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U.S. OPENSeptember 5, 2015Andy MurrayNew York, NY, USA A. MURRAY/T. Bellucci 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 An interview with: ANDY MURRAY THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Probably happy to have that be shorter after a few extra sets in the first two rounds? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think, I mean, conditions were so much nicer to play in today, as well. Like after long rallies and stuff, you weren't really struggling for breath as much. I also think, conditioning-wise, the first couple rounds, it really doesn't get much harder than that. Maybe it will get bad again, but they're some of the toughest conditions you'll play in during the year. To get through those matches, especially the second one, was important. Yeah, much easier tonight. Q. Is it correct that you asked for as late of a match as possible, bearing in mind the aftermath of playing with that cold in the last round? ANDY MURRAY: I asked to play later. I didn't ask to play as late as possible. I just asked if I could play slightly later rather than first or second. But, yeah, I didn't ask to play last on. Q. How are you feeling both in terms of getting over the cold and in terms of whether there are any aftereffects from the second-round match? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, today I felt much better. When I woke up this morning -- I slept like during the day yesterday two or three times. Today I got up, and I slept again before coming out to the courts. Today I felt much, much better. My voice feels like normal again. Still dull obviously, but it feels more normal today and not blocked up or anything anymore, which is good. Yeah, that's very positive. Q. What did you feel today about the quality of your tennis? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I felt like I played well. I mean, in these conditions, it's a bit easier to control the ball. The ball was not bouncing as high. It was a bit sort of flatter. You know, like in the conditions the other days, when you tried to flatten the ball out, it was quite easy for it to sail on you. The ball was flying a lot more. Whereas today when you flattened the ball out, it was a bit easier to control. Harder to serve. It was much slower conditions to serve in. So less aces. The speed of the serve was a bit lower. But then obviously returning's a little bit easier, as well. So I felt like I played well. But the conditions helped that, too. Q. In theory would it be easier to play Kevin at night in similar conditions than daytime conditions? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know really. More depends like the humidity. I feel like in most places, when it's humid, it kind of slows the ball down a little bit. Obviously it's been hot, which speeds the ball up. But the humidity felt like it made the balls bouncier, more bouncy than usual. Obviously against a tall guy who serves well, it will be a little bit harder to return the serve when it's like that. But we'll see what happens. Q. Can I throw a kilt on a question for Scotland. The football team lost the crucial game the other night. Hopefully you can deliver in the days ahead for them. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I hope so. You know, I obviously don't think about kind of that stuff when I'm in the middle of the tournament. I try to give my best effort in all of the events I'm at during the year. I do feel like I represent the UK and Scotland when I'm playing in any event, you know, regardless of how well the football team's doing. I still try my best to represent the country well. Q. You've obviously been asked and talked a lot in the last year about having a female coach. Have any of the WTA players approached you to talk to you or appreciate what you've been saying about women's sports over the last year? ANDY MURRAY: No, not really, to be honest. I mean, I've spoken to a couple of people about it but not players on the tour. I mean, I've seen little bits and pieces that they've said over the last few months, last year, but I haven't spoken to any of the players directly about it. Q. Your mindset approaching the second week? Is your game where you want it to be? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, tonight, like I said, the conditions were extremely different. It was a bit easier to control the ball. I felt like I played better. Obviously I finished the match the other day pretty well. In the first match I felt like I played some good stuff, as well. But I was also playing against two extremely good players in the first couple rounds. Both just missed out on seedings. You know, it was a tough, tough start to the tournament for me. So, you know, was very testing couple of rounds. Obviously managed to just get through them. And today played a little bit better. I feel better, as well. You know, I wasn't feeling great the first few days. You know, now that that's cleared up, I felt much better on the court tonight. Q. (Indiscernible.) ANDY MURRAY: I played some good matches against him in the past. I only lost to him once in Montréal. It was a very quick, easy match. I lost to him there. But apart from that, I've normally played quite well against him. You know, he's obviously playing some good stuff. He won the tournament last week. He's had a couple of good wins here. Thiem is going to be one of the top players in the future. That was a pretty good win tonight. It will be a tough one, for sure. Q. Six wins in a row against left-handers, other than Nadal. You grew up playing with Jamie. Is that still a streak you're quite impressed by? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don't think about it, like, that much. I don't mind playing against left-handers. I quite like it. It's almost more natural for me to play against a lefty because the first sort of six, seven years of my tennis life was playing with my brother really and predominantly with him. In those years, you obviously do a lot of learning. That's what I learnt to play tennis against. I don't mind. Like, maybe some players when they see a lefty, they think, Oh, it's going to be much harder. But I don't mind it as much as some players. Q. You have a good record against Anderson but also against big servers in general. What do you put that down to? Do you take particular satisfaction sort of picking these big servers off? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, they're always tricky matches. But getting a lot of returns in play is something that throughout most of my career I've been good at. Often the big servers, they come into matches used to getting a lot of free points. It changes their mindset a little bit in the way they play the match and play the points. That's why I think I've had good success against them in the past. But they're always tough matches because you don't get loads of opportunities normally. Q. You're not the only British players to the Round of 16. What are your thoughts on Konta's efforts here? ANDY MURRAY: It's great. I didn't see much of her last match against Muguruza. I watched most of the match today in the hotel. She played very well. She played very good. She played a very good tiebreak, obviously the second set played some good stuff until she got into the winning position. That's always tricky. I believe that's the first time she's made the fourth round of a slam. But, yeah, even with the sort of struggles closing it out, she managed to get there. That's a good sign. She's obviously been on an excellent run lately. Very close to being the No. 1 in Britain. Kind of shows how high she could get, which is exciting, beating two players like Petkovic and Muguruza. It suggests she has the potential to go very high if she continues on the right path. I think that's very, very exciting. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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