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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2016

Andy Murray

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A. MURRAY/B. Tomic

6-4, 6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Pretty straightforward win, Andy. How do you assess your performance?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't think it was that straightforward. It was a tricky match. You know, I mean, I got up a break I think in all of the sets. Each time he obviously got it back. So there were quite a few momentum shifts in all of the sets.

I think the third set he definitely played better. He started taking a lot more chances, especially at the end of the set. The 5-All game that we played there, it was a very long game. He was serving and going big off the first ball. It wasn't easy for me to get into a rhythm.

Luckily he missed a few easy forehands in the tiebreak, and that helped me out in the breaker. Helped me get it done in straight sets.

But, you know, it's obviously never straightforward against someone with his game style. He's a different player to most. You know, he's tough.

Q. Don't know if you watched any of the Novak-Simon match last night, but might there be some comparisons between Simon and Tomic in the way they kind of draw out the rallies?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, in some ways. In some ways. I mean, you know, Simon doesn't use the slice ever really. He doesn't generate as much pace on his own.

Bernie can generate a lot of power on his own and serves better.

Simon, you know, is probably the better returner and moves better.

Both of them have a very good understanding of the game and read the game extremely well. They're just quite sort of different athletes with, you know, different attributes on the court.

But I think they both anticipate the game extremely well. That's why there's normally a lot of entertaining rallies when they're on the court, because of that.

Q. What do you think Bernie needs to do to make that next step to get into the top 10 and beyond?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, obviously if he can start getting a few more wins against the top players, that would help. But, I mean, seems like he gets a bit of a hard time. I think he's the youngest player in the top 20. Most years he makes improvements. He's the No. 1 player in Australia.

Like on the court his personality is very different to someone like a Kyrgios. But, you know, I think he deals with pressure well. I think he plays good tennis at the Aussie Open. He's performed extremely well in Davis Cup. I think he's only lost two or three Davis Cup matches.

Obviously if he can be consistent throughout the year, you know, it's normal I think for young players to have ups and downs. But I think he seems to be playing more consistent tennis. You know, he'll definitely keep moving up the rankings.

But, you know, once you get to 15 or 10, around that ranking, the steps become even harder. Even though it's just a few spots it's hard, because the players above are extremely good. It takes time now.

He'll get better. He'll be a top-10 player, for sure.

Q. What do you make of the conditions on Laver compared to your other matches, conditions at night?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I don't know actually. I don't know. I mean, I think that the court's quite quick. But the court, it's sort of downhill a little bit. From the end where you walk onto the court, you're playing downhill and always downwind from that side.

It's a little bit easier to play from there. Always feels like you have to defend a little bit more when you're down the far end of the court. The ball comes on to you a little bit quicker. Feels like you have a little bit more time when you're on that near side of the court.

It's not a slow court. I think if you serve well and serve close to the lines, you get free points. The serves don't always come back. A lot of guys are finishing points up at the net. I think someone like Raonic played up at the net a lot. Federer obviously. I think me and Tomic were up at the net more maybe than usually.

So, yeah, I think it's a fair court. But, you know, it can be quite quick.

Q. Can you take us through the timeline of what happened on Saturday.
ANDY MURRAY: Not really. I mean, I went to the hospital immediately after the match, and then went to the hospital again in the morning. Sort of the day after I went to the hospital for a few hours, and after that just came back to practice here in the afternoon.

Q. Was it hard to prepare? Has it taken a lot out of you, would you say?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's been a tough few days, yeah.

Q. Have you seen Jo Konta around?
ANDY MURRAY: I only saw her once actually after she won her last match, but just before I went on to play against Sousa I saw her.

But she's doing great. I mean, to back up what she was doing at the end of last year was fantastic. She obviously didn't start the year that well, the first two tournaments. But she's clearly stayed pretty calm, had some excellent wins here against very tough opponents, high-ranked opponents, and experienced ones. She's doing really, really, really well.

