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WIMBLEDONJune 23, 2014Andy MurrayLONDON, ENGLAND A. MURRAY/D. Goffin THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. In terms of receptions where would that rate? Can't remember one quite as touching as that. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was nice. Obviously, like I said the other day, I was pretty nervous and stuff before the match. Then when you're walking to the court, you know, I have a lot of memories obviously from last year. Yeah, to come to the court and get that reception, yeah, it was very nice to come out. I think the crowd was pretty much full from the start. It was great. Yeah, enjoyed it for the walk to the chair. Then when I sat down, it was time to get on with business. Q. I see there's a plea for players to contribute some of their prize money towards Elena Baltacha. Have you given thought towards a contribution towards that cause? ANDY MURRAY: I've done various things for Elena over the last few months. You don't have to make everything that you do public, as well. But I think, you know, British tennis has done a great job obviously with the Rally 4 Bally. The players who donated pretty generously to her as well ‑ some publicly, some not. It's all for a great cause. Q. What emotions were running through your mind as you came out? ANDY MURRAY: I was nervous. I was nervous yesterday. I was probably a bit more nervous yesterday than I was today. But, yeah, it does help, like if you can get ahead early, like I did at the beginning of the match, I got an early break, that helped settle them down a little bit. Normally after the first couple games you tend to settle down a bit anyway. Q. How do you feel you played? ANDY MURRAY: I played very well. I hit the ball very well. I hit the ball clean from the beginning of the match. There wasn't any moments where I felt like I was mistiming balls. I hit the ball clean. I thought the second and third sets were very high level. I thought he played very well. He was aggressive. He goes for his shots. He moves extremely well. He's very quick around the court. He has great hands up at the net, as well. I thought he played some really good tennis. He played a bad game from 40‑Love up at 5‑All in the third set. But it was very good. Q. Were your nerves helped by the dog rescue at the weekend? ANDY MURRAY: That didn't really come into my thinking too much today before the match. But, yeah, it was a two‑minute drive from my house just as I was coming into practice yesterday. Q. The other day you mentioned that you're enjoying working with Amélie. Could you say how you're enjoying with her and has she spoken to you about wines yet? ANDY MURRAY: We spoke briefly about it at Queen's, but I don't know anything about wine. It would be a pretty one‑sided conversation. But, yeah, I mean, I've enjoyed spending time with her. I feel pretty calm the last 10 days or so. Whether that's to do with her or not, I'm not 100% sure. But I've enjoyed all of the practices. And, like I say, she's a very calm person, the way she speaks and everything, the way she explains things. It's been good so far. Q. I wonder now that you've had the first match on Centre Court off your back where or not things will turn down in terms of scrutiny? Do you expect moving on during this tournament without having everyone basically peering in? ANDY MURRAY: The last four or five years, it's been the same at most tournaments, it hasn't really changed too much. Once the tournament starts, I don't really care, to be honest. I always say the buildup to the tournament is the hardest part. Once the tournament starts, it's fine. I mean, I say it every year. I don't turn the TV on. I don't watch too much of the tennis. I don't read any of the papers. I don't go online. I just avoid it, concentrate on playing. Q. I don't suppose you'll share state secrets, but did you discuss with Amélie prior to this your feelings about going out there as the defending champion, how you might feel, and from her experience how she felt? Did she kind of share that with you? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I spoke to her about it. We went to dinner I think on the Wednesday maybe. And, yeah, I spoke to her a little bit about it and asked her, you know, how she dealt with it. I mean, one of the things she said was she tried to take in the atmosphere and the experience of walking out on the court as the defending champion. You never know if you'll get the chance to do it again. Yeah, she has quite clear memories of doing that herself. So that was one of the things she told me to try and do. And, yeah, we talked about the other things that come with it, as well. Obviously, the extra pressure and stuff. Yeah, that's natural to talk to your coach about something like that. Q. If I can take this slightly off‑track, I think this time last year you were on the front cover of GQ with a flaming racquet, and now you're in the Beano. Talk us through that. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, Matt was involved in it quite a lot. He's back there. But, yeah, that was a magazine that I read a lot when I was a kid. It was good fun. I was a bit like Dennis probably. I wasn't particularly well‑behaved when I was a kid. My mum would definitely say that. Yeah, it was good fun. It's a nice thing to do. Yeah, those are the sort of things that come up around this time of year for me. THE MODERATOR: Can we keep it to tennis, please. Q. Especially after the experiences in Paris, how pleased were you to get it done in straight sets? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I was concentrating on it in Paris, as well. Sometimes it just doesn't always happen. You know, it's also a bit easier on this surface as well because you can get free points on your serve. It's a bit harder for guys to come back into matches. Yeah, I mean, today, the way the match was going, the way he was playing, I was happy to finish in straight sets. If my level let up a little bit, he could have won the third set, for sure. Q. There's only one match a year when the court hasn't been played on before. What did you expect and how was it? