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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 9, 2014Andy MurrayLONDON, ENGLAND K. NISHIKORI/A. Murray THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. After all the hard work of getting here, were you surprised to lose that one in straight sets? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I don't necessarily go into every match against all the top players expecting to win. You want to win the match. That's obviously the goal all the time. But you're competing against the best players in the world. And Kei is obviously playing well just now, so I knew that that was a possibility. But, yeah, it's still obviously disappointing to lose the first match. And, yeah, I would have liked to have done better. Q. You seemed to play with more attacking intent when you came back to 4‑All in the second set. Was it his game that prevented you from being aggressive throughout? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I guess you could say that. Obviously, I haven't watched the match. You know, you guys were watching it. You know, I didn't serve well enough today. I would say that was the biggest difference in the match. And when you're not serving well, obviously on your own service games you want to be looking to dictate the points. When you're returning, you kind of dictate when you have the opportunity. You don't always have the chance if someone's serving well. And, yeah, I didn't serve well enough. He was able to dictate a lot of points, especially behind my second serve. That was, yeah, statistically the part of the match‑‑ yeah, I mean, that was the part of the match where he had the upper hand. That was the difference. Q. You called the trainer in the second set. Were you feeling fatigued? ANDY MURRAY: No, I just felt a slight tightness in my calf, so I asked him to come and have a look. It was fine. I moved fine after that. But, yeah, just precaution. No issue. Q. After your six‑week run, nobody could have been more match‑tough than you. I'm wondering, in the break between you losing at Bercy and starting here, how many complete days off did you take, just not touch a racquet? ANDY MURRAY: Well, finished in Bercy on Friday night, then I flew Saturday morning back to London, then I took Saturday and Sunday off. I started hitting balls again on Monday. So I played Monday through to Saturday, then obviously played today. Q. Did you feel any nerves out there? Early on particularly, both you and Kei seemed to make quite a lot of mistakes. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, both of us struggled at the beginning of the match.  The conditions, when you play with no one in there, it seemed like it was pretty full today. It's obviously warmer, which then makes it quicker, the ball becomes a bit more lively. Yeah, at the beginning of the match, there were a lot of mistakes. Then he definitely started playing better at the end of the first set and started feeling a bit more comfortable with those conditions. But, yeah, at the beginning, both of us struggled a little bit. Q. It's been a little while since you played Kei. What are the biggest improvements you've seen in his game since the previous time you played him? ANDY MURRAY: I think he hasn't made big changes to technique or any of his shots particularly, but he's playing with more confidence. Because of that, he's able to take more chances and be a little bit more aggressive than he was previously. But he's always been a tough guy to play against because from the back of the court, he's able to take the ball early. He can change direction of the ball. Yeah, he's got a lot of talent in his hand. Even when you get the ball in difficult spots on the court, he's a good shot‑maker. Yeah, he's always been able to do that. But with the confidence, he's a bit more consistent throughout the course of the match, as well. Q. Do you feel like this puts you very up against it in terms of trying to make the last four? ANDY MURRAY: Obviously, yeah. I mean, it's harder to qualify when you lose your first match. That's pretty obvious. But, yeah, unlike the other events, you still have a chance to go through. If this were anywhere else, I would be out of the tournament. Yeah, you need to try to forget about today, work on some things tomorrow, and hopefully play better on Tuesday. Q. On a side note, you've spoken about why wearing the poppy is important to you. Talk a little bit about how you learned about what it means and whether you've been asked about it from players from other countries? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I've been asked about it by players. Before I actually even got asked ‑‑ when I was wearing a poppy in Paris a couple of years ago, I got asked by quite a lot of the press exactly what it was for. But, yeah, I would have been curious. When I was young, my grandparents used to wear poppies. Yeah, I would have asked them about it when I was young. My parents would have explained to me when I was a kid. Q. Given the nature of the way you got to the Finals in the first place, is there enough in the tank to do things the hard way again this week? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I felt okay on the court today. I don't think that was the reason why I lost the match. I guess if I was to play a three‑hour match which was extremely physical, then maybe I would feel fatigued in the latter stages of a match like that. But, yeah, obviously now I need to win my next two matches more than likely, and win them well if I want to go through. That's going to be tricky because Milos obviously played fantastic last week in Paris, and Roger always plays well at this event. So I'm definitely going to have to play better if I want to get through. Q. I saw a comment from you saying you still need to find an extra 4% or 5% to get back to your top level. Has it surprised you how long the process has taken and how frustrating has that been? ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, the beginning of the year was hard because I didn't feel like I was playing particularly well at the beginning of the year. I feel like I've played well for most of the events since the French Open really. I've had fairly consistent, decent results. But, yeah, to beat the top players consistently, you need to be playing at your top level all the time or close to it. Yeah, at the beginning of the year it was hard, because before I had my surgery, I was consistently there. When you come back and you aren't quite there, that's obviously frustrating. Over time you get used to that, and mentally you start to understand why that might happen. Yeah, you deal with it. So, no, I think it's been a fairly normal process. It's not been anything out of the ordinary, but something that I've had to learn a lot this year about what that's like. Yeah, I'm sure I'll be good next year. Q. How does the court, the speed and the bounce, play compared to some of the other courts you've been on indoors the last few weeks? How would you describe it? ANDY MURRAY: It's quite lively, to be honest. It can be hard to control the ball that can bounce pretty high up on the serve, on the kick serve. Yeah, it's quicker than the other courts. It's definitely quicker than Valencia and Paris, I would say that. I don't know exactly why that is, because the balls are the same and it's the same court, I believe, manufacturer. I don't know if it's to do with just how big the stadium is, and it does get warm in there. I'm not sure. But, yeah, it's quite lively. Q. Is that rehab process affecting your servicing action, which was suggested by Greg Rusedski in the paper today? Have you adjusted especially your second serve? ANDY MURRAY: Not intentionally, no. The problems I was having with my back didn't cause me any problems when I was serving. That wasn't why I had the surgery. That was one of the shots that it really didn't affect. I hope it hasn't changed it too much.  At the end of the year what I will do is actually have a look at some video of before my surgery and now to see if things have evolved or things have changed my game. I wouldn't have intentionally changed my serve because I wasn't getting any problems with my back from my service action. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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