Yeah, just got to keep doing what she's doing. Keep her head down, keep working hard, stay calm. I don't know who she plays. Maybe she plays the winner of this one. Does she?

Q. Yes.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, so she'll have an opportunity there, as well.

The thing is, in all of the matches that she's played against players that are higher ranked than her, even the ones she's lost, she's been very competitive in.

Like when she lost to Kvitova at the US Open last year she played a pretty competitive match. She had a great match with Venus in Beijing at the end of last year as well. So, yeah, she's doing really good.

Q. Is it easy to know where your game is at after a game like this against a player who has a different kind of game? When you get out of this game, do you know you're at the form you want to be in?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I didn't think we played the best match tonight. I think at times, you know, there were some entertaining rallies. But I think both of us were a little bit up and down today. I think both of us could play a bit better than that.

But there's things. I thought I moved well tonight. I thought I served pretty good. I definitely returned well, made him play a lot on his service games. But, yeah, you know, a few more mistakes from the back of the court than usual I think from both of us.

But maybe that can be down to the way we both play, as well. We have a similar game in that we change the pace of the ball a lot. Bernie, you know, hits the ball pretty flat, can generate pace. It's very difficult to read his forehand as well. He's not an easy guy to play against.

I did a lot of things well, but could hit the ball a bit better from the back of the court.

Q. With what happened the other night, were you always clear you were going to keep playing, in your mind?
ANDY MURRAY: It was tough, yeah. It was tough. Obviously it depended on Nigel's health obviously. If the news was not positive, then, no, there was absolutely no chance I would have kept playing.

Yeah, like I said, it was a tough few days. Certainly wasn't straightforward. Just glad that he's on his way home now and can be back with his family.

Q. In some ways did what occurred put things in perspective in terms of your playing the sport and the game? And how is Kim doing?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it does put things in perspective, for sure. I'm not going into how everyone's dealing with it and stuff. I mean, yeah, it was just a tough, emotional few days at a difficult time, as well.

For sure when things like that happen, it does put things in perspective. But everyone's just very happy that Nige is doing well, yeah, that he can be back home with his friends and family, be with Kim, as well, at this time. It will be nice for her, I'm sure.

Q. Did you feel when you got out on court it was the only place in Australia at the moment where you could be away from those distractions and things going on on the outside?
ANDY MURRAY: To be honest, like today, when I woke up I felt quite drained, quite tired. As the day sort of went on and I decided to play, I started to focus a little bit better.

But definitely on the court tonight I was more emotional than normal. I was talking to myself after every single point almost from the first point through till the last, which was obviously not ideal. That uses up a lot of energy. Again, just that makes you sort of more kind of up and down throughout the match, as well.

Yeah, I mean, certainly I was trying to just concentrate on the match when I was out there, but, yeah, like I said, it's been a hard, hard few days. Hopefully gets better the next few days. I just can't believe something like that happened a few days ago. It's shocking. Nige is an unbelievably fit guy. Very, very scary.

Q. Does it ever surprise you that Ferrer is turning 34 and he's not slowing down at all? Talk about the challenge of facing him, as well.
ANDY MURRAY: Well, Roger's in kind of the same position as him. Both of them have been around the game for a long, long time and been up at the top.

The more players that do that, I think the more other players look at it and go, Actually, you know, I can do that as well. You don't have to retire when you're 31 now or when you're 32. As long as you still have the passion and dedication to work hard, and obviously if you can stay injury-free, it's possible.

Even Feliciano LÃ³pez. He's 35 this year, too. There's a lot of guys that seem to be playing a little bit longer now. All it comes down to is really the body. If the body's okay, your passion. He obviously works extremely hard. He's in good shape. He fights so hard in every single match. He's been rewarded for that with an unbelievably consistent career at the top of the game.

This year he's made some changes to his racquet as well, which would suggest that he's still trying to improve and trying to learn and do different things, as well.

Yeah, all credit to him.

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