	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

January 3, 2017

Andy Murray

Doha, Qatar

A. MURRAY/J. Chardy

6-0, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Congratulations. I'm sure you've you looked at stats, and that is as clean of a match as one would hope for for the first match of the year, isn't it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I think first set Jeremy didn't play particularly well, to be honest.

I was up 40-15 I think first game of the second. I think if I held that game I could have made the second set a bit easier for myself.

He played I think very well in the second set. Every time he was behind in the service games he came up with some good points, was aggressive.

From my side, I felt like I hit the ball very clean. I wasn't misshitting many balls. Moved pretty good. You know, served well, especially in the tiebreak.

Yeah, for a first match it was good for sure, yeah.

Q. You just won 25 matches in a row. What does it say to you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it feels a bit -- I don't know, feel like kind of starting fresh again this year. I mean, obviously I would like to try and keep the run going as long as possible.

Does feel a little bit like starting fresh again after the off-season and having not played a match for pretty much a month or month and a half or so.

But, yeah, just try and carry on from where I finished last year, which was playing some of the best tennis of my life. You know, I learnt a lot in that run, in that period at the end of the year. So try and use that to get off to a start this year.

Q. Just towards the end of the match I notice you held your left leg or had a twinge. Anything in that? I think it was the final game.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, last point of the 5-All game I think.

Q. Yeah.
ANDY MURRAY: I think it's just kind of normal first match back. You know, the intensity of the second set was pretty high. There was a lot of running, a lot of long points, tight games, especially on his serve.

I feel fine just now, but just first match back you feel things more because you're moving at an intensity that you can't find in practice.

Yeah, I was happy with how I moved and how my body felt today. So, yeah, it's all positive.

Q. Do you know much about the younger Melzer you're facing tomorrow?
ANDY MURRAY: Not too much, but I've seen him play a few times. I've never played against him before. I saw him play a little bit few years ago in Munich. He reached the quarters, and the winner of my match in the quarters played the winner of his match in the semis.

Yeah, I've seen him play in Vienna. My coach is out there watching his match today. I don't know him really well, but I have seen him play a couple times.

Q. Just curious as to what the pre-season was like for you? Now you're getting older and are at the top of the game. Is something turning or adding an extra percent here or there or anything in the off-season you did to improve?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think, yeah, I mean, I'm obviously not going to get physically much stronger than I am just now. I think at my age, yeah, it's more about maintaining and making sure that you don't pick up any injuries.

But you can still push yourself hard. I just do different things to what I did when I was younger. You know, the VersaClimber that I use and the walk bike -- for example, instead of doing loads of running I do most of my running and movement work on the court.

If I do anything extra than that movement-wise, I'll do it on the sand so it's a little bit nicer on my body and joints.

Yeah, last year the difference I made in the second serve, the improvements I made in the second serve, I won like 3% more points on my second serve. Doesn't sound like a lot, but over the course of a year it's a big difference. I think to get to No. 1 you need to win like 54% points of the total points you play in the year. You lose a lot of points that you play.

Any percentage here or there that you can improve in your game is big. I managed to do that last year. Hopefully I can still find things to get a bit better this year.

Obviously going to be tough.

Q. I know you kind of keep tabs on the young talent coming up. Have you watched Karen Khachanov at all? What do you make of him?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I practiced with him actually a few years ago in Barcelona when I was a training for the clay court season. He was very, very good then. I think he was ranked around 280, 300 at the time. I practiced with him in Vienna last year; practiced with him at the US Open as well.

He's very good. Big guy. Goes for his shots. Strong. You know, he's maybe not one that's talked about as much as some of the other guys because -- I could be wrong, but I felt like in the juniors he didn't maybe do much or maybe didn't play as much as some of the others.

Normally the junior slam champions or junior No. 1s get spoken about a bit more. But he's really good. He's got very good coaches as well, like Galo Blanco. He's done a good job with pretty much everyone he's worked with, so he's on the right path for sure.

Q. I just want to know about the knighthood and how you're feeling about the new title and if any of the players on the tour have been calling you Sir Andy Murray yet?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, a few of the players have been joking about it, but I don't expect any of them to call me by that seriously.

Yeah, for me it's more obviously the sort of honor or recognition of what you achieved. It's obviously very, very nice. Yeah, I wouldn't think I would use the sir much nowadays. I feel like I used to say that to teachers and people much, much older than me.

So, yeah, Andy is good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297