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ROLAND GARROS

May 30, 2017

Andy Murray

Paris, France

A. MURRAY/A. Kuznetsov

6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. After your illnesses and the other things that have been plaguing you lately, that must have been pretty encouraging to play such a good match?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it definitely got better as it went on. Started to move a bit better towards the end. Was hitting the ball better when I was defending. That's something the last few weeks I haven't done so well and didn't start off the match doing particularly well.

But once I was getting a little bit more on my ball when I was defending, there wasn't too many openings for him in the points.

But, yeah, it was a decent start, considering obviously how I played in the buildup.

Q. Clearly the movement seemed to be improving. That amazing lob you put up I think it was early in the third set. Was that a trigger point for the match at all?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think I went on to break that game. He made a couple of mistakes just after that. But, yeah, it was a good get. You know, I thought when the lob went up, I mean, I didn't like look back to see it, but I thought that I wouldn't be able to reach it, but I did. I think he made a couple of simple errors after that. I got the break, and then obviously didn't look back from there.

Q. I wonder your thoughts about seeing Andre Agassi back in the game. What do you think about that? I think he was maybe one of the players you were looking up to when you were younger.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I loved watching him play when I was a kid. And then also when I first came on the tour, I started working with Brad Gilbert, who obviously coached him for a long time. I had the chance to spend a bit of time with Andre, went out for a couple of dinners with him. Got to practice with him a few times. He was always really, really nice to me, which is great, because obviously when it's someone you have looked up to, if they weren't, that would be, you know, a bit of a letdown.

But he was very, very nice to me, and I think it's great that he's back in the game. Any of the past champions, when they are involved, I think, you know, for the media it's great. I think for the other players to see them around is nice. You know, it creates a bit of a buzz around tennis. He's obviously got a lot of fans around the world, as well. It's nice.

I'm sure, you know, he'll help Novak, as well. I'm not sure exactly what their deal is or the situation is, but, you know, having someone with that much experience around, you know, can only help.

Q. In that last set particularly, you seemed to be having quite a lot of fun out there with your shot selection and things like that. How refreshing is that mentally with the difficult weeks you have had recently?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, some of the shots towards the end of the match, it's obviously a lot easier to play it when you're two sets to one up and 4-0 or 5-0 up, it's a bit easier to have the freedom to try a dropshot or a lob or, you know, a big return. Winner on a break point, it's a bit different doing it at that stage than at 4-All in the first set.

But yeah, it was good towards the end. It was better. I still think I can do some things a bit better than I did today obviously.

I will try to keep that going. I was just trying to get through the match today. I wasn't certainly, I don't know, finding it funny or anything when I was out there. I was just trying to find a way to get through and, you know, as efficiently as possible. I did that in the end.

Q. How much does it help being best of five instead of best of three in terms of trying to find your form and your rhythm?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it does help a little bit, because at least if you don't start the match well you've got a bit of time to work it out and adjust to the conditions a little bit. That's one of the advantages of the best of five. So maybe at the beginning of the match, you know, if you're coming in with maybe not too many matches, you feel slightly less pressure than you might do if it was best of three. Because if you get down a set quick, there's not lots of, you know, wiggle room there. You've got to turn it around quick.

Maybe that helped me a little bit today.

Q. I don't know if you have seen the controversy that's brewing in Australia around comments by Margaret Court she's made and there's a bunch of Australian women have spoken out about it and some players and people in Australia have asked for the arena name possibly to be changed. Just wondering if you have any reaction to that debate that's going on now?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I heard about it. I didn't know, I hadn't heard anything about the arena changing names. I'm not sure about that.

I don't see why anyone has a problem with two people who love each other getting married. You know, if it's two men, two women, that's great. I don't see why it should matter. It's not anyone else's business. Everyone should have, in my opinion, should have the same rights. And, yeah, that's my view on it. I don't agree with that.

Q. Second year in a row security is at the highest level, so what can you say about it? Does it bother you? Because the check is a bit harsh. Can you tell something about that. About security issue.
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't understand. It's at the highest level here at the tournament?

Q. Yes. You didn't notice?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't. I didn't notice (smiling).

Q. You're the first one.
ANDY MURRAY: Really?

Q. Doesn't affect you players? That was the question.
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't notice. Sorry.

Q. It's during the check, opening bags and everything. But players doesn't have -- it's the same for players?
ANDY MURRAY: No, for the players, it's been -- well, my experience, it's been pretty easy. But, you know, I think that's, you know, the way things are going. Unfortunately, there has obviously been a lot of problems, you know, over the last few years with terrorism and, you know, obviously the sporting events have to take care, as well. So that's why there's going to be more security checks.

