you made your debut here, how much different does it feel this time coming to the championships and how difficult do you feel? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think the main difference is that you know last year there was still a lot of attention -- there was still pressure, but there wasn't as much expectation. I think this year is obviously a lot more expectation which is normal when your ranking has gone up about 400 places. I mean, I still feel the same I think as a tennis player, I've gotten better, I'm more mature. Apart from that, not too much has changed. Q. Are your expectations different this year than from what they were this time last year? ANDY MURRAY: I think I've got a better chance of beating the top players now than I did before, but I'm still not expecting to go 14 wins (ph) into the tournament. Q. Have you been on Centre Court? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it's the first time I've obviously played in front of 13,000 people before, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. I knew it was going to be pretty noisy, but I watched enough tennis matches to know that it was going to be -- the support is always very good here for the British players. It felt loud and -- probably felt louder last year than whale feel this year because I've played in bigger courts. Q. Inaudible? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think this is the time of the year where you get to play in front of such a big crowd where everybody wants you to win. The crowd is obviously going to give you a boost. Hopefully if you're the sort of person that thrives on pressure or likes playing in front of big crowds, it's going to make you play better. That's been the case so far. When I've played on the bigger courts and hopefully it's going to be the same again. Q. Any extra pressure on you to be on your best behavior at all times as well, in case any foibles are picked up? ANDY MURRAY: Not really. I think it's not something you want to think about. I think you just want to be yourself and if it comes out, it comes out. You know, hopefully it won't but I'm not going to go into my shell when I go into the court. Q. Have you started to receive any kind of fan mail here at the Club wishing you all the best? ANDY MURRAY: Yes. Q. What has to happen for you to take it to the next level? ANDY MURRAY: I think I can probably do well to win a few more service games. I think when I do serve well, I've won 90 percent of the matches when I have served well. Normally I return well enough to break, you know, once or twice a serve; I'm always going to get a chance of returning. But I've given a few too many opportunities on my own service games before. Obviously last week any first two matches at Nottingham, he got broken once in two matches and at Koonz (ph) last year, and at Wimbledon, I got broken twice in the first five matches. Obviously I won those matches really comfortably so I think it's getting a bit more consistency on surface games and on first serves. I think I can do it, it's just not as consistent as I'd like. Q. Inaudible? ANDY MURRAY: I think they are important. Obviously it's not the best preparation going into a Slam playing only one match on this surface. Grass is such a tough surface to play on and you need to get into the groove and play some matches and it will help me a lot. I'm going to feel much more comfortable going on to the court now that I've played four matches instead of just one. Q. Since going from virtual unknown to top of the rankings, does it feel like something strange has happened to you? Thrown into restaurants, do you get better seats? ANDY MURRAY: Did you say "thrown"? (Laughter). Q. Do you get better seats in restaurants? ANDY MURRAY: Not really. I got upgraded once or twice on a few flights. Not into first class, unfortunately. But apart from that -- Q. Purely -- inaudible -- ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, coming back from Bangkok last year, I walked on the plane and I was on 89th seat and the guy stopped me and said he'll try and get me upgraded. Yeah, I think so, I fancy -- (Laughter). Q. Do you always fly economy? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I haven't bought a business class seat yet. Q. Sorry, that's from how you're standing in earnings, I find that very surprising. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Q. You don't have superstar status? (Laughter)? ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I don't know I don't think -- on the short haul flights, it doesn't really make any difference if you've got actually a couple of inches of leg room. I'm sure going to Australia I'll try and get an upgrade. But yeah, there's not that many long flights to merit going into business class. Q. You say nothing has really changed, but it has been an extraordinary nature 12 months since you walked out of here to going through the first year on tour, winning your first ATP Tournament, changing your coach; it has been extraordinary, eventful, has life on tour been anything remotely like you imagined or is it more a learning process every day? ANDY MURRAY: It's quite tough on me. I've been traveling since I was 15 a lot. And you know, obviously I've been on the ITF, junior tour, and done a lot of traveling there, and obviously playing Futures and Challengers is not the same as playing ATP tournaments. But you're still going to different places every week. They are not quite as glamorous, but it's still similar the way did you a lot of places, you where you haven't