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SONY ERICSSON OPENMarch 23, 2007Andy MurrayKEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA Q. So he hung in there a bit, didn't he? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, that's how he plays. He doesn't make too many mistakes. He fights hard in all of his matches. I think it was more through my poor play that I let him back into the match with 5-4 in the second. I think I served three double faults in that game and went for a couple of shots that weren't really on. But I did well to hang in in the tiebreak, and it's quite difficult when you haven't hit that many balls the last few days. The conditions here are pretty tricky with the wind and playing under the lights. It was hard, but I managed to come through. Q. How do you feel physically? ANDY MURRAY: I was pretty out of breath, to be honest. I was pretty tired. You know, I only hit about two and a half hours over the last six days, and the conditions here are completely different to Indian Wells. It's not as hot but it's so humid, and you feel like the court here is really warm. You feel your legs burning a little bit. I was a little bit out of breath after the long points, but I didn't feel like anything was hurting. Q. You seemed to move pretty freely. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I move well. The courts here are quite sticky, so you have to be careful when you're changing direction here. But I moved pretty well. It's difficult when you've had a fall like I did the week before to go on court and not worry about doing the same thing again. I feel like I moved pretty well. I haven't really had any problems since Queens. I don't tend to fall and lose my balance too much, so I did quite well in that respect. Q. You're not thinking of having an op sometime, are you, on the ankle? ANDY MURRAY: No, I thought about it the end of last year and the end of the year before, but I just haven't had any problems with it. It wasn't the actual ankle itself that was hurting after the match. It was kind of -- it was kind of right here (indicating), because of I think the brace helped it. You know, it wasn't the ankle that went over, it just puts a lot of strain on the muscles up the side of your leg. No, I don't think it's necessary. Q. So the bruising from the hip, I mean, you felt a bit beat up after the match at Indian Wells. Has all that gone away now? Do you feel normal again? ANDY MURRAY: In terms of the problems I had, I mean, I feel fine. I think if you have a fall like that, the day after and a couple of days after you tend to feel pretty sore. Then when the bruising and the swelling goes down, obviously you start to feel better. But I didn't have any problems with that. Q. Could you just tell us what the program has been then the past week, physio, rest, and what else? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I took Sunday, Monday off. I didn't do anything Sunday, Monday. Then arrived here on Wednesday. Tuesday I hit for like 40 minutes before the player meeting. Wednesday I hit for about 50 minutes. Then yesterday I hit with Brad for like an hour. But it was obviously -- the conditions yesterday were horrible, and it was so windy and rainy so I didn't feel like my rhythm was quite there on my serve. I actually hit my groundstrokes pretty well. I saw the physio quite a lot the last few days to try and get everything better. It was more of not pushing myself too much the last few days because you can't really expect to be able to do that after the injuries I had. Q. Did you feel confident going on, or were you slightly aware there could be a few problems today? ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, you just have to go out there and try and not think about it. After the first few games and the adrenaline gets pumping and you're sweating, you don't really think about it too much. That was one of the things I did well out there: Kind of put that to the back of my mind and tried to concentrate on my tennis. Q. What about Kendrick? He's quite a sort of flashy player, isn't he? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, he has some good matches, some tough losses, and he's pretty opposite to Goldstein, who's really quick at the baseline and doesn't hit too many aces. Kendrick has a big first serve and likes to go for his shots. So, yeah, it's going to be a really difficult match. If he serves well it's going to be important for me to return well. It's the best part of my game. Against somebody like him you have to try and put pressure on the service games. I've played him a couple times before and obviously won in Newport really easily, but in the US Open it was -- Q. In one set, yeah. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Q. Do you expect him to come in a lot, serve and volley against you? ANDY MURRAY: He did it in Newport, and didn't work too well there. And then at the US Open he kind of did it -- at some points and some points not. Here it's difficult to say because of the wind. Serving is not the easiest thing to do. To control the volleys is difficult. So I'll just have to see when I get out there, but I'll try and make a lot of returns. Q. You must enjoy target, don't you, if someone gets hurt with your passing shots? ANDY MURRAY: I've got a pretty good record against guys like Mirnyi, you know, Kendrick, those sort of guys that play like that. But again those guys, if they play well, they can make it really difficult. It's very important to concentrate hard against them. I lost my concentration a little bit tonight against Kendrick, and I can't afford to do that. Q. Did you see Tim's match last night? ANDY MURRAY: No, I didn't see any of it. It wasn't on the TV. Q. The Davis Cup squad has just been announced, and as anticipated Jamie is in. Are you pleased about that? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, he's had a really good run the last few months, and obviously this year, as well, and I think it's important for all Davis Cup teams to have a good doubles player or doubles specialist to come in and help the team out. I think that's been a problem in the past with him and Greg and everyone saying sort of a third man if one of your singles players is retired, and I think my brother can provide that. He's had some good wins, and I'm sure he can compete with the best players, and maybe he'll get a chance to show that in Davis Cup. Q. Do you think you'll play with him? ANDY MURRAY: I'm not sure. Obviously John will decide after the first day, I guess, how the matches have gone. We'll just have to wait and see if someone of us, me or Tim, has a long match, maybe even Greg plays with my brother. I'm not really sure what he'll do. But I guess there's a good chance we'll play together. Q. Do you expect that these are a few options that strengthens the team now? ANDY MURRAY: I think I prefer just having kind of a simple team where it's pretty obvious, like the U.S. Davis Cup team with Roddick, Blake and The Bryans. I'm happy when you have a team like that. You make it kind of difficult, and it's hard for the captain if you have six, seven different options where -- you know, it's difficult. We've never had it before. My brother has never played doubles with Tim or Greg, and if he's going to play it's going to be hard to know who to put him with. Obviously Greg having not played that much, you don't know how he's going to be, how he's going to be playing going into a big Davis Cup match. It's going to make it difficult for John. There's a lot of decisions he has to make, and hopefully he'll make the right ones. Q. Do you think you complement each other quite well, you and your brother? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, we played well. It took us a little while at the start to get used to Nottingham Newport -- well, obviously Jamie got injured after three games and it wasn't really a match. But in Newport we didn't really play that well together. But it just takes time, like any partnership. I returned well. Jamie volleys well and takes over at the net. I think we do complement each other's games pretty well. Q. How far does that go back when you last played doubles with him? Are we going back a long way? ANDY MURRAY: Last time I played with him was I think was US Open juniors. I think we lost in the semifinals together. We've always played well together. It just takes time to get used to who dictates from the back, how we're going to play when I'm serving. It's just like anything in any partnership. It's the same with new players. Q. Did you see the end of his doubles against Nadal and Lopez? ANDY MURRAY: No, I didn't see any of it. Q. It was fairly impressive the way he closed it out. Butorac's serving for the match and Jamie hit four great volleys to finish it off. It suggests he's got a great temperament for finishing off against great players. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, Jamie has always enjoyed playing in front of a crowd since we were very young. He's got a pretty calm head. He always thinks out there and doesn't get too frustrated. I think he'll play better, it just takes time and experience to get even better. But I think his sort of mentality is kind of built for the big tournaments. Q. So he'll enjoy that, Davis Cup? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, you can never say for sure until you actually get out there, but there's no reason why he can't. I mean, he's played very few ATP tournaments, and the ones that he has, he's made two finals, he's won two. He's got a really good record. Normally it takes guys a little while to get used to that: Playing against better opposition and higher quality. But he's done really well in the tournaments he's played. End of FastScripts |
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