But I haven't noticed it here yet.

Q. Trying to keep myself informed, I read on the British paper some criticism about the fact that your coach, Ivan Lendl, is almost never around you, or he saw you only four times since Australian Open, and that was it. Do you think that has some consequences on your results these five months or not? Do you think what could be changed and if it needs to be changed?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, last year after Wimbledon I saw Ivan at the US Open, which was -- I was there two weeks, really. But from Wimbledon through until the World Tour Finals, I only spent those two weeks with him. And I had the best, pretty much the best period of my career, and no one mentioned Ivan not being around.

But always, if things aren't going well, people will try and find the reason for why that is, you know, and blame Ivan or whatever it is, an injury or, you know, that I'm not motivated or whatever, you know. That's what happens.

But, you know, for me, I don't think that it's anything to do with Ivan not being there. You know, I have my opinion, I have a good team around me that have helped me a lot. Helped me a lot last year when I was in some difficult moments around the Monte-Carlo period last year, they helped me a lot. And also, they were there with me through the best run of my career from Wimbledon through to the end of the year, as well.

You know, I do think that ideally we would have spent more time together. I do think that the Miami tournament we were going to spend time there, but unfortunately I couldn't with the injury.

You know, that's the situation that we were in, and it worked fine last year and no one said anything. But because things didn't go well this year, there has to be a reason.

Q. When you were talking about Andre, you mentioned going out to dinner with him and Brad, two of the most chatty fellows in sports history.
ANDY MURRAY: I don't think I said a word in edge-wise (smiling).

Q. Can you just think back to then and just tell us was there a funny incident with Andre or can you talk about...
ANDY MURRAY: Well, yeah. There has been, yeah, a few. But one of them, I don't know, maybe you guys won't find it funny, but for me, when we went out for dinner, we were going into, like, a hotel/casino in Las Vegas, and he opened the door but, like, the door was like one of those big sort of handles so it goes right down to the bottom. And he literally knelt, like, got on his knees to open the door right at the bottom of the handle.

I was, like, What are you doing? He says, No one touches the door down there (laughter). He's a bit of a germaphobe, you know, like he doesn't -- for me, that was pretty strange. Yeah.

Q. Just back to Margaret Court, Sam Stosur said yesterday that some players could potentially boycott Margaret Court Arena if it keeps the name. Is that something that you could maybe see yourself supporting?
ANDY MURRAY: I think something, if something was to be done, I think it would be a lot more beneficial to do it before the tournament starts. I think, you know, for players to be in a position where you're in a slam and kind of boycotting playing on the court, I think would potentially cause a lot of issues.

So I think if something was going to be happening and the players come to an agreement, if they think the name should be changed or whatever, that should be decided before the event, before the event starts.

But, yeah, I would imagine a lot of the players would be, you know, pretty offended by that. So, yeah, we'll see what happens.

Q. How well do you know your next opponent, Klizan? What are you expecting from that match?
ANDY MURRAY: I only played him once, and that was last year in Vienna, I think, is the only time we have played.

But he has a lot of talent. He can hit a big ball. You know, he is quite unpredictable on the court. He plays, you know, a lot of dropshots and quite unorthodox sort of shot selection, so it can be difficult to prepare for that.

Obviously I saw a few videos of his match today. It was obviously a pretty entertaining match. Yeah, hopefully I can go out there and play some good tennis and make it tough for him, because he had a very long match today.

Q. Now that you had a little, more than a year experience as a dad, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit what adjustments you might have found that have stayed consistent in your tennis and then your career, being a dad maybe has caused, if there is any?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think before, like when decisions, you know, get made -- before I became a dad, when decisions would be made around my tennis, it was, like, the first thing that you do is just the best thing for your tennis. Whereas now, you know, that changes a little bit in terms of my scheduling, a little bit in terms of my training. I have spent a little bit more time at home than maybe I would have done in the past.

You know, when I'm looking at my schedule I speak with my wife a lot about it, about which events, you know, she's going to potentially come along to and making sure that we're not apart for more than three or four weeks at a time. Because I have noticed especially in the last, you know, the last few months the older that she gets, the more things she's doing, the more she's changing -- this is my daughter, not my wife (laughter) -- yeah, so I don't want to miss, like, I don't want to miss anything. So that the more we can split up the trips, the better.

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