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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSFebruary 25, 2015Andy MurrayDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES A. MURRAY/J. Sousa THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How difficult is it to focus when you're winning by a wide margin? ANDY MURRAY: I don't think that it's ‑‑I mean, it's not too difficult. I mean, I think you can lose concentration at any time in a match. We, as humans, do that all the time, and it's really about how quickly you can get it back. That's really the thing you need to kind of master. Today I thought I just picked the right shots and played the right way when he was struggling. I didn't give him any free points. I didn't make, you know, just sort of needless errors. You know, I wasn't just going for shots just because I was up 4‑0. I thought I made good decisions and didn't give him anything for free, and he was getting more frustrated because he couldn't get any free points and then was going for more and more shots and obviously making more errors because of it. Q. Obviously the aim is to win. However, do you ever feel badly when you keep just beating up on a guy? He's had very little luck against you. ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I think, you know, I have been through matches like that obviously recently at the O2 and it happens. And, yeah, I know how it feels when it's happening to you. But, yeah, you don't see players sort of letting up when you're the one that's in that position. So, you know, yeah, I obviously understand the frustration, the feelings that he might be having, but at the same time, you know, when I have been in this position it's not like opponents have kind of let up. So you just try to keep doing what you're doing and take care of your side of the court. Q. Would you have preferred to have a little bit more match practice? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I thought yesterday was a very difficult opening round for me. Muller has been playing extremely well. With the conditions here and the court surface, it's, you know, very good conditions for him. Joao likes the hard court, probably prefers a slightly slower court which maybe helped me today. But, you know, no, I have already played a bunch of matches already so far this year, and I have a very busy next few weeks and months coming up, so I'm not concerned about match practice. Q. It was obviously a tough loss for Sousa, but obviously in tennis is it important to learn to lose well? ANDY MURRAY: Learn to lose well? Well, I think, yeah, you have to learn how to handle defeats. Really that's something that if you can't do that, then you're going to be very disappointed most weeks and not get much enjoyment out of playing tennis, because there is obviously, you know, with the qualifying and the main draw, there's 32 players here. Only one person can go home happy in that sense. So, you know, it's important to understand that it's possible that each week you can lose, you know. But the goal is obviously to try to win the event. Unfortunately not everyone can do that. And, yeah, you need to learn how to handle defeat well and how to respond from them. Q. You mentioned yesterday that compared to 12 months ago it's almost day and night in terms of belief about your body and everything out there. Is that purely the back, or were there any other... ANDY MURRAY:  No, there was a lot, I mean, a lot of things, you know, around this time of year. There was obviously‑‑ you know, I had come back from the surgery, so that was quite a big part of it. And also from really the US Open through until this period ‑‑well, actually through until the grass court season, you know, I was obviously working with Dani. I didn't spend any time with Ivan apart from like 10 days in Miami, and, you know, the sort of two‑and‑a‑half weeks in Australia. So I went from really September through until the grass court season, you know, with, I wouldn't say ‑‑I don't know. I obviously lost my coach, Ivan, wasn't working with him anymore. Yeah, my game, I think, suffered a little bit because of that, as well. You know, now I feel like, you know, I'm heading in the right direction again. I feel like my body is good, which is obviously a big part of it. I think when you feel physically strong, I do think that makes you a bit stronger mentally, as well. I definitely believe the two are ‑‑well, for me, anyway, they are very, very closely linked. Q. When it's a match like that and things are going smoothly, is it tempting to try out a few new things? Are there actually areas of your game that you want to work on while you're here that might be slightly different? ANDY MURRAY: I am a wee bit careful when I say about trying out things, because when I was here a few years ago, it's funny how, when you win matches, it's okay to say you're trying something out, and when you lose matches, you're not allowed to say that. So I just try to continue sort of in practice and in the matches working on the same things I have been doing through December and through the Australian Open, you know, because normally when you work on something or you're trying to improve something, it's not necessarily natural for you if it's something you're trying to really improve or there is a weakness or, you know, you need to do things continuously and with consistency to, you know, to really sort of master that skill or whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, so I just try to keep working on the same things all the time and hope that, you know, in four, five months that they will be more natural. Q. The fact that there's going to be an extra week between the French and Wimbledon, could that potentially alter things leading up to Wimbledon? ANDY MURRAY: I think that it can help, for sure. I mean, I know obviously the year that I won Wimbledon I didn't play the French Open and had basically a much longer period on the grass. And also, when I thought I played very well at the Olympics, that was, for me, some of the best tennis that I've ever played. That was after spending an extended period of time on the grass obviously through Queen's, Wimbledon, and then, you know, a couple of weeks' preparation. So I think it can help guys that aren't so comfortable on the grass, but also I would expect that maybe the first couple of weeks to be less upsets because, you know, guys will have more opportunity to get used to the surface and, you know, play more warmup events or practice matches. So, yeah, I think it's really beneficial for everybody, to be honest, and for the body, as well. I think it's one of the hard things about a sport, and I know it sounds like players are complaining about it, but you go from playing on a clay court to playing on a grass court in the space of like two days, playing matches. It isn't good for the body. No physiotherapist, physical trainer, doctors would say that that's the right thing to do, so I think having an extra week, if guys want to, you know, get some practice and actually build into the surface, it's going to help everyone, I think. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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