played before. I've been used to it. But as I've been -- I don't really know what to expect you know, coming on to the tour. I think the one thing that you know, I realised that you do have to earn the respect of the players and I think I've done that now, whereas last year it was a little bit more difficult to speak to anyone. I walked around with my head down and watched what people were doing and watched what people I spoke to. Q. Is there anybody you're in awe of on the tennis circuit? ANDY MURRAY: Probably Agassi. They are practiced with him before at Koonz (ph) It's the first time I walked onto the practice court and been nervous, sweaty palms. Didn't really feel right practicing with someone like him. I think it's because when I was growing up, he was obviously the guy. That I looked up to. But apart if him, I have a lot of respect for the players but there's not too many guys that I really feel intimidated by. Q. Earlier Agassi announced he's going to retire at the end of the year. What do you think his legacy will be? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think when you've got a guy like him, you know, he changed tennis I think. He made tennis a cool sport. He made it big in America and I think he was probably one of the first tennis players to be like a worldwide, you know, famous sort of personality, really. He's huge and he obviously deserves it. He backed it up on the tennis court. He had a great personality. I think to lose someone like him is obviously a shame for the game. I think guys like him don't come around too often. So I think it's going to feel a little bit different without him being on the tour. Q. Inaudible? ANDY MURRAY: Saw him on the French Open, took all four slams, that's got to be one of the biggest moments in tennis history. Not too many people have done that. You take guys like Sampras and Federer, the French is obviously one of the toughest ones to win, and he's done all that, so he's achieved pretty much everything there's been to be achieved. Q. Inaudible? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, when I was growing up, he was obviously one of the best. He was kind of the guy who had the big personality and you know, I've always liked the way that he played. You know, he's obviously changed quite a lot over the years, but I think, you know, growing up he was the one that I wanted to be and the one that, you know, I wanted to watch on the TVs. I think, you know, you don't know exactly why when you're 11 why you want to watch these guys play, but it was just ... Q. Just the approach to your first round match, one of anticipation, and coming back here where you would be a lot of great fans last year, is it exciting to go back out there to play again this week? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, playing in any Grand Slam is obviously huge. But to play in front of your home crowd is obviously going to be pretty special. You know, this is where I played my first Grand Slam and obviously did well, I've got great memories, I've played on Centre Court, Court 1, and I think it's obviously slightly different to last year. But I'll definitely look forward to play and I'm quite excited and always want to start sooner rather than later. Q. Do you have a lot of people coming, family and friends coming to be with you for the first match? ANDY MURRAY: Well, not quite a lot of family, not too many friends, not too many people like me. I mean, I've got a lot of my family is coming, my brother; and obviously both parents, so that's pretty special for your family when you've got two of your children playing in a Grand Slam. Q. Inaudible -- light it up a bit on court, if so, and comment on it just in case? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think it's quite a difficult one because obviously I hate losing and I'm a perfectionist and when I'm playing badly, I do get frustrated because I know I can do much better. I think you saw in my matches, I've dealt very well and not got angry at all. But then tournament matches, as well, I've got upset and has probably contributed to me losing some matches. So, yeah, I think I will change but it doesn't mean it will happen overnight. It may take two months, it may take six months, it may take a year, but I think when I do, my best tennis will be decided on are the court. Q. Obviously without a coach at the moment, I saw you were on the practice court with Mardy Fish, is there anyone that you can discuss your serve and trust their opinion? ANDY MURRAY: I've done all my matches pretty much on my own. You know, it's too much to -- I wouldn't really feel comfortable going and asking people that -- other coaches about my serve or whatever. But, you know, I might watch a little bit of one of his matches, it's just difficult because he obviously doesn't play so well on grass. Although, he's got a huge forehand and he's great on clay. On glass, it's difficult to pick up on things. So I just go out and worry about my game and not worry about someone else's. Q. Inaudible? ANDY MURRAY: I'm going to wear the black with the referee (ph). (Laughter) I don't really mind who wins. I made a joke a few weeks ago and I think -- well, yeah, like most jokes I make. And it's difficult for me to try and be myself and every time I do make a joke, it's taken the wrong way. So if they win, that's fine. I'm not really too worried about it. Q. You said there's not too many people like you. Why is that? ANDY MURRAY: I thought that was a joke. (Laughter)
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