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BNP PARIBAS OPEN


March 10, 2014


Andy Murray


INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

A. MURRAY/J. Vesely
6‑7, 6‑4, 6‑4


THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  That was not one of the prettier matches of your life I think it's probably fair to say.  Explain the frustration, I guess, of playing that way but still getting through it.
ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I mean, the most important thing today was that I won.  Yeah, I wasn't happy with the way that I played.
And, yeah, that's ‑‑I mean, it's kind of days like that where, you know, I could have lost the match and you don't get an opportunity until Miami to play better or to improve some things.
Yeah, it's good to have the chance to play another match here and hopefully put in a better performance.

Q.  Physically you called the trainer at one point.  Can you talk about what was going on there.  Generally, are you feeling a little restricted in any way physically from the back?
ANDY MURRAY:  No, I just took some tape off my toe.  I didn't take an injury timeout or anything.  I took tape off my feet.  I wasn't in pain on the court.  Sometimes when you have the tape it can catch the skin and give you little blisters, basically.
But, no.

Q.  More generally anything?
ANDY MURRAY:  No.  I was out there for close to three hours, and I think I was fresher and was moving better than him towards the end of the match.
But, no, physically was fine.

Q.  You started off well; the first three games were super quick.  Was that frustrating then?  You kind of let him back into it.
ANDY MURRAY:  Well, the match was a frustrating match.  Whether it was the beginning or the end, it was that sort of match where at no stage did either of us play well at the same time.
You know, I started the match well; he started off the match badly.  He missed a lot of easy shots, and then he started playing consistent, not making errors, and I started missing.
And, yeah, it was just one of those matches where there wasn't one period where I thought that, you know, the level of tennis from both of us was high at the same time.
That can create a lot of breaks and a lot of sort of back and forth swings in the match.
Yeah.  It wasn't just the start of the match that was frustrating.  The whole match was.

Q.  Sometimes just to get sight of a new court and get the feel for it, is that a little difficult when you haven't played somewhere before?
ANDY MURRAY:  No.  I mean, I started the match well, so for me it was nothing to do with that.  I also‑‑ the court was pretty much perfect conditions, really, to play.
I mean, you know, because of the dry air sometimes, you know, it can be tough to control the ball, but that's not to do with that court in particular.  That's just, you know, when you're playing in the desert, it's like that.
But the court, I mean, it's perfect.  There's barely any wind.  You know, players talking about sort of the acoustics of the court, like when you hit the ball it sounds like you're hitting the ball well even when you're not.
Yeah, it was a nice court to play on.  Tennis wasn't that good.

Q.  You have a habit of coming back in matches when sometimes you're down and out.  Was that something you always felt has been in you since an early age?
ANDY MURRAY:  I don't know.  I mean, you know, always try to find a way to come back, and managed to do it in the last couple of matches here.
You know, I have had a good record of that since I came on the tour.  And, yeah, I don't know exactly why that is, you know.  You know, my mom or parents or whoever watched me play when I was young, you know, always, always said I found way ways to win matches even when I was losing or looked like I was going to lose the match.
So, you know, it's a good habit to have.

Q.  He hasn't played, yet but if it's Raonic, what's the challenge of playing him?
ANDY MURRAY:  I think in his first round he served like 30‑something aces.  That's the challenge, basically, to get a serve back.  When you do that, then can you make things happen.

Q.  Are you fairly comfortable returning his serve?
ANDY MURRAY:  I mean, I haven't played him in these sort of conditions.  I mean, I played him, you know, at the US Open; we played in the evening.  It was a little bit slower, and so I returned his serve well.
I played him in Tokyo and I served for the match against him ‑‑no, didn't serve for the match, had match point on his serve in Tokyo.
So when I've played him I have done fine returning his serve.  But, you know, here it's, you know, just a bit different because of the conditions.

Q.  He's 20.  You played Dominic Thiem as well in Rotterdam.  Is it encouraging maybe seeing a couple of younger guys coming through?  It's been a while since any kind of teenagers have made it.
ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I think it was always going to come to a stage where that was going to start happening.  Guys are coming through a few years later than sort of when I came through with Novak, and Rafa was obviously pretty young too when he came through onto the tour.
But, yeah, there's some very good players.  Most of the guys that are coming through at that age, most of them are physically, you know, kind of big guys or very strong like Thiem is a very strong guy.  He's well‑built.
Vesely is obviously a big guy, about 6'6".  So the physical side of the game has definitely changed, and that's why they are coming through a bit later.  It's been good to play against a few of them.

Q.  Was there a turning point in this match?  There were so many momentum swings, breaks and break backs, missed overheads and things.  Seemed like they might swing the momentum one way or the other.  But in the end, was it just all the way down to the end or something to let you know you might be okay today?
ANDY MURRAY:  I don't know.  To me I felt like after I won the second set that should be a time when, you know, I could kind of push on a bit.
But I obviously got broken right at the beginning of the third set, and that was, yeah, frustrating.
And then, I mean, obviously when I got the break back, it was 4‑2, I think, in the third, then, you know, I definitely played a bit better at the end of the match.  There's no question I made more balls ‑‑you know, he came up with a few good volleys in his last service game, but I started to make more balls, put a bit more pressure on him in the end of the match, and that's what I needed to do to him.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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