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, I practiced on the championship courts, like Court 4 and Court 7 the days I came into practice, Wednesday and Friday. I practiced on them. You expect the court obviously to be great. The bounces and stuff were absolutely perfect. There's no bad bounces. It's always, you know, a little bit slippy the first match. The grass is very lush. So that was the only thing. You need to be a little bit careful of your footing. But the court played very well. Like no bad bounces or anything. It was perfect. Q. I was wondering if you were aware of John McEnroe's comments? He would like to get rid of umpires and have players call their own shots. Do you think that would be a realistic way of working? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I mean, with Hawk‑Eye and stuff, it could work. But I don't know any sports that play without umpires and linesmen. I think every single sport does because things come up in matches, and sometimes you need someone other than just the opponent to talk to about it. But I don't see that changing. Q. Obviously England football is out of the World Cup now. Do you feel you are now giving British sports fans something to cheer about? ANDY MURRAY: No. I'm here to do my thing. I don't think that the English football team get asked about me in their press conferences. So I'd appreciate it if that wasn't brought up when I was playing because I'm yet to hear Wayne Rooney talk about my matches at Wimbledon. I don't think it's fair. THE MODERATOR: I agree. Q. You mentioned in your blog that you avoid that poster of yourself clutching the trophy. ANDY MURRAY: That I what? Q. You avoid the poster on your way into Wimbledon that shows you clutching the trophy. ANDY MURRAY: I don't remember saying that. I don't think I did. I'd only seen the picture once, which is one floor up here when you come in. But that wasn't through any trying to avoid it. I was just practicing over the other side at Aorangi Park. I haven't tried to avoid it. Q. Shaquille O'Neal was in the Royal Box. You're a basketball fan. Did you see him at all? ANDY MURRAY: I saw him after the match, yeah, just when I came off. I never met him before. But, yeah, he's a big boy, that's for sure. He was huge (smiling). Yeah, he's very entertaining. I watch him on the TV a lot when I'm over in the States. Yeah, he said that was the first time he'd been to the tennis before. He enjoyed it. It was nice. Q. How much do you know about your next opponent? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know loads about him, but I watched him play at the French Open. James Ward played him in the last round of qualifying there. I watched some of his match on the TV there. I think he also played him at Queen's, too. I saw a little bit of that match. I know one of the British guys also played him in the qualifying at Eastbourne last week. So I know a bit about him. But he hasn't been on tour too long. So I'll watch a little bit of video of him maybe tomorrow and get a better idea of his game. Q. Quite a few of the spectators today were shouting, C'mon, Andy. Do you hear that and how does it affect you when you're playing? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I don't really know how to... Obviously when we're playing on that court, most of the players get pretty good support. And, yeah, playing in front of a home crowd always helps. When they're behind you, they can make a difference, especially in the tight moments in the match. It can be intimidating for the opponent if the crowd's against him. Q. Blaz made a comment: Hopefully I won't poop my pants when he plays you. How do you react to that? THE MODERATOR: I think we'll stick to tennis. Q. You've spoken a lot about your love of boxing. Is there a particular boxer that inspires you in tough times? ANDY MURRAY: When I was growing up, I watched quite a few of Muhammad Ali movies. I've watched a lot of his fights. I read a fair amount about him, as well. I also enjoy watching videos of the boxers training as well for motivation. I think they work extremely hard. It's quite old school, the stuff they do. They put themselves through quite a bit of pain in their training, so I enjoy watching that, as well. Q. You hit a couple times with Dan Smethurst. What would be some sort of nugget of advice you give to him to try to relish the occasion tomorrow? How impressed have you been with his form this year? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, in terms of his form, he won a lot at the beginning of the year, a lot of futures. He's making finals and winning those events. Last few months he's been stepping up, playing some more challengers. Hasn't won quite as many matches. But it takes time. He's played at futures level for quite a while now. Now it's time for him to step up and see where his game's at against one of the best players in the world. It's obviously going to be a very tough match for him tomorrow. But he's going to get opportunities. He'll be able to hold serve. If he can get himself into some winning situations late in sets or tiebreaks, you know, it can come down to one or two points against Isner. But he needs to play an incredibly solid match. He can't afford to sort of have any dips in concentration or anything like that against anyone with Isner's game style. He needs to be concentrated the whole time. That's something sometimes at the futures level you can get away with, having dips in certain spots. At this level you can't afford that. Q. So far what's the biggest difference you've noticed working with Ivan Lendl and Amélie Mauresmo? ANDY MURRAY: I haven't been working long with Amélie. The stuff we've done on the court hasn't been that dissimilar in terms of the practices and the preparations. I mean, the way they communicate is different. The way they speak to you is different. That's for sure. They're completely different people, completely different personalities. You know, they both come from different parts of the world. They have different upbringings. That's always going to be different. But the key to good coaching, there could be a hundred coaches that might be trying to get me to do the same thing, they might be getting me to come to the net more. Everyone could say the same thing, but it's about how you say it, how you get through to the pupil basically. That comes through communication really. Not everyone has that skill. Some people do. I'm not going to work well with every single coach or every single person. It needs to be the right personality fit. I hope I found that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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