BNP PARIBAS OPEN

October 10, 2021

Andy Murray

Press Conference

A. MURRAY/C. Alcaraz

5-7, 6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I'm sure given the quality of the opponent and the heat and the slow court, the way you had to come from behind, was that one of the more satisfying results of the last year or so?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it was. It wasn't easy out there today, yeah. Not easy conditions. Very hot. Court is incredibly slow. Balls after a couple of games are also extremely slow. Yeah, it's not easy out there, not easy to finish points. Not getting many free points on your serve or anything like that.

Yeah, it was a good win.

Q. Talk us through the underarm serve. I can't ever remember seeing you do that before.

ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I've never done it on the tour before. The courts are so slow. Look, since Wimbledon, obviously made some improvements to my serve and was getting lots of free points, serving a lot of aces in the matches I played recently. And, yeah, obviously played for three hours today. I served three aces in a long match, one of them being the underarm serve.

If you look where he was standing at the beginning of the match to return the first serve in comparison to he changed that at the end of the first set. He started returning from further back, so it was even harder to get free points on the serve.

I thought if he's going to stand that far back and I'm getting no love from the court and the conditions, why not try it and see if I can bring him forward a little bit again. Wasn't expecting obviously to get an ace out of it.

Yeah, he was so far back, he didn't obviously react. Wasn't expecting it. Yeah, I was thinking about using it at times in the third set, but obviously up in the score, was doing a little bit better, didn't feel like I needed to.

Yeah, certainly when guys are standing there to return serve now, it's a smart play.

Q. You were saying it was satisfying on the way you played today with the win. How encouraging is it besides being satisfying, the way you played? And if you're able to look ahead to playing Zverev in the next round.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm happy. It was kind of like at the US Open, like my body did well today. Like I said, it was hard conditions. It was very hot. Because of the nature of the court here, you're going to play some long rallies, especially against a player like him.

Yeah, at times I played some really good tennis. It wasn't my best match. I can certainly still do things better. I thought I competed well today, which was probably the most pleasing part for me.

Yeah, looking towards the next match, obviously Zverev is a top player. He's had a good summer post Wimbledon with the Olympics, then a great run in New York. Played a tough match with Novak there. Yeah, not going to be easy for me. I played some good matches against him in the past. Yeah, will need to play really well.

Q. Does your winning record over him mean anything going into this match?

ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I mean, obviously the match that we played last year, not saying he was playing his best tennis at that stage, but he did make the final of the US Open a couple of weeks later. I wasn't physically feeling particularly good and did not play particularly well, but managed to win. From that perspective, like, I can gain confidence from that, that if I play a really good match I'll be right in there with a shot.

He'll certainly go in as the overwhelming favorite. But if I play a high-level match, I'll be right in there.