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WIMBLEDON

June 25, 2016

Andy Murray

London, England

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. If my memory serves me well, you first parted with Ivan Lendl back in 2014. That's exactly when Novak Djokovic hired Boris Becker as his coach. This will be the first time in a major championship two coaches face off. Do you think your reunion with Ivan Lendl is going to give you a lot of pressure or do you think it's going to give you a lot of encouragement?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, obviously we're working together because, you know, I feel like he can help me. He wants to do the job.
I think the last weeks have gone extremely well. The time I spent with him beforehand was very good. I don't feel any added pressure working with him again. I think, you know, it gives actually a bit of extra confidence, because I know last time we worked together, it was very successful. I trust in what he says.
This last week's been very good. Enjoyed having him back as part of the team. Yeah, hopefully I can have a good run here.

Q. What is it going to be like playing a fellow Brit in the first round at Wimbledon?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it will be interesting. Obviously never happened before, for me anyway. So, yeah, it will be interesting.
I know Liam fairly well. We practiced a bit earlier this year, around sort of February, March time, after the Aussie Open.
He's a good guy. Works hard. I would imagine we'd probably play on one of the big courts. So a big experience for him, as well. Yeah, look forward to it.
But, I mean, it will be a bit strange. It's never happened before for me.

Q. Obviously the Olympics are coming up and the Zika virus is a big topic of discussion. All the players seems to be depending on information coming from other people on the topic. Have you read about it yourself or looked at an article to know if it's dangerous for you to go or not to go?
ANDY MURRAY: I spoke to my doctor a bit and some of the guys on my team spoke to the doctor of British tennis, who has been working there for, I don't know, 35, 40 years. He seems to think that it's pretty safe and that we should be okay.
I think probably when I'm done here, I'll have another chat with him, you know, make sure. But, yeah, my plan is still to play.

Q. I know you're interested in big political events. Have you been following much of the referendum fallout and what are your thoughts?
ANDY MURRAY: I'm not discussing that today. I have followed it very closely. Yeah, stayed up pretty late on whatever night it was, last night into the morning.
But, yeah, I'm not discussing that today, unfortunately (smiling).

Q. Getting back to Liam. He recalled when he first spent some time with the Davis Cup team, he had to go through the initiation speech. You were quite vociferous in making him do it. What recollections do you have of that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I mean, everyone, when they are invited to their first Davis Cup, they obviously do the speech at the dinner. Yeah, I mean, he was always going to have to do it. We were just kind of at the dinner beforehand egging him on, telling him what to say.
He had obviously never been to one of the dinners before, so wasn't sure exactly what he should say. We were obviously telling him what to say, which was wrong. We were telling him obviously the wrong things to say and hoping he would stand up and actually say them.
But he did fine.

Q. Do you remember your initiation speech and who egged you on?
ANDY MURRAY: I did it in Israel when I was 17. Yeah, that was my first tie.
I don't remember it particularly well. I mean, that was like over 12 years ago now. It's a long time ago.
I mean, I've seen a lot of people do those speeches before. They're not easy.

Q. In terms of the Davis Cup quarterfinal, have you had any more thoughts about that? Is it going to depend on how things go here?
ANDY MURRAY: My plan's to play, providing I'm fit and feel good. Right now my body's good. Obviously I played a lot of tennis. Hopefully I have a deep run here. That's the plan. Then see obviously at the end of the event.
But my plan's to play, providing I don't pick up any niggles, and physically I feel good, which I do right now. So that's positive.

Q. Can I ask your thoughts on the amount of Brits here at Wimbledon this year, I think it's 15, and a lot of them have qualified with ranking, in particular the achievements of Marcus Willis yesterday?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was great for him to qualify. I remember actually, it was a couple of years ago, he was trying to get some funding together because he wanted to try to play a full year on the tour. I remember retweeting something he was doing to try and raise money online to keep playing because he wasn't getting any funding anymore.
Actually he'd been to one of the Davis Cup ties when we played here. I think it was against Austria. He was part of the team. He's a really nice, good, fun guy. He's really popular with all of the players. The guys know him really well.
Yeah, it's just a really cool story. He pretty much stopped playing, then was coaching pretty much. So to then sort of go to prequalifying last minute, get through the prequalifying, then to the qualifying. Obviously no guarantees he wins his first match, but with the potential to play Roger, yeah, it would be an amazing story.
Happy for him he's got the chance to play here. It's obviously something he always wanted to do. He's earned his chance now.

