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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 21, 2009

Andy Murray

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

A. MURRAY/R. Federer
6-3, 4-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You took such a terrible tumble there. Did you feel that the match was over at that point possibly?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, obviously got a little bit scared at first. Then, you know, once I got up and ran around after a couple points, I knew that it felt okay.
But I had a few problems with my groin, that groin, when I was younger. Actually got a tear in the cartilage, which quite a lot of people do have. I just kind of get used to it. It's a bit stiffer than my right side.
Obviously feels fine just now. Hopefully it'll be okay tomorrow.

Q. After that particular fall, he then went into a bit of a trance and you were almost able to dominate the match from there on in.
ANDY MURRAY: I managed to do the same in Doha, as well. You know, just -- yeah, I started to make a lot of balls. I was getting the ball nice and high and deep, and actually, after I fell over, the wind picked up quite a bit.
He missed a few balls long in that game, mishit a couple. After that, he had little chance at 5-1. But I think I lost one, maybe one point in the next -- from after I fell, maybe one point in the next sort of three games after I fell. It was quite comfortable after that.

Q. Two years ago when you played Tommy Haas, you took a fall down a set and you came back and won. Can you just talk about that? Seemed like a couple times when you kind of hurt yourself you've come back and played stronger, at least here you have.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, the match against Haas was a bit different. It was quite serious. I had problems with the ankle that I twisted.
The next day I woke up feeling pretty swollen and not great. You know, today I didn't feel like I hurt myself. I just went down.
Obviously when you fall or lose your footing and stuff, you're a little bit shocked at first, a bit scared. But I don't think that it's going to be a problem tomorrow.
I haven't been hurt that much in the last couple years. Yeah, I don't feel like anybody plays better when they're hurting.

Q. It seems like against Roger now you're playing on your terms. You're pretty much in control of the entire match if you're playing at your top level, which is a pretty tough thing to do against him. Talk a little bit about that.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Well, the one thing I tried to explain to a few people, like a year or so ago, is that, you know, people say, Oh, you play very defensively. You didn't hit the ball particularly hard all the time, or whatnot. You lose a lot of the matches by letting guys sort of dictate the points.
But you know, trying to explain that there's more than one way of dictating points. It's not just going for big, booming serves all the time and huge forehands. If you change the pace with the ball a lot, you know, and mix it up, you know, makes your guy -- I'm playing the match how I want it to go.
If I started trading big groundstrokes with someone like Federer, I think he likes that. I haven't done it against him, and I don't do it against many people. That's my game style. Very rarely do I lose matches having let the other guy play his natural game.

Q. There was a lot of anticipation toward a Federer/Nadal final. How does it feel to ruin those plans?
ANDY MURRAY: Doesn't really bother me, to be honest. Every time I play Roger I feel like I got a shot to win.
You know, I'm sure a lot of people would like to see Roddick in that final now. Maybe I definitely wasn't thinking about that during the match.

Q. Are you still practicing Bikram yoga, and how much do you attribute your fitness and focus to this?
ANDY MURRAY: I did it in the off-season quite a lot. I don't do it that much throughout the year, because you get very dehydrated doing it. It's very hot, so you need to make sure that going in, you're hydrated.
When you come out, it takes, you know, two, three hours before you're feeling normal again. So I do it a little bit in the off-season when I have time to recover and whatnot. But I don't do it that much during the year.

Q. That's six times out of eight you've gotten a piece of Roger. How would you rate your all-round performance today?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it was good. I lost my concentration a bit at the start of the second set. You know, managed to get myself back into the match -- into the second set, sorry. It was good. I don't think I did anything incredible, but that wasn't what I was trying to do when I went in to play the match.

Q. Can you talk about playing the finals tomorrow and facing either Andy or Rafa?
ANDY MURRAY: Both are obviously very tough. Rafa won the first set, but -- I mean, Roddick has always been very tough in the States.
He loves playing in front of his home crowd, and it will be obviously tough against him. I've got a good record.
Nadal, I've started to play better against him lately, but he's obviously one of the toughest players ever. I have to play some of my best tennis.

Q. When you were a kid, were you the fastest kid in your school?
ANDY MURRAY: In a straight line, no. (Laughter.) But, I mean, since I played tennis, that was one of the things that I've always done very well, is have good anticipation and felt like I could chase a lot of balls down. That's just gotten better now that I've got stronger. Like over 100 meters I'm okay; not great.

Q. Federer had a reputation for being very strong in third sets. You've taken him four times. His level was going up and down quite a lot today. Were you surprised to see that?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, like I said, it depends. As long as I'm sort of playing the match on my terms and I'm sort of getting the ball in the position that I want to get it in and making him play difficult shots, then not really.
I mean, he missed a couple backhands early in the second set. Then he started trying to hit forehands from way in the, you know, into the advantage side of the court.
He was running around a lot and playing very sort of low-percentage shots. When you do that, you're going to make mistakes.

End of FastScripts

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