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U.S. OPEN

September 5, 2016

Andy Murray

New York, NY, USA

A. MURRAY/G. Dimitrov

6-1, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Where does that rank performance-wise?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I played very well. Tactically I played a very good match. I don't think I made any mistakes there. I kept good concentration throughout.

Yeah, I mean, it was a really good match. I think Grigor played his best, but I didn't really give him a chance to get into the match.

Q. Is it just the way things eke out? It was so different to the way you played against Lorenzi.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, that's the beauty of an individual sport. Just because you play badly a couple of days ago doesn't mean I'm going to play badly tonight.

My best tennis is in there. Not every day do you play your best. When you're not playing, as I said the other day, when you don't play your best and win, it's a really positive thing. A lot of people worry about that or panic, like, This is terrible. You played one bad match.

I won. I'm still in the tournament. I was able to play great tennis today.

Q. It seemed like Grigor was a bit overwhelmed by playing a night match on Ashe. Were you able to sense that and take advantage of that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think that helped. I mean, I don't think he started the match, like, really badly. He had a couple of breakpoints in the first game. I don't think he started, like, really badly.

But once I got up in the score, wasn't giving him any free points, I could sense it was getting tough for him. I just wanted to keep my foot on the gas, which I didn't really do the other day. That was the one thing that I wasn't happy with against Lorenzi. When I did win a first set that was tight, didn't play my best, I kind of let him back into the match after I got a break early in the second.

I wanted too make sure today if I got ahead, I stayed on top of him, I didn't have any dip in concentration or my level, and I stuck to my tactics that were working well. That was it.

It's easier for him to him to answer how he felt about the situation or the occasion. I just know from my side, I didn't give him an opportunity once I was ahead to let him back in the match.

Q. Did you do anything different to prepare, considering he's had success against you in the past?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. Well, clearly not because normally if you've lost against someone the last time, that would suggest you might be more nervous going in against him or whatever. I didn't feel like that tonight. I was well-prepared.

I try to, in slams, it's maybe a little bit easier to prepare for matches than it is at other events because often you're playing back-to-back days and you don't have as much time to do a practice session beforehand to work on some of the things you might need to use against them.

Yesterday, had a good practice. Went over the game plan. Was pretty clear with what I wanted to do.

The last match we played I don't think had any bearing on tonight.

Q. You're going to play Nishikori. You have a very good record against him. Do you think you're comfortable to play against him in terms of playing style or experience?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I think Kei is pretty experienced now. I don't think that will be the difference in the match.

I have played well against him in the past. But, you know, he likes these conditions. He plays well in New York. He's made his only slam final here. He beat Novak here. He's obviously I think playing pretty well this summer. He played some good stuff at the Olympics and won the bronze.

I played a really good match against him when we played a few weeks ago. I'm aware I'll need to do that again in a couple days if I want to beat him because he's one of the best players in the world, plays extremely well on hard court.

It's going to be very, very tough.

Q. (Question about serving fastest serve in tournament.)
ANDY MURRAY: I haven't really. You know, I mean, I didn't hit like a bunch of serves that were like 139, 140, 141. I think that was just a one-off serve. Sometimes the gun can be a bit wrong possibly.

I served a bunch in the low 130s, mid-130s, which was good. I got a lot of free points with my serve tonight, which I did the first match against Rosol but maybe not so much against Granollers and Lorenzi.

You know, the conditions do a lot for you to serve quick. You know, the balls are fast. I wanted to use that to my advantage as the tournament goes on. I did go up in tension a little bit from the last match. Maybe that allowed me to feel like I was able to swing a little bit harder.

Yeah, haven't changed anything technically in my serve in the last 48 hours.

Q. I wonder if you saw much of Kyle's match last night. If you did, what did you make of his performance and of Novak's?
ANDY MURRAY: I saw like nine, ten points. I've been sleeping great since I've been here. I don't know why. Last night I tried to get in bed early and I slept for 12 hours straight. I never do that. I never sleep that long.

I went to bed very early. I spoke to Leon a little bit today. It seemed like Novak played extremely well, and Kyle maybe didn't play as well as he could until the third set.

But, again, it's not maybe Kyle's fault. If Novak plays great tennis, it's not easy to play well against him. Maybe it wasn't until the third set that maybe Novak's level dropped a little bit which allowed Kyle to play a bit better.

It's not easy playing against the best player in the world in a night match when you've never played on that court before. It's tricky. I'm sure Kyle will learn from it.

But he's had a great, great tournament.

Q. Do you already have the next Davis Cup semifinal on your mind? What are your expectations?
ANDY MURRAY: It's kind of in the back of my mind, yeah. I'm not thinking about it too much. I mean, I'm guessing I'll obviously be in the team. Yeah, head there pretty much as soon as I'm finished here. Maybe have a couple of days at home, then start getting ready for that.

But, yeah, it should be a good match. I mean, Del Potro is obviously playing very well just now, which when the tie was sort of first scheduled, we didn't know really whether he was going to play or how he was feeling. But he's playing great just now. They have a lot of players to choose from.

It's going to be, I think, an exciting Davis Cup match. The crowd will definitely help us. There's always a great atmosphere there.

Q. (Question regarding being in favor of shortening matches.)
ANDY MURRAY: I'm not. I'm not really pro shortening matches at the slams. I'm not necessarily against it either. If that is the way that sort of tennis is going and that is what fans and TV want, that's what they want to see, then we go for it or try it at least.

That's the thing. You don't have to stick by something. You can try it, see how it goes, potentially go back. That's also a possibility.

But, yeah, I'm not there to just sort of represent myself. You're there to do what the whole tour wants. If the tour wants to go to shorter matches, then that's fine. We can try it. If it's a success, great. If it's not, we go back to the old way.

But I think it's quite a long way from happening. I'm happy to try stuff. If it works, great. If it doesn't, then you can always change back.

Q. Now that you're on the ATP players council, where do you stand on the fifth-set tiebreak or playing it out?
ANDY MURRAY: I think it doesn't affect loads of matches really. I think shortening the matches, doing it by playing first to four in sets, first to five even, or best-of-three, whatever, is a better way of shortening matches rather than just the tiebreak in the fifth set. I don't know how many tiebreaks in the fifth set has there been here. One, two. Do you know?

Q. I don't know.
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know either. But I'd imagine it's not very many. Then there would be like, I don't know, 15, 20 five-set matches. It would make sense to look at that first if you were wanting to shorten matches rather than the tiebreak in the fifth, in my opinion.

Q. I'm looking at your match against Nishikori in the Davis Cup, for example.
ANDY MURRAY: What happened there? We didn't go to a tiebreak in the fifth, did we?

Q. Sorry, excuse me.
ANDY MURRAY: Close, but not quite. I think, yeah, it was 6-3 in the fifth maybe. I don't know, 6-3, 6-1.

Q. When you see other players playing well, does it affect how you play? Do you think about sending a message out to other players in the tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: Not purely because I know how much can change in a couple of days. Also matchups, as well. Like the way I would play against Kei would be very different how I would try to play against Grigor.

You know, it's good for myself. I'm more sort of concerned about how I'm feeling just now. It was a very quick match, one where I played very well, got a little bit of confidence back after not playing well a couple days ago. That was very positive for me.

If it has an impact on any of the other players in the tournament, I don't know. You'd have to ask them. But I certainly wasn't out on the court thinking about Kei when I was playing, or Stan or del Potro, anyone else that's left in my half of the draw. I'm just trying to win the matches as quickly and efficiently as I can.

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