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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPENAugust 13, 2014Andy MurrayCINCINNATI, OHIO A. MURRAY/J. Sousa THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. The ankle, you seemed to be favoring it in the first set when you were sent the wrong way. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I kind of ‑‑yeah, I don't know if I was really ‑‑yeah, maybe I was wrong‑footed a little bit, but sometimes‑‑ I mean, it wasn't too hot today, but the courts, they get quite sticky. Sometimes like if you, yeah, don't anticipate where the ball is going properly, yeah, my left ankle just kind of went from underneath me a little bit. It was just a bit sore, but it's fine now. I mean, it was just sore for about three or four points, but it was fine after that. Q. Do you continue to be pleased with your level? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, today it was okay, yeah. The conditions are completely different here to Toronto. A few of the guys that have come in late have struggled with the conditions. I hit the ball well from the back of the court today. I was able to control the ball well. That was, for me, the most pleasing thing about the match today, because I have seen a lot of the players have struggled so far. Q. Is it a big adjustment when you play the first match here, then? ANDY MURRAY: I think so. I always find it pretty different, Canada to here. It's always different. Takes a bit of time, you know. Even just, you know, the courts in Canada. It's a huge, huge run‑back and Toronto. Here it's a very tight center court. There's not much space to move around. That changes things. And also speed of the court is a bit different, too. It just takes time to get used to. Q. Compared to the weather in Canada, we haven't had that heat and humidity like usual. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, when we were warming up today at like 9:30 it was pretty cool. That's strange. I have seen that once or twice here, but not often. But, yeah, I'm sure it will heat up a bit for us. Q. Does that make a difference? Make it easier? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it makes it easier to play in, yeah. I mean, in terms of how much it changes the conditions, I mean, it slows things down a bit. But, you know, I think that the humidity is what can‑‑ you know, if it's cold and humid, that's extremely slow. You know, today I don't think it was that humid. Didn't feel that humid at all. So the air, when it's a bit drier the ball flies through the air a bit quicker. Q. Is it important to you at all to get into the top 8 seeds? ANDY MURRAY: I would like to, yeah. I mean, that would help. I don't actually know ‑‑I mean, I normally follow the race. I don't really know exactly ‑‑well, at this stage of the year I'd not normally look at the race, but I really don't know what I would have to do to get seeded in the top 8. A few of the guys ahead of me have lost. I don't know if they're dropping points or anything. I'm not sure. But, yeah, ideally you'd be in the top 8, yeah. Q. Is it a slightly different experience, you know, from what you have experienced the last few years anyway to be that far away from the top 4? Does it affect the way you approach your tennis? ANDY MURRAY: No, not really. I mean, when I went over to Miami after Wimbledon I obviously had to make sure I got myself back into my best shape. That was really my goal after Wimbledon, because I felt like I was starting to play well. I felt like I played pretty well at the French and obviously that bit during Wimbledon. Yeah, maybe I was just lacking a bit physically. That was the one thing I really wanted to work on. But, you know, it's been a tough year. There has been a few things happened. Obviously coming back from the surgery is hard. To me now that isn't in any way an excuse. Now I have had enough time to get over it obviously with Ivan. That was also tough. And then, yeah, the results on the court haven't been as good as previous years, either. So it's been a tough year so far, yeah. A lot can change in a week in tennis, as you saw with Tsonga last week that came out of nowhere and also this week he only won five games. A lot can happen in a week. Q. Can you talk about Amélie? You had a test period and now you're sticking with it. What did you see in her that seemed like she was the right person to bring you whatever you're looking for? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, there's a lot of things, aside from what she's done obviously on the court. She communicates ‑‑well, I feel like we communicate very well together. I find her very easy to talk to and discuss things with. She listens well, which I think is a very important quality in a coach. Especially if it's going to work long term I think that's important. She's worked well with the rest of the team and understood kind of how we work and have worked in the past. So, you know, the training block in Miami I didn't actually play loads of tennis, which, you know, some coaches may have wanted to do seeing as that was the first kind of 10 days, two weeks we really got to spend together to work on things. But, you know, the priority was to get physically strong. You know, she's bought into that, as well. She understands that side of the game well. She was physically obviously very strong herself. Yeah. A lot of things made me and us come to a decision. Q. Speaking of Miami ‑‑this may seem like a silly question, but we have all seen the commercial; they show it a lot down there anyway. Have you physically run from your apartment from Key Biscayne to the courts? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I have only done it once, but the guys I work with do it quite often. Normally run back from the courts to the apartment. That's what I did, anyway. But it's 6.7 miles. I think when I did it and it was like 47 minutes. Q. Impressive. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Q. Maybe you'll join Wozniacki in New York Marathon. ANDY MURRAY: I will definitely do a marathon at some stage, but not when I'm playing. That's an amazing effort she's doing that while she's playing, because it takes a lot of training, a lot of hard work for that. I'm assuming she will probably want to get a good time as well. She's pretty competitive. She'll have to train hard. Q. Before you had the back surgery, was there ever an option you could somehow do physical therapy? Was that a difficult decision to actually go ahead with the surgery, or was it just obvious it had to be done? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I had been dealing with it for about two years, so I kind of tried everything. Having surgery I think for athletes normally is a last resort. You try to find different ways of treating problems. Some things would help for the bit of time, but, you know, it would always sort of come back to being in pain. I didn't want to be in pain anymore, so it wasn't actually a difficult decision. I think sometimes with athletes it can be hard if they do something on the court one day and, you know, hurt their knee or their ankle and they have to have surgery the next day and there's no option. That can be quite hard. But I dealt with it fairly well because it was a decision I wanted to make. Like I wanted to have the surgery to make myself better. That's why I did it. Q. Was it essentially a wear‑and‑tear kind of injury they thought, or was there something that... ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I guess you could say that, yeah. I mean, yeah. Q.  It's a sold‑out crowd here today and a lot of people are talking about what a great lineup it is. Do these Masters 1000s feel different than the slams? It's a smaller event, but the fans still get to see sort of a blockbuster lineup all day. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think if I was coming to watch as a fan, coming like to the Wednesday of a Masters Series, especially a combined one, yeah, is pretty much the best ticket you can get really. You know, if I could buy one ticket, I would probably want to go and watch a slam final. But, you know, if you want to see all of the players, you can watch them practice, you can see obviously the men and the women here. Yeah, it's a pretty good ticket. Q. You'd buy one of those tickets? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know how much they are. (Laughter.) I'd think about it, though. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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