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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 31, 2015

Andy Murray

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What did you make of last night's semifinal?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't watch any of the match last night. I'll watch some of it this evening and then chat to AmÃ©lie about it tomorrow. But I haven't watched any of it yet.

Q. How are you feeling having had a lot of the extra things? Enough rest? Practice?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I feel good. I felt good after all of the matches and recovered fairly well from the two fairly long matches that I had against Dimitrov and with Berdych. So, yeah, I pulled up pretty well. But, yeah, it's slightly different preparation obviously with the extra day. You get the extra day rest, but then also you're in a rhythm of playing every day or so, so it changes the way you prepare a little bit. But, yeah, I feel good.

Q. Do you have any thoughts on the fairness of that? Do you believe semifinals should be played on the same day?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I do, yeah. You want the players all to have the same opportunity. But, I mean, I was told that the player that's played the second semifinal I think has won like five or six of the last seven years, so I don't know exactly who it favors more. Obviously if you have an extremely long match you would think the person that had the extra day's rest, it would favor them. But a couple years Novak recovered from -- I don't know how he did it, because I played against him in the semifinal and I could barely walk a couple days later. But he recovered from a five-hour match and then won the final in six hours. I don't really know who it favors, to be honest.

Q. Is there a danger of having too long to think about it?
ANDY MURRAY: I think that comes down to each individual really and how you handle the situation. I've tried -- like I said, didn't watch the match yesterday, so I tried not to spend too long thinking about it and try and just do the same sort of routine as I've been doing in the other matches and use yesterday as more of a recovery day. Then I practiced slightly harder than I would have normally the day before a slam final today.

Q. Is this the best you've felt mentally and physically on the eve of a Grand Slam final?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. To be honest, it's always very difficult to answer those questions. I don't know. I know that I played well so far this event. Each time I've been in difficult situations I've done a good job mentally of finding my way to get out of them. And, yeah, my tennis has been good, as well. So I hope that will be the case again tomorrow.

Q. You played Novak here three times and lost all three. How confident are you that can change tomorrow?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I know it's going to be extremely difficult to win the match tomorrow. I know if I want to win, it will probably be very, very tough and challenging physically. So I need to prepare myself mentally for that. But he has a fantastic record here. He obviously loves the court and the conditions. And, yeah, it would be a big upset if I manage to win tomorrow.

Q. What sort of achievement would it have been to win three of the four slams, if you can do it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think obviously it would be a good achievement. I know winning any of the slams is a very challenging and tough thing to do. Like I said the other day, winning three of four slams like in this era seems like nothing because of everything that the other guys have done. But it's a very difficult thing to do. So whether I win tomorrow or not, I still feel like my record here has been a good one.

Q. You talk about a big upset if you were to win tomorrow night. Novak said there was no clear favorite. Do you disagree with that?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I've never won against him here before. I've lost to him each time that we've played. I think I've lost to him the last four or five times we played against each other, as well. Maybe only won one set in those matches. Yeah, I mean, it would be a big turnaround. I played him a couple times very close the end of last year and lost pretty comfortably. For me it would be a big turnaround in a few months if I was able to win. I'm not saying it's not a possibility, but it's going to be very, very tough.

Q. What do you make of the final that's going to happen in a couple hours here, how Serena has managed to dominate Sharapova over the last decade?
ANDY MURRAY: I think considering how great a competitor Maria is, it shows you how good Serena is, that she's managed to -- it's been something like 10 years or something since she lost last time to her, which is pretty amazing. But in a one-off match with two individuals, anything can happen. I would certainly predict Serena to win the match if I had to. But, as you see with Berdych beating Rafa here and also last year with Stan winning against Rafa having lost to him however many times in a row it was, you know, there's always a possibility there.

Q. Was there any sense of curiosity last night about what was going here last night?
ANDY MURRAY: Knew exactly what the score was. I was at dinner checking the result to see what was going on. I spoke to Leon, as well, who was commentating on the match. But I'm going to watch the parts of the match that I want to watch this evening, get all of the stats from the match that I think will be beneficial and go over it, just like I have done every other match since I have been here this event. But I didn't really want to sit for three, three and a half hours last night worrying about the match. I'd rather save that for this evening and try and conserve a little bit of energy and mental energy, as well, you know, for the match.

Q. Guaranteed back in the world's top four regardless; No. 3 with a win. Do you feel like you're back where you belong?
ANDY MURRAY: I feel like I'm playing well again. I think this tournament's been obviously important for me just because of some of the results I had at the end of last year. Yeah, it's been an important week for me. Obviously anytime you're moving up the rankings suggests you're doing something well. Yeah, it shows as well that last year, although it was a tough year, it wasn't that bad. With one good tournament here I could move back up the rankings again. Hopefully the beginning part of this year where I maybe didn't play my best last year, if I can try and have some consistent, solid results, reestablish myself back at the top of the game, and hopefully have another good year.

Q. When you had those bad results at the end of last year, were you confident you'd be sitting here in this position again so quickly?
ANDY MURRAY: I knew I needed to work on a lot of things, but I also believed that with the right attitude and the right work ethic and the right people behind me that I'd be able to get back to playing my best again. Because there was periods in the year where I did feel like I was able to do it. I wasn't necessarily sustaining it for whole matches and whole tournaments. That is what I really needed to change. And to do that I needed to just get a little bit fitter again, which I think playing all those tournaments at the end of last year really helped that. And also put in a good training block so I could work on any of the weaknesses or the issues I was having in my game last year. I feel like I did that.

Q. This is your first major since the back surgery, major final. Do you think this actually closes that chapter, that you've got back to a level you were at before the back surgery?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think last year in the slams I felt like I played some good tennis. I felt like here I played well. Last year the French Open was equal my best-ever result, which was good. For me it was really the match with Dimitrov at Wimbledon that was one of the toughest matches of the year for me because I felt like I played a very bad match that day. But the rest of Wimbledon I played fantastic. Also the US Open I started to play well again there. Just physically with the match with Novak, I definitely slowed down after the first two and a half, three sets. But I was playing well again there. So, yeah, I feel like things have been going the right direction the last couple months. Even towards the end of last year, as well. But like I said, I felt like I just needed a period to work on some things and find the right direction again for my game. And hopefully this year I'll continue to work on all of those things. Like even after this tournament's finished, keep working on the right things, yeah, keep working hard, physically hopefully stay healthy this year, and see what happens. But it's been a good start to the year. Hope tomorrow's a good one, too.

Q. When you reach this sort of stage at a slam, a final, there is always this sort of debate around where you stand personally in this sort of pantheon of British sport. Just wondering who you would regard as the greatest British sportsman of all time?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, yeah, I definitely wouldn't say that would be me. I wouldn't say that would be the case at all. But, I mean, in terms of the sports I follow a lot, sports that I have a lot of respect for, I mean, someone like a Joe Calzaghe, what he did in boxing is incredible and extremely rare. I don't know, like a Rory McIlroy is an incredible talent and will probably go on to do amazing things for the rest of his career. I don't know how far exactly you want to go back. But Lewis Hamilton, what he's done has also been amazing. I just know like for myself that the time I'm competing in just now is extremely challenging. Yeah, anything I achieve, I'm very proud of because of the players that I'm competing against currently. So, yeah, that's how I feel about it.
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