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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 22, 2015

Andy Murray

CINCINNATI, OHIO

R. FEDERER/A. Murray
6‑4, 7‑6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Roger now has gotten the last five matches from you, including the last ten sets. Last five sets have been very close. You've been right there but haven't been able to get it done. What's preventing you from getting a set or win over him the last five times?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think, like I said, the matches for me last year, I'm not looking that closely at those ones because I was not able to compete at that level. I wasn't competing at that level last year at all. I lost to all the top players and had very few wins against the guys in the top 10 coming back from the surgery.
This year is obviously different. You know, the match at Wimbledon, I felt like he served extremely well in that match; today it was a tough one. I started slowly the last couple days.
Almost got myself back into the match today, and just didn't return as well as I would've liked. That was the difference.

Q. It's been a pretty hectic schedule since Wimbledon. Overall, how are you feeling now?
ANDY MURRAY: I feel okay. I mean, I've done well to recover from some tough matches. Yeah, it's good. The positive about losing today is I get the opportunity to have an extra days' rest and recover. I need that.
I played a lot of tennis the last couple of weeks, and obviously a lot of the other guys that have been playing a lot didn't participate in the Davis Cup this year either.
So after Wimbledon they had, you know, much, much longer to recover from that as well. One day might not seem like much to you guys, but it's a lot for me just now to have 40 hours or whatever, 72 hours to recover now and try and get my body feeling good again.

Q. Would you say there is a fatigue factor, second week in a row?
ANDY MURRAY: Probably be a bit concerned if there wasn't, to be honest. I think it's quite normal. The schedule the last couple of weeks has been tough. A lot of tricky, long matches as well this week.
But, yeah, actually, I didn't feel too bad on the court. There wasn't many long rallies today, which helped. I served well, so I was able to get a lot of free points there.
Yeah, maybe like the first shot after the return he was maybe just a little bit slow there. Against Roger, he's extremely dangerous off the first shot of the rallies. You know, good example of that is the 5‑All point in the tiebreak. I hit a pretty good return and just couldn't quite get to that ball and hit a good shot there.

Q. You lost earlier than expected at Washington. I was wondering why you elected to play that with then three weeks in a row fully expecting to go deep in both Canada and here, which you've done? Your thoughts on deciding to play Washington?
ANDY MURRAY: The plan was not to play here. That was my plan, you know, so that I could do a post‑Canada‑‑ basically train for four or five days. So have three, four days off, and then sort of be able to train hard for four or five days. Get a sort of mini training block in before the US Open.
But then obviously didn't work out that way. In Washington I lost early, and then we discussed it a bit after Canada as well because of the way that the few matches at the end went there.
But, yeah, that was the plan. I feel like it takes me a bit of time going from grass to hard courts for my body to adjust. I felt that maybe going over to Washington early and getting on the hard courts a little bit sooner might help.
I feel like it has. My body actually feels pretty good considering how much I played.
But, yeah, that was my original plan.

Q. As someone who has won 11 Masters titles yourself, what do you think of Novak going for the chance to be the first person to win all nine events tomorrow? No one has been close to doing that before.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, look, obviously would be a terrific achievement. I think the reason why it's so hard is because often you have to play like five, six matches in a row here. I don't know how many players have won Canada and Cincinnati back to back. I think it's very few. It's not happened really at all because it's so many matches in such a sort space of time.
Because it's best‑of‑three sets the match can be over quickly. If you get a slow start or your opponent is really hot at the beginning and you're not quite ready for that, you can lose those matches quickly.
For him to be a position to do it here, yeah, it's excellent. Obviously the reason it's not happened before is because it's an extremely hard thing to do.

Q. Sorry if it's been asked before, but the prospect of not being seeded No. 2 in New York concern you at all, or not bothered about that? If Roger wins tomorrow.
ANDY MURRAY: I won't lose sleep over it. Obviously I would rather be ranked No. 2 going in.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it necessarily always makes a huge difference. I myself would have to reach the semifinals for it to make a difference, as would Roger or Novak.
I've been in slams where I've spoken about it many times. I've been told when the draws come out, This is the hardest draw, and two days later it's the easiest draw.
Just depends really what happens with all the players. But, yeah, ideally you avoid the best players. Being ranked 2 and 3 makes a slight difference.

Q. What did you make of Roger coming way up almost to the service line to return a few times? He's been doing that throughout the week.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I saw he did it quite a bit earlier in the week. Didn't do it loads today. I think the times he tried it didn't work so well.
Yeah, it's an interesting thing to try. Obviously if you get a decent contact on the return, you know, it's not that easy for the guy who's serving to get back up after the serve and hit the passing shot.
Equally, if you, as a server, hit a good second serve, which second serve was very good today, it was then very good for him as the returner.
I've seen him step in before, but not quite like that.

Q. With how many times you played him, is it surprising to see a new trick come out of the bag?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, that one‑‑ for me, I don't know how successful it is. I didn't feel like it was off‑putting or anything today, but it's definitely different. I've not seen him try that before.
Obviously it's probably a bit easier to do on hard courts than on grass or clay because it bounces a little bit truer. To do it off Kevin Anderson's second serve is not an easy thing to do.
He's obviously hit some good ones this week.

Q. You mentioned the plan was to play Canada and Washington and skip here. This week would be a 4‑day training block. Do you play simulated matches? Do you play points? Elaborate on that.
ANDY MURRAY: It kind of depends a little bit. It changes all of the time. Sometimes depends on how you feel. If you feel like, you know, you're getting tired in matches, spend a little bit more time doing endurance work or cardio stuff.
I do a lot of that on the court, and the VersaClimber is the machine I use for that stuff. If I feel slow on the court, obviously spend more time doing speed work. Sometimes there may be specific things on the court that I feel like I'm not doing ‑ in terms of my game ‑ that I feel like I'm not doing well, so I'll spend a lot of time in those four or five days working on those specific things, whatever they might be.
So next week I'll definitely do that. I won't spend so much time in the gym next week because I played so much. I do feel like I'll be able to make some improvements before the US Open, and that's kind of what you do.
There is so little time in the year really that you have to almost play it by ear a little bit how you're playing at the time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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