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INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 12, 2016

Andy Murray

Rome, Italy

A. MURRAY/J. Chardy

6-0, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I don't know if you have been following live scores, but Berdych has just been double-bageled and Novak has been bageled. I guess it makes it feel all the better to be into the next round?
ANDY MURRAY: I saw a little bit of Novak's first set, and, I mean, I said the other day that the guys that did well in Madrid is -- obviously wasn't expecting those results, obviously, but, yeah, it's not easy. Novak played Bellucci last year and had, you know, a tough match with him here, as well.

Yeah, happy to get through and obviously started a little bit quicker than those guys.

Q. Goffin beating Berdych 6-Love, 6-Love, what are your thoughts about playing him tomorrow?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, he's obviously a top player. Now he's been around top 20 in the world for the last couple of years, and again, this year he's played very well. I didn't see any of the match today, but to win love and love against one of the best players in the world you've got to be feeling good.

Yeah, it was a tough match in the Davis Cup final when we played, you know, but managed to win that one. Hopefully learned a few things from playing against him on the clay and try and execute a good game plan tomorrow. It worked well in Ghent.

Q. What do you make of your match today? You seemed to play so well in the first set and then there were was a little blip in the second but did enough to get the job done.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I mean, it could have been, you know, more comfortable in the second set. I had 3-2, Love-40, you know, I think four break points in that game, didn't get them.

Then, yeah, had a couple of mistakes in the next game and, you know, the momentum shifted a lot. But I managed to get it back by winning a very tough game at 4-3 and then finished the match off well.

But, you know, apart from, you know, a few minutes of the match, I played very well. You know, returned good. Was making it difficult for him. Played a lot of different shots, and, you know, used a lot of variety so that was good.

Q. Must be quite a while since you played on three different courts in three successive matches at an event. Is that a factor at all? Have you practiced on the stadium at all?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I have not played on it. Yeah, I said that in my interview after the match. All of the courts do play a little bit differently because of the way they're set up.

It was a great atmosphere on the court today. I really, really like that court, and I had asked to play on that one if I wasn't going to play on center court today. I enjoyed being out there.

But, yeah, center court, again, is different normally. I haven't hit on it this year. I'll warm up tomorrow before the match to try and feel it out a little bit.

Q. Is it the statues you like?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I just -- it's just very intimate, the court. The fans are extremely close and it just creates a great atmosphere. I don't believe you need a ticket for that court.

Normally, you know, those courts, almost all of the big events that you play at have the best atmosphere normally.

Q. Did you think that the dropshot was particularly a good tactic against Chardy, or were you just kind of feeling it well and enjoying using it? Because it seemed to go very well today with the drop.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, on the clay it works well when you use it, you know, at the right time. Today I was picking the right moment to use it. You know, not all of them were dropshots where I was trying to sort of finish the point.

A lot of them were sort of short slices where, you know, the second bounce would have, you know, would have bounced after the service line, and it was putting him in an awkward position in the court.

You know, he likes to move around and hit his forehand, but when you drop it in that area, he has to make a quick decision whether he hits a forehand or he uses a slice. That caught him a few times and it worked well.

Q. Just back on Goffin, he's obviously had a great year this year. I wonder, is there anything in particular you have seen of him that you feel he's improved this year?
ANDY MURRAY: I haven't seen him play loads of matches this year. I mean, he's been consistent at pretty much all of the tournaments.

And, yeah, I think -- I mean, once sort of players get to the kind of top level of the game when they're young, a lot of it is experience and just understanding what shots to play at the right time, making better decisions, becoming a better match player, and, you know, slightly improving your level from competing against the best players more often.

I haven't seen him loads this year, but I would imagine that's contributed to his improvement.

Q. I see you turn to your box. It was for the tension of the racquet, or you was nervous for the movement on the ground?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it wasn't really for either of those things. You know, I was frustrated when I didn't take my chance in the second set, but there was no -- it was nothing to do with the tension of my racquet or my movement. It was more the frustration that I hadn't capitalized on my chance to close out the match.

Q. With Roger's defeat today, you're back up to 2. Does that bother you too much?
ANDY MURRAY: It certainly doesn't bother me. It's positive, if anything.

You know, I said at the start of the week it's good. It can help being No. 2. The seedings, you know, doesn't make a massive difference, but, you know, it helps, you know, can help with the draws. So it's a positive thing.

It wasn't, like I said, it wasn't my goal when I started this week to try to do that, but, you know, being No. 2 is better than being No. 3. You know, 1 is better than 2. So try to go a step higher if I can.

Q. What do you need to do to close the gap to Novak?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think my consistency needs to, again, be better. I mean, this year, you know, it was tough, you know, had a couple of poor tournaments, Indian Wells and Miami, a couple of matches that maybe I think I should have won. I certainly could have won those matches.

And, yeah, if you want to get to the No. 1 spot, you can't really afford any tournaments like that, because the guy who is No. 1 is making finals of almost every event that he plays. So that's the first step.

And then also, you know, finding ways to win against him on a more consistent basis, because, you know, when you play against him, the difference between winning and losing and the final points-wise is, you know, it's like an 800-point swing, which is significant if you lose four or five matches against him.

So try to turn a few more of those matches in my favor, and we'll be a bit closer.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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