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SHANGHAI ROLEX MASTERS

October 15, 2015

Andy Murray

SHANGHAI, CHINA

A. MURRAY/J. Isner
6‑7, 6‑4, 6‑4

Q. How do you rate the conditions out on court today?
ANDY MURRAY: How do irate them in terms of like good, bad?

Q. Just generally. You seemed a little bit frustrated at times with people moving around and talking.
ANDY MURRAY: Well, no, I mean, you could say 'frustration' or just trying to ask the umpire to say something because as I went to serve for the match, there were two people that came and sat down in my box right before I was about to start serving. I just asked if they could be moved because that's the player's box. That's for the coaches and the people you work with.
Yeah, I mean, that happens everywhere. Really it's up to the people that are in control of who's coming in and out, the umpire, to control that.
I mean, it was very good. I think for 99% of the match it was fine.

Q. The match seemed to turn when you started to make more inroads into his service games second set onwards. Was it a case of getting a better read on his serve or getting used to the court conditions?
ANDY MURRAY: It was very tough the first set. There was a lot of shadow across the court. But it's not kind of like a normal shadow. It's in different bits the sun comes through. His serve is tough to read obviously. He has a great serve. It's hard to return in perfect conditions. So when the ball's coming in and out of the shade, and his ball toss, as well, it's difficult.
Then when the sun went away, the court was played in the shade, I found it easier to see the serve. I made some adjustments to my return position, as well, which helped me. I created a lot of chances in the second and third sets.

Q. How pleased were you with the way you sort of kept your composure when he was saving all these breakpoints and you couldn't convert?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it was frustrating. I did feel, like I said, like I was getting a lot of chances. Once I was in the rallies, I felt in control in the second and third set. In the first set, some of the rallies he was able to dictate the points, was using his forehand well, really going for it. I did feel in the second and third sets, when I could get in the rallies, I was dictating the points.
So, yeah, it's obviously tough to maintain your patience and not get a bit frustrated when you do get the chances and, you know, he serves an ace. There were like 13 breakpoints. I would imagine he served an ace on at least half of those. He served very well when he was behind.

Q. I don't know if you have any view on what appears a little bit lopsided schedule. You and John were first on, 1:30, that's fine. But the people you now play, Berdych or Gasquet, aren't until the last match tonight. Does that have any bearing?
ANDY MURRAY: We've been told that tomorrow, unless Novak loses, that we'll play 8:00 p.m. tomorrow evening. Obviously for me I have more time to recover. But it's also completely different for the body clock, as well. I first played at 3:30, then earlier today at 1:30, then to play at 8:00 p.m., it's difficult.
That is one of the challenges in tennis that we have when you play these matches day after day. It can be tricky with the schedule.
Like I said, my advantage is that now I get to go back and rest and recover. The disadvantage is that I haven't played under the lights or at night. They'll be playing in those conditions this evening.
So, you know, if we were playing at 1:30 tomorrow, it would be definitely an advantage for me. But I don't know who that's better for with how the schedule is tomorrow.

Q. Why did they schedule you so early?
ANDY MURRAY: I think because Isner has doubles to play. So if we played at 3:30 or at 6:00, we play a two‑and‑a‑half‑hour match, for him, if he wins that match, then has to take 45 minutes, an hour, before he goes out to doubles, he obviously gets done extremely late.
But, yeah, it's never easy for the tournaments to get a perfect schedule, especially if there's upsets and things like that. The TV requests certain matches as well. Yeah, it's tricky sometimes.

Q. Talking of doubles, is it correct that you tried to get in doubles with Colin Fleming?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was a shame because we were the second alternates. Then one team pulled out. Verdasco pulled out on Sunday evening, Monday. Then Herbert had withdrawn in the qualifying of the singles with a bad back. You know, he didn't get scheduled until today.
Colin was communicating with his coach about whether he was going to pull out or not because most of the other teams that were here were doubles teams, and none of them had any physical problems.
I felt bad for Colin because he won in Shenzhen, so couldn't play the qualifying for Beijing. He decided to stay with the hope that we'd be able to get in here. Obviously had to wait till the last minute because Herbert didn't practice on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and he hit late yesterday to test his back out, see if he'd be okay for the doubles. So Colin had to wait around and flew out first thing this morning when his coach told him Herbert was going to play.
Tough 10 days here for nothing.

Q. Was it a question of helping out Colin as an old mate or for the Davis Cup?
ANDY MURRAY: A combination of the two. I wanted to try to play some doubles matches, as well, with the Davis Cup in mind. You know, I plan on playing the doubles in Paris. I'm not 100% sure with who yet. But, yeah, want to try to get some doubles matches before the Davis Cup.
Also me and Colin haven't played loads together, but we did play very well the times we have played in Davis Cups. We had good wins against Bolelli‑Fognini. When we played Montréal a few years ago, we made the final.
He's someone I grew up with. He's a very good friend of mine. Hopefully we'll get a chance again to play in the future. It was pretty unfortunate for him how it worked out this week.

Q. You will probably become No. 2 at the end of this year. Have you ever thought of being world No.1?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, look, all of the players on the tour would like to get to No.1 in the world. Obviously this year I have a good chance to finish at No. 2, which would be the first time for me.
There's still a lot of possibilities where I could finish at maybe even No.4 or whatever if Stan plays extremely well between now and the end of the year, and Roger as well.
Look, the goal is to try to win tournaments, try and win the big events. If you do that, the ranking will go in the right direction. This year, although I'm a long way behind Novak in the rankings, a few matches can change that significantly. Grand Slam semifinals and finals, they're the matches that are for big, big points. That's something, if I want to get to No.1 in the world, need to win a couple more of them. So hopefully next year I'll be able to do that.

Q. Coming into this quarterfinal, I was wondering how you were assessing your game. Is it at the level you want? Would you like to fix some stuff?
ANDY MURRAY: I think I'm hitting the ball very clean from the back of the court. I'm not making loads of unforced errors. I think today I made a few bad decisions at certain times. My shot selection could have been a bit better at the important moments. But then when I was breakpoints down, for example, I came up with some really good tennis.
So I think if I just cut out a couple of the bad choices towards the end of the sets, I'll be in a good position because I feel like I'm serving well, I'm getting a lot of free points on my first serve, used good variety on the second serve today, although it's difficult to tell how you're returning against John sometimes. I did feel I hit the ball well from the back of the court yesterday against Steve Johnson, and today the same again. So I feel my game is in a good place.

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