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CHINA OPEN

October 8, 2016

Andy Murray

Beijing, China

A. MURRAY/D. Ferrer

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That was a job well done, wasn't it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I did well. I was obviously 2-1 down with a break in the first set. I mean, played very well. Even the period in the second set where he came back a bit, when he broke me, there was a lot of long points. Really good tennis I thought.

Yeah, thankfully got the break at 3-2. That was a big game because he had some chances to win that game. I had a couple of breakpoints. Got the momentum back on my side straightaway and finished it off pretty well.

Q. It's pretty ironic that it's Grigor in the final. He came to your assistance at quite late notice after Gael pulled out of your charity do.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was great that he was able to do that. He was fantastic the whole day, as well. So, yeah, I really appreciate that he came to do that not just for me but for everyone that put the event on. Hopefully he had a good time, as well.

But, yeah, he's been playing a lot better obviously the last few months. He's like 15 in the Race just now. For someone who has what a lot of people would describe as a poor year for him, 15 is still pretty good. Obviously he's got high ambitions, I'm sure. The last few months, he's done well. He had obviously a very good win against Rafa yesterday.

It will be a hard match.

Q. You looked a bit out of breath at some point, complaining maybe to your box about something. Is it about the air? Are you feeling a bit of a cold? Was it because rallies were long?
ANDY MURRAY: The points were really, really tough points. Sometimes here, yeah, I mean, it was pretty cold. It is cold out there. Some tough points. Sometimes it's not that easy to breathe here. You know, the air is not perfect, so...

That period in the second set was tough. My legs actually felt okay. It's just the breathing that was tough.

Q. Konta qualified for the final and entered the top 10 for the first time. Your thoughts about that.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, she's obviously had a great year. I mean, to be in the top 10 in the world is very, very difficult at anything I think. But she deserves to be there. She finished last year extremely well and kind of showed that she had the potential to get there with the wins that she was having. But it's not easy to do it over a 12-month period.

She's done extremely well. Obviously made huge improvements from the beginning of last year. Yeah, hopefully she can keep going. Because everything is still new to her, she's going to be learning at quite a fast pace, too. It's exciting to see kind of how far she's going to be able to go.

But, you know, top 10 in the world is very good obviously.

Q. Coming into this tournament, it seems your expectations were not very high. You talked about Davis Cup, a long season and injury. Have you played better than what you thought before you came here?
ANDY MURRAY: I said if I could get through a couple of matches, I would start to feel a lot better. Playing matches is the best form of practice you can get. If you're not that sharp at the beginning of a week, only kind of two weeks before I got here I played a pretty brutal and good match with del Potro in the Davis Cup. I felt like if I could find a way to get through the first couple of matches, I'd start to feel better and play better. Thankfully that's been the case so far this week.

Try and play another high-level match again tomorrow. But it's very positive leading into Shanghai, and hopefully I can finish the year strong.

Q. You talked about Shanghai. The draw of Shanghai came out today. Do you focus 100% on this tournament or did you check the draw of Shanghai?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I saw the draw in Shanghai. It's quite hard to miss it because they put it like up in the locker room when you walk in. It's there for you to see.

But, I mean, it happens to us all the time. We have back-to-back in many cases, like Madrid and Rome. Montreal and Cincinnati most years is like that, as well. Obviously here. We're kind of used to it.

Yeah, it doesn't affect the matches that you're playing here. Most players I think are able to focus pretty well on the match at hand and worry about the matches next week in a couple of days.

Q. What is the perception that you have on Dimitrov? A lot of people say up-and-coming player, lots of potential. What is the perception that he has now in the locker room?
ANDY MURRAY: Everyone might have different views on him. I mean, I see him as being a very, very tough player because he plays well on all of the surfaces. He moves well. He has good hands, so he can get himself out of difficult situations or difficult positions on the court.

This year, yeah, for him I think has been a little bit up and down. But the last few months he's found consistency again in terms of his results. He's been winning matches every week. Like I said, he's 15 in the Race. He's doing fine.

Like I said, he's probably got higher ambitions than being 15 in the world. He's been top 10 before. There's no reason why he can't get back there. He's fairly close just now, with a few months this year where he could have done better. I expect next year he'll have a good year.

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