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HUAJIN SECURITIES ZHUHAI CHAMPIONSHIPS

September 22, 2019

Andy Murray

Zhuhai, China

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you feel about getting used to the conditions here? How do you feel physically? How is the hip with the intensity of the game?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, the conditions here are difficult, very humid, which is always tough. Then with my hip, I have no pain in my hip any more, so that's a positive thing.

But I'm still kind of going through the recovery process now from the operation. My muscles are still recovering, the ones that were cut during the procedure. So I sometimes feel a little bit slow on the court.

I'm hoping that with playing more at this level, more time to recover, that I'll start to get a little bit faster.

Q. Coming back from injury, you're entering the tournament as an unseeded player. Unique in your career. How does that change your approach?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think it is difficult. It's different. This week I have not been drawn against a seed in the first round. If I look when I started playing doubles at the beginning, I wasn't seeded in the doubles tournament. The first tournament in Queen's and Eastbourne, we drew the top seeds in the first round. We drew the second seeds in Canada, fourth seeds in Cincinnati. When you're not seeded, the draws can be difficult, for sure. That's something you need to accept.

I think for me, make sure I arrive early enough to the event so when I have to play, whatever day that I play on, I'm fully prepared. You could play against one of the top players in the first match.

Q. Playing Sandgren again, who you played recently. Is that useful to play again as a barometer to compare where you were then to where you are now?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, yeah, if you look at it purely based on result or outcome, that could be a good way of monitoring things. In my opinion, tennis doesn't quite work like that. Some days you see guys you might lose to one player one week, then the next week you might beat them real easily. It's not necessarily down to physical condition. It might be just how you play on the day.

For maybe in terms of how I'm hitting the ball and stuff, I don't know. Maybe not the best judgment in terms of how I feel physically on the court. I can compare kind of the data from the two matches at the end of the match and look at that, see whether I'm moving a little bit quicker or not from the match we played in the States.

Q. You played a challenger event in Mallorca. How do you assess the two wins there as an indicator for you?
ANDY MURRAY: So the first match, kind of difficult to judge. The second match I played there was quite good. I beat a player ranked 120 in the world in two sets, which was a pretty good win. Then the third match, physically I struggled a lot in that match. From about the middle of the second set, I was struggling a bit. It was very humid there. I felt like I was hitting the ball better in the matches than I did over in the States. In terms of that, that was positive.

I think physically I still have a lot of improving to do if I want to get back to competing on the tour at the highest level because it showed there that I wasn't quite ready to play many matches in a row.

The last three weeks since that tournament, I've spent time working on my physical conditioning.

Q. The ATP Cup schedule just came out. What do you look forward to seeing in that event in January?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, in my career, the team competitions that I've played have been the Olympics, obviously Davis Cup. Some of the best atmospheres I've played in were in those events. London was fortunate, because it was a home Olympics. I had lots of the crowd with me. In the final of the Olympics, in Rio, playing against del Potro, was a really great atmosphere. Same thing with many of the Davis Cup matches we've played.

For me, that's what I'm interested to see, what the atmosphere will be like. I think when you play a tournament on the tour, most people that are buying tickets, you may come to watch particular players, but they come because they're tennis fans and want to see good tennis.

Usually with the team competitions, they love tennis but they also want to support their country as well. That's what always makes it fun and a slightly different atmosphere to what we play on the rest of the tour. I'm interested to see what this will be like.

We play Switzerland I think in the first match. How many Brits will be there in the crowd, how passionate the crowd will be for us, that's what I'm curious to see.

Q. From Zhuhai you will play four tournaments in a row. If you play deep in the tournaments, it will be challenging physically. How do you arrange your schedule?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think before let's say two, three years ago, I wouldn't have entered four tournaments in a row because I would have expected to have done well in the tournaments. Over here in China, I've always played pretty well. I wouldn't have done that in the past.

The position I'm in just now is different. I'm not playing at the same level as I was three years ago. Physically I still need to improve. Between now and the end of the year, I feel like I need to play matches. I'm not guaranteed to win matches every single week. I could draw the top seed in the first round, like I was saying earlier, because I'm not seeded in the events any more.

That's the reason why I've decided to enter these tournaments. When I'm at the events, I get good practice with the top players. My body is getting used to playing at this pace and level again.

Then, yeah, if I only win one match a week, that's not lots. I would like to try to get 12, 15 matches between now and the end of the year so my body gets used to competing and playing matches consistently again because I haven't really done that for two years. It's been a really long time. It takes time for your body to build up that robustness.

Q. Looking back on this year so far, you have come from the brink of retirement back to singles play. You've done something almost impossible. How much encouragement does it give you mentally, facing ups and downs or setbacks down the road?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, I don't think I would necessarily have considered it impossible. In my mind I had to come to the acceptance that if I had this operation that I had, I might not play again. I needed to go through that process. Once I got there, had the operation, I rehabbed properly, started to feel good, and no pain.

It's a lot nicer for me to play now than it was two years ago, or even eight, nine months ago. It's a lot nicer to play. Still physically, like I said, I need to improve if I want to compete consistently at this level. Before, I was competing, I was uncomfortable, but I was still playing at quite a high level.

I don't know how far I'm going to be able to get now on my comeback. I don't know how much improving I still have to do or if I'm going to be able to. I'm in no pain just now, so I might as well give it a shot and see how far I can go with the recovery.

Q. Maybe after a stretch of four tournaments in a row, you'll have a better understanding.
ANDY MURRAY: I would think so, yeah. When I played over in the States, obviously I played a couple of matches. I felt like in doubles I was playing much better in doubles in the States than I was at the beginning of the grass court season. I've seen some progress there.

Then in the matches in the States, I didn't feel that good, but I do feel like I'm a bit better than I was then. I still am improving. It's just quite slow. Whereas at the beginning, when you have an operation like this, the improvements are really quite quick with stuff you can do at the beginning to two months into the rehab. It's quite a big difference. You're struggling to walk at the beginning. Two months later you're starting to do some running and moving around.

Now the progress is a little bit slower. But I think after these four tournaments, I'll definitely have a better idea of where I'm at.

Q. You've been to China a number of times. This is the first time in Zhuhai. What are your first impressions of the tournament, the city, hotel?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, look, I really, really like it. We get looked after really well. Every time we come to China, all the tournaments I've played at, it's a really nice facility for the players. I think the center court is a nice, nice stadium. Good gym. The food on-site is really good.

It's very close to the courts, the hotel. It's obviously a very nice hotel we get to stay in. That's one of the things that some of the tournaments that we played like in Shenzhen last year, the time to get from the hotel to the courts was pretty long. The same was the case in Shanghai. I don't know if that's the same this year.

Here everything is very convenient. Yeah, it's nice. I've liked it so far.

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