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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 9, 2012Andy MurrayLONDON, ENGLAND A. MURRAY/J. Tsonga THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Can you clarify what you were saying on court, what you were aware that you needed to do tonight, what Ivan said to you before going out. ANDY MURRAY: No, just when we chatted before the match, he just said, Just focus on trying to win the match, don't think about winning one set, just try and concentrate on winning the match. So, you know, I didn't know exactly what I needed to do. But obviously when he said that, I kind of realized. Then I just asked the umpire at the change of ends after the first set whether I was through or not. Then he said I was. That was it. Q. Would you have preferred not to have known? ANDY MURRAY: Well, didn't really make a huge difference because, you know, maybe the game where I was serving for the first set probably would have been a little bit different. In some ways, feels like you're serving for the match when you know you're through if you win that. In some ways, I mean, I was very focused from the start of the match. I got off to a good start. It didn't make any difference at all. Q. Is that the first time you met Muamba? ANDY MURRAY: Yes. Q. He's a pretty inspirational guy? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I remember exactly where I was when it happened. I was watching the match on the TV in the States. Yeah, I sat in front of the TV. There was nothing on the TV. Just couldn't believe it happened. Yeah, when you heard a few hours later that he was okay, it was quite incredible. Yeah, it was very cool to meet him. He's got a pretty incredible story to tell, so it was nice. Q. If I recall rightly, it's again the possibility of Djokovic and Federer, like Shanghai and like the Olympics. Is the prospect of that something you can take in your stride now that you've done it on quite a few occasions? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I think over the years, I got used to playing those guys a couple of times in a week or whatever. Also with Rafa, as well. It's happened quite a few times. Yeah, it's not something that I'm afraid of. I know it's incredibly difficult and challenging to beat guys like that back to back, but it's doable. But you're obviously going to have to play great tennis to do that, and I'm aware of that. Q. Who is your favorite for the Davis Cup final? ANDY MURRAY: Good question. I have no idea what the court surface is like, so it's hard to make a decision based on that. I think Spain have a few more options, I would say. But, yeah, it's tough. It depends on the surface. Ferrer has played great indoors. Q. Indoor hard. ANDY MURRAY: There's indoor hard courts that are like playing on ice. If it's extremely fast, I would say that would favor the Czechs. If it's slower, then I'd say the Spanish are slight favorites. Q. I think Roger only has lost one match indoors in the last two seasons. Do you consider him to be the best player indoors at the moment? ANDY MURRAY: Well, he's played great indoors the last few years, that's for sure. I played him quite a few times indoors, had decent success against him early on. The last few times I played him, haven't done so well indoors. But, yeah, his record speaks for itself, so... He's played very well so far here. Yeah, he likes the conditions when they're like this. It helps his timing. When he's timing the ball well, he plays great tennis. Q. The other day I saw a funny video from back when you were at the Sanchez Academy where you were saying your forehand was your best shot, and your coach was saying your backhand was your best shot. Can you make an assessment on that kind of improvement, what you have been doing differently? ANDY MURRAY: It's a hard thing to say. I think a lot of people, the forehand is a shot that wins you more points. You know, some guys make more mistakes from it. Some guys are very consistent on the forehand side. Some play with a lot of spin. It depends how you use that stroke. Some guys have a very good forehand from the back of the court, but when they're returning with it, they don't hit it as well. For me, when I was growing up, my running forehand was a shot that I practiced a lot, and that was my strongest shot. But when I came on the tour, I made very few mistakes off my backhand side, so that was always viewed as being my strongest shot. I worked a lot on my forehand the last couple of years and it's paid dividends. It's worked well for me this year. Q. Do you agree on what Ljubicic says, that Djokovic indoors doesn't seem as good as the Djokovic outdoors? If you had to play Federer, assuming that he won seven times Wimbledon on grass, you beat him on grass, but he's so strong also indoors, where is Federer better, in your opinion? If you have to play Federer, you would like to play him with more chances on grass again or indoor? ANDY MURRAY: Again, it depends on the surface indoors. I mean, that's what's hard to say. I mean, Novak indoors, I don't know. I mean, his best results have come on outdoor hard courts, so that's his best surface. But he still plays well indoors. I know that he plays very well indoors. But, yeah, to play Roger, I don't know. He plays well on all the surfaces. He's won indoors, he's won on grass, he's won on outdoor hard courts, and on clay. I mean, you would say clay is his weaker surface, but he would have probably been, maybe if it wasn't for Rafa, up there with the greatest clay court players ever. I don't know where I'd rather play him. I mean, I had good matches with him on grass this year, so I'd maybe say grass. Q. Will you watch the match tomorrow? Do you have a preference at all as to who you face on Sunday? ANDY MURRAY: No, I probably won't. Probably won't watch it. I'm practicing during that match so I won't see it. They played a couple weeks ago indoors, and Juan won that one just. Did he win the week before, as well? I'm not a hundred percent sure. He's played well indoors the last few weeks, and over the years, he's played well. So he's tough on the surface. Q. The top 10 seems to have been fairly stable over the last couple of years. What names would you say might be threatening to break into that elite crowd next season? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, all the guys that are just outside it just now. I'd say Isner, Raonic, Simon, Cilic, those sort of players. They've been improving their ranking most years. They have big games. It's just about the consistency. Some of them have been there for periods of the year, but not sustained it throughout the whole year. It's just about consistency. I'm sure one of them will break through sooner or later. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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