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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS

November 25, 2010

Andy Murray

LONDON, ENGLAND

A. MURRAY/D. Ferrer
6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. (No microphone.)
ANDY MURRAY: It was a good match tonight. I played well. Returned well. Yeah, I mean, to win against someone as tough as David with that score line, must have played well.

Q. Strange situation to go into a match knowing that you just need to win a set. Did that add to the nerves for you at the start?
ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, I mean, it does change your mindset a little bit. It's very easy to say you've just got to win the match. But when you know, you know, kind of what's at stake, you want to get off to a good start. You know your opponent needs to get off to a good start to win or to go through. He obviously started off a little bit better than me.
Yeah, it's just very different to anything we're used to normally.

Q. What are your thoughts on reaching the semifinal now?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think it's great. You know, you got all the best players in the world are here. It's not an easy thing to do. You know, I qualified the first time I played it. Last year, yeah, was obviously tough for me. But this year I think, you know, I've won two matches while against very good players. I'm glad I got through to the semis.

Q. A quick thought about meeting Maradona. What did it mean for you? What did you say to him?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I love football. I'm a huge football fan. I think, you know, it's very tough to say in any sport who's the best ever. But a lot of people have said to me, that have been in football, that he was the best, best player ever.
Yeah, so it was pretty amazing. You know, he's definitely got an aura about him. He's very, very small. I knew he was small, but he was very small. He looked unbelievably -- I thought he looked great. He looked like he was in really good health. He's really, really nice. He seems like he's enjoying the tennis. He said he's going to be here for the whole tournament.
So, yeah, it's obviously great to have someone like him around. You know, he's a legend of all sports.

Q. As you said, it's a very different scenario playing in the group stages. In some ways will it be nice just to get back to the straight knock-out format at the weekend?
ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, to be honest, I don't know. I mean, you got to try and win every match you play. Yeah, obviously I'm going to be playing against someone like Rafa. So, you know, it's going to be an incredibly tough match. There's not really a whole lot of room for error.
But I'll try. I'll try and win. But I'm not sure I've got a whole lot of chance if I play against him.

Q. You're now back again No. 4 in the world after tonight. You could become No. 3 if you win the tournament. At the beginning of the year, after having been twice in a row No. 4 in the world at the end of the year, were you expecting something more from yourself or...
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, every year I want to try and improve. But I don't know how many times I need to keep saying it. I'm playing with the two best players of all time in front of me. So it's a very, very difficult thing to do. I've managed it once. I haven't finished a year there yet, but I've managed to get to No. 2, which was a great achievement. You know, I'd love to try and get to No. 1. That's what I'm working towards.
I'm working as hard as I can to try and get there. I hope next year I can finish higher. But it's a very, very difficult thing to do.

Q. Is No. 4 this year more difficult than to be No. 4 last year, two years ago? Is this No. 4 a better player than the one we had last year and two years ago?
ANDY MURRAY: After the last match you would probably say no. That's what everyone was saying, that I wasn't playing particularly well. Some days, yeah. I think this year I played better than No. 4 in the world and some days I've played not as good.
You know, last year I think I played like the No. 4 in the world the whole year. This year I think, you know, I played, like I say, sometimes better, sometimes worse.
So, you know, next year I'll try and play above that. But it's difficult.

Q. You mentioned you'd enjoy playing Rafael Nadal in the semifinal. What are your thoughts of the other group at the moment as you head to the semi?
ANDY MURRAY: It was pretty interesting. I think everyone can still go through potentially. You know, I'm not sure exactly on the maths. But, yeah, I think pretty much everyone still has a chance to go through, which is good for the fans coming to watch tomorrow.
But, uhm, yeah, all the guys, all the guys here, all the guys in the tournament, are great players. It's going to be a tough match whoever I played in the semis.

Q. I'm intrigued with you saying you don't think you have much chance to beat Rafa. You beat him the last time on hard courts. Why don't you think you'll have a good chance this time?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, he's obviously the best player in the world. I've watched his matches here. He's been playing unbelievably well. You know, I don't seem to beat those guys in the big matches. So, you know, I'm going to have to play my best tennis against him to win. I need to do it in a big match, in the semis. I have to see whether I can do that or not.

Q. So you're not confident?
ANDY MURRAY: No, not really. But I'll try and win against him.

Q. Now you are with Alex Corretja. Do you remember the match in Australia with Brad Gilbert as a trainer? You have done a good evolution, it seems. I think it was 2006.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, that for me was one of the best matches like in my memory that I've had on tour. I think it was the first time I played Rafa, yeah, in a night match on the center court there. I was still very, very young.
Yeah, it was an unbelievable match. A lot of long rallies. Yeah, that was one of the -- you know, if I was to look back and think, it was one of the most fun matches. I was devastated to lose the match because I thought I played great. But that really gave me a lot of belief, that match, even though I lost playing against someone as good as Rafa. But a close match in a slam, you know, for the first time was great.

Q. Your first-serve percentage was pretty low. How are you going to try to improve that before Saturday?
ANDY MURRAY: I just got to try and get more in. It's really that simple. That's it: just try to get more in. If the percentage isn't good, you need to try to hit more serves in the court. Try and do that when I play on Saturday.

End of FastScripts

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