Q. You obviously care very much about the other British players. Do you feel there's more momentum coming into this Wimbledon than any one before, with British tennis, with what Johanna is doing, Kyle breaking into the top 100?
ANDY MURRAY: I do feel right now it's pretty positive. I don't think it's in a bad place just now. I think obviously it could be better. Always want to do better.
But, you know, Johanna has been doing very well. I think Kyle's going to continue to keep improving. Dan Evans is sort of now getting everything together, is going to be on the tour hopefully for a while now.
On the doubles side, obviously my brother has been doing very well. Dom Inglot is in the final. Naomi Broady, Liam's sister, has been doing great, too. Heather Watson has always been up there and solid. Hopefully Laura can get fit again.
Things are hopefully going in the right direction. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's more positive than some of the years I've been here, for sure.

Q. You said at the end of Queen's, you can either have a really great week of preparation or a not‑so‑great week when you arrive here. I take it's been a really good with Ivan. Did you just sort of slot back in as if he'd never been away?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, genuinely it was easy, yeah. I mean, it was not difficult. He's obviously very sort of clear in what he thinks and where my game needs to go if I want to keep improving and winning the major events again.
Like I said, because I trust and believe in his opinion, it also helps when you get back on the court together. When we've chatted, it's all gone very well.
I believe my practice this week has been good. My team's been happy with everything. If it wasn't going well, probably wouldn't have had a day off today. Got a day off the practice court, trying to refresh a little bit, recover a little bit, get ready for a big push the next couple of weeks.

Q. On Marcus again, have you ever hit with him? He has a very unusual game.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, he does. Yeah, I've hit with him. He was one of the hitting partners for one of the Davis Cup ties that we played here at Wimbledon.
Yeah, I mean, he's an awkward player. Got quite a different sort of game style. Serve and volleys a little bit. He's got really good touch, good volleys. Puts a lot of slice on his slice backhand. Quite a spinny forehand. Quite an unusual player.
But, yeah, I have hit with him a few times. Not for a long time. Actually I haven't seen him for quite a while, yeah.

Q. You're obviously good friends with Wardy. He faces a task that you're quite familiar with. He says sometime either tonight or tomorrow he's going to pick your brain. What can you tell him?
ANDY MURRAY: I think the most important thing for him is to go out and enjoy it. Obviously it's an incredibly difficult draw. But he's getting the chance to play against the best player in the world on Centre Court Wimbledon. If you aren't excited or pumped for that, then you're playing the wrong sport, you're doing the wrong thing.
I think, you know, Wardy will go out there and play well. I expect him to play good stuff. He has played his best tennis normally when he's been in the biggest occasions. He's done it a few times in Davis Cup, he has played well here in the past and at Queen's.
Regardless of the result, hopefully this can be sort of a boost for him, to play a match like this, get his year back on track.

Q. What do you admire most about Novak's game, if you had to pick one or a couple of things to focus on, that distinguish him from everyone else?
ANDY MURRAY: I think the consistency really. I mean, he obviously plays every shot well. He doesn't have weaknesses in his game. He does everything well. Plays well on all of the courts.
But his consistency and drive over the last, you know, few years has been incredible. The amount of finals he's played, there's been barely any matches that he's played that you'd call upsets in the last, I don't know, 15, 16 months, since Doha last year. He made, what, every single final through until he pulled out in Doha earlier this year. I don't know if that's ever happened before, where someone's pretty much gone over a year consistently reaching the finals of tournaments. That's the most impressive thing.
In an individual sport, if you have a really bad day, wake up, you feel terrible, you lose at this level. He hasn't had really any of those results or those matches over the last few years.
That's very impressive.

Q. Just on the British players you were talking about. Naomi said in Paris she felt it all sort of started with you making British tennis more of a good news story, that it affected all the other players, helped lift them. Is it satisfying to think you might have had an effect on the other guys around you like that?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, yeah, I mean obviously I don't know why British tennis has been doing a bit better the last few years. I mean, I have obviously spent a decent amount of time with Wardy and Kyle, a little bit more time with Evo and stuff. Tried to practice with them and help where I can.
If that's made a small difference to them, then that's great. The players need to do the work, as well, ultimately. So it comes down to them. If I've given them a little bit extra sort of incentive to work a bit harder or motivated them in any way, then I'm really, really happy about that.
But ultimately they need to be the ones themselves that go out and win the matches, practice and train hard. That's just sort of the culture you want in this sport in this country because that's something that I think a lot of players, coaches, people that have been involved in the game, you know, they feel like we've lacked that a bit in the past. Hopefully moving forward that will be something we do a little bit better.

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