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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 14, 2015Andy MurrayINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA A. MURRAY/V. Pospisil THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. What was it like to be back in the tournament where you have not always had things all your own way in the past? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it was a good start. He didn't serve particularly well. But even still, returning second serves, it was not easy. The ball was bouncing extremely high. I mean, obviously don't know the exact figures, but in comparison to what we were playing in Glasgow, it was way, way harder to control the ball. Like I said, even from the back of the court balls were getting up really, really high. I thought I played quite a smart match, played solid. I didn't go for too much, but I also felt like when we were in the rallies I was dictating them, keeping him pinned in his backhand corner, and pushing him further and further away from the baseline. I thought it was a good start. Q. You have been here for five, six days. How are you getting used to the conditions? Is it becoming easier, or still tough out there? ANDY MURRAY: I think it's tough because it's not, it's not that easy to control the ball here. I mean, no matter how many days you spend here, that's always going to be the case. Because the balls are lively, and when it's warm like this ‑ I think it's like in the mid‑90s ‑ you know, it's tricky. You know, if it's 10 degrees cooler, then, you know, that obviously helps, but the last few days have been extremely hot. Controlling the ball isn't that easy, so you need to be very precise and get yourself in the right position to give yourself the best chance to hit the ball well. Q. Talking about conditions, you don't mind the challenge or you find them frustrating? ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I think it's something ‑‑not every single tournament you go to do you feel perfect, you know, right at the beginning of the event. Sometimes, you know, there are some certain conditions where you feel great and some where, you know, it takes a little bit of time. But the thing I know is that everyone is in the same position and that, you know, it's tricky for everyone. I mean, Vasek obviously played one match already and, you know, clearly he was struggling to control the ball at times out there. I thought I did a good job. I controlled the ball well today. But it's not easy, so it's something that every match you need to be right on it and not take, you know, your timing or anything for granted. You need to, you know, respect the conditions and make sure you're very sharp. Q. You always keep things interesting with respect to your camp, and now there is talk about Bjorkman coming on board. Can you talk about the dynamic of what he would play and how he and Amélie would work together? ANDY MURRAY: Amélie is doing 25 weeks a year with me, so, you know, for example, I just spent the last four weeks with no coach during February. I think, you know, for some people that works. For me, I have always preferred having someone around. So, yeah, I was looking for someone else and I spoke to him. Really enjoyed talking to him. I talked to him about the game on, you know, every level: tactics, mental side, a little bit technical. We spoke about some of the other players, you know, and things that I needed to improve. Decided that we'd give it a try for a week or so. Because it doesn't matter how much you enjoy speaking with someone, it's not actually until you get on the court with them where you see, you know, how good it's going to be or if you feel like they can help you. So hopefully we'll get to do that in the next few weeks. Q. I know you're a big boxing fan. I believe in the last few days you met Manny Pacquiao. Can you talk about your experience meeting with Manny and how much you got to know him, and also your thoughts about the big fight on May 2nd when he takes on Mayweather? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, actually, I met him at the end of last year in the Philippines, which was pretty cool because over there he's‑‑ I mean, yeah, he's a huge, huge star. You know, the whole country pretty much stops when he fights. Yeah, that was nice. I obviously didn't get to know him well. I only spent five or ten minutes with him. It was a nice experience for me. Yeah, the fight, that should be a great fight, a great spectacle. Everyone is talking about it. Everyone has been waiting, you know, for a few years for it to happen. Yeah, I would have loved to have gone to watch it, but I'm going to be playing a tournament that week so I won't be able to, unfortunately. Q. How do you see that fight breaking down? Do you do you have a prediction? ANDY MURRAY: Well, it's a tough one to predict (Smiling.) You know, I would say that Mayweather, for me, would be the favorite. I think he's a more consistent performer. And also in Vegas, you know, that's his hometown. He's spoken a little bit about how much he means to the economy of the city (Smiling.) So, yeah, if it goes to the scorecards, I would think it would be tough for Pacquiao to win. Yeah. I think Pacquiao, Pacquiao has a very good chance of winning. If I was betting, I'd probably bet for Mayweather. Q. You often write things on social media on young players who are playing well. I wondered what moves you to do that. Has anyone ever said, Hey, have you ever said anything about me? ANDY MURRAY: No, I think I like seeing young players basically just being on the court kind of expressing themselves and enjoying themselves. I think it's nice to see. I think, you know, if you look at a lot of the players at the top of the game, they're‑‑ I don't know. You know, it seems like they are under a lot of pressure, and, you know, each match is extremely important. But when you watch some of the young players, like Taylor Townsend, for me, I just really enjoy watching her