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MUTUA MADRID OPENMay 8, 2015Andy MurrayMADRID, SPAIN A. MURRAY/M. Raonic THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How tricky is it to play against an opponent that visibly has some fitness issue? Is it playing with your mind too at some point? ANDY MURRAY: Certainly altered the way I played the match a little bit. But then, yeah, I mean, it's tough because he's still serving like 220, 230 kilometers an hour in altitude and going for big second serves as well. Sometimes serving 190 kilometer second serves. Obviously if someone is not moving well, you know, because of a physical problem, you want to try to make them move. But when they're serving like that you don't always have the option. I felt when I was serving I played the match well. Made him do a lot of moving. He seemed to be moving okay from side to side. It was moving forward that was causing him the issues. So I tried to exploit that a little bit. Yeah, it was still a tricky match, because in those conditions you're still able to serve like that and get a lot of free points and make it tough. Q. Also noticed you moving quite a lot on the court. You looked quite confident. Did you feel more at ease? Did you feel confident? ANDY MURRAY: I felt like I've been moving well. The first couple of weeks on the clay I tried to work on it quite a lot in my training block before I started playing the tournaments. I think also because I feel healthy this year I'm not sort of worrying about my back or worrying about things when I am put in difficult positions on court. So that obviously gives me a bit more confidence in the movement. I've been defending well and making it difficult for my opponents to win quick, easy points once we get into the rallies. Obviously sometimes when he serves extremely well that's difficult. When I was in the rallies I made it very difficult for him. Q. You played a few amazing points under pressure today, especially that lob in the second set. I think it was on the break point as well. Are you happy with your performance in those moments? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think for me, that was the best thing about the match. I think there were some things that I could have done better at different stages, but when I was under pressure on my serve I did play some good points. In the last game when I was at deuce on my serve, I played a very good point there and used my forehand very well. Then, yeah, couple of those points when he had break points in the second set, I felt like I played good, aggressive tennis. I tried to be the one dictating. Obviously at that point I didn't hit a great dropshot. It was good, and luckily managed to hit a nice lob on the second shot, which was good. Q. You faced a big server today. Is it frustrating playing players like Karlovic, Isner, Raonic who have the huge serves? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, can be frustrating, you know, because you don't get as much rhythm as you do against other players. I've generally throughout my career have had a decent record against guys with big serves. Getting returns back in play is one of my biggest strengths, so sometimes you can't do anything about it. If someone serves 220 kilometers an hour on the line, you can't do anything about that. Over the course of the match try to make as many returns as possible, and then once I'm in the rally try to get them moving as best you can. When they're dictating they are very big, strong guys, and they can push you around the court. Q. Can I just have a word from you on each of your two potential semifinal opponents. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, they've played a few times over the last couple years and played a lot of very close, long matches. Kei is obviously played well here last year. I think David has also played some good tennis here in the past. Be a tough match whoever it is. I mean, they're both sort of similar, kind of similar in game style. I would say Nishikori has a better backhand than David and David's forehand is probably a bit better than Kei's. They both move extremely well and have been very consistent over the last‑‑ well, David over the last, I don't know, nine, ten years. Kei has played much more consistent tennis the last couple years. Yeah, both very tough opponents. Q. There was a moment where a ball got called out and then you corrected it and it was in. Do you feel that was something you should see more of on the tour? ANDY MURRAY: Generally on clay I think most of the players are very good with that. There is occasionally sometimes two ball marks very close to each other and you can make a mistake and show the wrong one to the umpire. Sometimes the players may think that the ball is in and the umpire maybe sees it slightly differently. I think in general most of the players other tour, especially on this surface where there are ball marks, the players are pretty fair in general. I would say with that, just try to, you know, check the mark as quickly as possible, because I know when I'm on the other side of it, if you're serving or you think you might have won a point and the umpire or opponent takes a long time to show you the mark, can be a little bit off putting. So just go up to the mark as quickly as possible and hopefully see the ball the correct way. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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