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THE CHAMPIONSHIPSJuly 4, 2019Pierre-Hugues HerbertAndy MurrayWimbledon, London, England HERBERT-MURRAY/Copil-Humbert 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-0 THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. You just played with your third doubles partner in three tournaments. How much adjustment are you having to make? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it is difficult. But I think like that match does a lot of good. We spent kind of two and a half hours on court with each other. We got better as the match went on. I think that's the one thing that's nice about the five-set doubles format, is you have time to work things out. Whereas with the sudden death deuce, like last week with Melo, we lost four like sudden death deuce in the first set or three in the first set, and we were down a set and a break. Didn't have any time to get used to each other. Whereas here I think that was the case, and we got better as the match went on, obviously. Q. Andy, was there any point in the match when you thought about the wider significance of being back, the journey to get back here, maybe thought you wouldn't be back playing competitive at Wimbledon? ANDY MURRAY: No. Sorry, but no. There wasn't really. I mean, I was just playing and enjoying being on the court. Yeah, it was obviously brilliant to be back. It was brilliant. Really nice atmosphere towards the end of the match. Yeah, I did enjoy it. Q. Given everything you've achieved, I'm surprised you felt nervous. Was that the case? Did you feel quite nervous? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. But that's a good thing. I normally like that. I think the thing that's maybe a bit different with doubles is there's also someone on your side of the net that you need to feed off a little bit. Sometimes if one of you is nervous or both of you, that maybe doesn't help as much. I've normally always found in singles, I like to be nervous. I like feeling the pressure because it shows that you care and you want to do well. Normally after you get rid of those nerves after a few games, you tend to play better. I feel you can concentrate more when you're not nervous. It's not the best feeling going on the court to compete like that. Q. Given the absence of pain, were you able to enjoy that more than perhaps some of your other memorable nights at Wimbledon? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, definitely more than, well, 2017. It was not particularly enjoyable. Obviously I didn't play last year. Yeah, every time I'm on the court now, it's great. I'm just playing tennis again. Pain-free, healthy. It's nice. It's what I have enjoyed doing since I was a kid. At times over the last few years, I was not getting any enjoyment out of it. The fun is back. Hopefully my hip will feel good for a while. Q. The atmosphere here with the new roof on the court, you being a TBA, again tomorrow. Almost like you're playing night sessions at this tournament. ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I was saying, I feel like on the Centre and Court 1 when the roof is closed, the atmosphere is better because the sound stays in the court more. I think they've done a really good job with Court 1. It looks really good. I came to see it a couple of times as it kind of finished. They've done a really nice job. So yeah, it's obviously really, really cool to be back playing again, playing in those sorts of matches. It was fun playing with Pierre. Playing with Serena, the atmosphere should be great, too. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the rest of the tournament. Q. Pierre, you're used to playing with one partner. How hard has it been to get used to playing with somebody else, especially with so little time to gel a new partnership? PIERRE-HUGUES HERBERT: Yes, I used to play with Nicolas for almost four, five years. But I changed sometimes. I played beginning of the year with David Goffin. In my whole career, when I grew up, I changed almost every week. So it's something that I know. Yeah, it's fun to share the court with someone else and also to change side because normally I play on the left. So it was fine. Maybe we had one set of adaptation, but afterwards good. Q. Andy, do you feel any sort of elements from the injury lingering with you? When you go to bed tonight, will you feel anything? Do you expect a trouble-free night? ANDY MURRAY: With my hip nothing. My back gets a bit stiff playing doubles. It's just quite different movements on the grass. You're kind of in a crouched-over position a lot when you're up at the net, which is kind of different to what I've always trained and been used to playing singles. No, in general, it's more just like a bit of stiffness, a bit of soreness than pain really. But I won't have anything in my hip. Why should I? It's metal. There's nothing to hurt there any more, which is good (smiling). Q. When you made your comeback at Queen's, you were adamant, said you were going to enjoy yourself. When you come back here at a slam event, does the mindset change in terms of that competitive edge notched up a bit? ANDY MURRAY: No, I think once you get on the court, like I'm still very competitive. When I go on the match court to compete, I want to win. I prepare properly. I try and do my best. It just feels different than what it did before. I don't know if that will change over time or if it will stay the same. But I don't have huge expectations. I just want to go out, enjoy the match, give the best effort of what I've got. If I do that, then that's fine. Winning is nice, but it's not the most important thing, which maybe it used to be. Now it's not, which so far feels nice and just a little bit different, a little bit more relaxing, a little bit more sort of stress-free. I still get the nerves, and still want to go out there and do well, obviously. Q. Andy, a good number of us have had the pleasure of covering Serena for many years. If the tennis gods came up to you and said, We'll let you into tennis heaven if you can tell us one original fun thing about Serena, what would that be? ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, geez. That's a good question. Me and Serena don't know each other that well. I haven't spent loads of time with her over the years. I've obviously watched her play a lot. I mean, she's competed in I don't know how many Grand Slam finals, but she's been at the top of the game for such a long time. Obviously is a brilliant player. The opportunity to play mixed doubles with her is something -- it would never have been, I don't know, in my mind in previous years. I never thought about playing mixed doubles. It was not something I saw in my future. So, yeah, maybe I can give you a good story after the next 10 days or so after having spent some time on court. I think we're going to try and practice and stuff tomorrow. Yeah, we'll see how the next 10 days go. Hopefully we'll have a good story to tell at the end of it. Q. Nick Kyrgios was in here earlier saying he saw you before the match. He was obviously involved in an epic singles match. Was there any part of you that made you wonder, thinking ahead to possible return to singles? At all distracted by it? ANDY MURRAY: We were watching it together in the warmup area before we went out to play. It was some interesting stuff going on out there (smiling). Yeah, I mean, I have thought about playing singles again. Yeah, it's something more recently since I've been back on the court, there's been more discussions with my team. I've been asked about it by some of the guys in here. Hopefully it's not too far in the future. But it's not something that this week I've given much thought to. I've been kind of concentrating on the doubles, enjoying that for now. Q. The BBC highlighted that your brother was playing, and your mum went to watch him instead. What do you make of that choice? ANDY MURRAY: What do I make of that choice? Q. She promised to watch you in the next one first? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it's not something we speak about. Jamie is the number one son, so... He used to get all the good presents. I kind of got like the hand-me-downs always since we were young, so I'm used to that. No, I mean, look, obviously when the schedule is like that, she can't watch both. She can't be in two places at once. There's many times here when she's been watching Jamie's doubles, rushed over to watch my singles. Vice versa. Maybe they can do my mom and dad a favor and put us on at slightly different times would help. Q. Nick was in here earlier having a dig at you for having five pairs of shoes, being a bit nervous, exchanged a bit of banter together. Can you dish it out to him as he dishes it out to you? ANDY MURRAY: He's quite an easy target sometimes with the way he carries on from time to time. But, yeah, I mean, every time I speak to him, I mean, we're normally just ripping each other for something else. The other day he walked past my practice court, said something about me having no weapons on the court, that's why all my matches were long. I said, It hasn't helped you getting many wins over me, so it doesn't matter whether you have the weapons or not. It doesn't, yeah -- every time I'm with him he's saying something. I did have five pairs of shoes in the locker room with me. I'm just not used to being back out playing matches again. But, yeah, he's obviously done some good stuff. I didn't see loads of the match, but it seemed like it was fun. We heard the crowd on the hill. Seemed like they were pumped for it. Yeah, he's entertaining, that's for sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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