play. I think she has a great personality. I think she has an exciting game. She goes for her shots. She plays slightly different to everyone else. And then, you know, someone like a Kokkinakis, for example, have just a really nice way about them, a nice manner, and obviously they are exciting players to watch. So I always enjoy keeping an eye on the young players. Not every young player do I love watching, but, you know, there is a lot of them around just now that I enjoy. Yeah, I enjoy watching. Q. (Indiscernible.) ANDY MURRAY: Yes, I think it happens to everyone really. Pressure builds as you get older, more expectation, you put pressure on yourself to perform. Yeah, I would just say, you know, when I was 18 years old I remember what it was like. It was very, very different. You just go out and you play and you enjoy it. If you win, you're obviously extremely happy. When you lose, it's a bit different. You're kind of on to the next week and you don't dwell on results or matches as much. So, yeah, I remember what it was like when I was that age. Q. Just talking about having a discussion with Jonas. Has there been a three‑way discussion with you, Jonas, and Amélie at the same time? Are they on the same page with what they want to see you doing? Novak Djokovic was saying a while ago that, you know, his two coaches weren't necessarily in agreement all the time. So is there a risk of something like that? I know you said it's only for a trial period at the moment with Jonas. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, so basically I spoke to‑‑ first I spoke to Amélie. I talked to her towards the‑‑ well, obviously when everything happened with my team at the end of last year I spoke to her about what it was that I felt like I needed. She agreed. We talked about, you know, a number of people. When I said, you know, I'd like to approach Jonas, then how it happened from there was I called him up, I spoke to him, and I said, Well, for me, the next step is that the next step is that you chat to Amélie and you see how that goes. They chatted a couple of times. Both of them seemed to think it went very well. The next step after that was, Okay, well, let's spend a bit of time together and see if it works. Let's see if everyone gets on. Let's see if, you know, the direction is right. It's not about agreeing on things all of the time. I think for a player to get the most out of the people you work with it's important that there is sort of disagreement sometimes and that everyone in the team is able to actually not take things personally. If someone disagrees with something and actually have conversations and get to the bottom of it, because Jonas is probably going to see some things differently to Amélie and Amélie will see some things different to Jonas. It's all about, yeah, trying to find the best solution. But disagreements happen all of the time at the top level of any sport, job, business. People don't see eye to eye all the time, but you need to be sort of, I guess, mature enough, and, you know, deal with that when there is disagreements. Q. The other day in the round table interviews, the theme that came up again and again was the big problems with Davis Cup. You spoke about it. Stan, Novak, Roger all spoke about the problematic situation. Can anything be done in terms of working with the ITF, or are they so distant and beyond change that it's just going to go on and on? Can the players in some way get together and effect change? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think there is definitely potential there to sit down with the relevant people and players to just kind of discuss it. Players love playing the Davis Cup. I haven't spoken to one player that sort of said to me, I hate it. I don't enjoy playing Davis Cup. Everyone loves playing Davis Cup. So obviously something is not right if you have players that are saying, I love playing the Davis Cup, but then they are opting not to play in the competition. The thing you have to remember as well is there is also pressure on the players as well from Federations and whatnot to compete in the Davis Cup, too. So you are going to have cases where guys don't play for a year if they have been successful the year before. I'm sure Stan will end up playing next year, and possibly Roger, as well. Novak skipped some years. Rafa, as well, has skipped some ties. But they will always come back to play, and the reason for that is because they love it. But clearly the structure isn't perfect, because if it was then guys would play all the of the time. I think maybe sitting down and just sort of discussing it, maybe playing it every two years, would be more beneficial for everyone. I think it adds, you know, to the value of the competition when you have all the top players playing. When they aren't playing‑‑ well, right now, we are having discussion about how the Davis Cup is a problem. When all the top players play, people don't say that. Q. Highest service percentage this year compared to last year so far. Is that something you focus particularly during the offseason, your serve? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I work on my serve all of the time. It's obviously a very important part of the game. Serve and the return, probably the two most important parts, so I always work on them all of the time. Q. You didn't change anything specifically? ANDY MURRAY: No, sometimes it changes, like small technical changes, make some adjustments to the serve. And then also, you know, sometimes serving smarter in matches. You know, going for a higher first‑serve percentage. In conditions like this where the ball is bouncing extremely high, you can use the kick serves and stuff a little bit more where you're a lot less likely to miss than a bigger serve. So, yeah, it's just about using the serve as smart as you can to get the most rewards. I have done that quite well so far this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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