SYDNEY TENNIS CLASSIC

January 13, 2022

Andy Murray

Press Conference

A. MURRAY/D. Goffin

6-2, [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. After the extremely late night last night, you must be pretty grateful this was only one set and pretty quick this afternoon.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, in the context of this tournament, yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, if I played another long one, that would have been very tough for me to recover.

Yeah, however, yeah, like because I have been through my injuries and stuff, and I know how tough it can be, yeah, not easy for David. You know, he's been out for like eight months or so with a couple of different injuries. Seems like the issue is on the same knee that he's been struggling with.

Really unfortunate for him. I think he had been playing quite well this week, as well. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and he'll be okay for Australia, yeah.

Q. Obviously not the way you'd want to win, especially against someone you would know pretty well, but in that set that you played, were you pretty satisfied or were you feeling a little bit tired after last night?

ANDY MURRAY: I was happy with how I moved. You know, I was tired but I was pretty happy with how I moved.

You know, I thought I hit the ball okay. It was a little bit patchy, completely different matchup to yesterday. You know, I had a lot more time on the ball today and was able to try and dictate a few more rallies, which was nice, but yeah, the most pleasing thing for me was that I moved well.

So physically, although I was tired and a bit sore, you know, I was still moving well. How long that would have lasted for, I don't know, but the time I was on the court I moved pretty well.

Q. Into the semis and you're creeping closer back up to that top 100 spot, but it must be very satisfying to get to another semifinal?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, it's obviously been a while for me. I do feel like I was getting -- well, I have been getting closer in the last few months, and my results would suggest that.

So, yeah, good to get there this early in the season. Yeah, hopefully can keep building from here and have a strong year.

Q. Last question I want to ask you is not to do with the match. It's to do with retirement. I'm not going to ask you when you're going to do that or anything like that, but with all you went through and the naysayers saying you should retire, you should quit, all that sort of stuff, how did you get through that part, the mental strength to just try and ignore those sort of comments that would have been directed at you?

ANDY MURRAY: I think probably because deep down I knew that I could still play some great tennis. You know, I had been doing it in practice and had been doing it sort of sporadically, you know, in matches. But because of the nature of the last couple of years, as well, with COVID and then a couple of other niggles and stuff, I never really got my consistency until the end of last year, like consistency of tournaments. You know, you just can't replicate that.

For me, you know, it has not just been the last couple of years. Before then, there had been another two years before that where I had hardly played. I had had so few matches in reality in comparison to what I was used to, you know, me and my team had worked it out that since like 2017, you know, I had played like less matches since then than I did in the whole of 2016 in like a four-year period.

Yeah, I just needed to get matches in for a period of time. I've got that now. Yeah, I think it was just, for me, knowing and having done it in practice that I could still compete with the best players. That was what kind of kept me believing, I guess.

Q. Congratulations into a semifinal. I wanted to ask you how you felt this morning? It's not necessarily comparable, but I remember you saying after that Nishioka match a couple years ago, you woke up the next morning and couldn't walk. Wondered if you could compare how you felt this morning and how much progress that represents in your own fitness kind of journey?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, like I said, I mean, I felt a bit sore, but I obviously injured myself in the match against Nishioka and didn't really recover from that match for -- don't know exactly what the injury was or if it was just like an overload of a number of different structures around the hip and everything, having not, you know, played a match like that for a long time. Don't really know, but yeah, didn't really recover from that match for -- it was a long time, you know, really.

Yeah, obviously today I was able to come out and, you know, move and feel pretty good. That is a positive sign. Obviously the Nishioka match was an extra hour and a half I think longer, but I did feel like last night I had a little bit more in the tank. You know, the positive thing about the slams is obviously having that day in between, that day of rest, which here you don't have that luxury, but if I had played for another 30, 45 minutes last night and had a day to recover, you know, I think I would have felt okay in a couple days. That's positive for the slams.

Q. The Australian Open draw obviously is out, and you've got Nikoloz Basilashvili, who you're obviously very familiar with now. Could you talk about the dynamic of having just played him and going in to play him again at a slam? You played him at Wimbledon last year, as well. You also have got someone who knows him very well in your camp. Is that just the perfect situation for you?

ANDY MURRAY: I don't know about perfect. I mean, obviously last night was a brutal match. Certainly it's a tough, tough draw. Yeah, last night's match was brutal, so I would expect another difficult one.

Conditions in Melbourne are different to here. Here, you know, you're playing on a covered court. You know, there potentially it's going to be hotter, a little bit livelier, ball bouncing a little bit higher.

So, yeah, you know, it will be a different match because, you know, different city, different conditions, different court and stuff.

Yeah, just because I won against him yesterday doesn't mean I don't get a free pass into the second round. You know, I need to go out and play another top match to win against him in Melbourne.

Q. I wondered, as good as it is to get as many matches under your belt as you've got now, is there such a thing as too many ahead of the Australian Open, ahead of the challenge of five-set tennis?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think potentially that can be the case. It more depends on the nature of the matches, really. You know, like my first match was very quick, and if you play four or five matches like that, you know, it doesn't take so much out of you. Whereas if you play a number of matches like I did against Basilashvili, then it can be counterproductive.

Obviously with today's match being a short one and the first one being a short one and tomorrow I play against Opelka, which, you know, physically is not going to be demanding -- well, it could be, but the nature of how he plays, you know, you're going to get a lot of short points, a lot of quick points, you know, I wouldn't think physically that would take as much out of me either.

So, yes, it can be, but I don't think that's going to be the case because of what happened today, the first match, and who I'm playing in the next round.

Q. In terms of getting into a semifinals for the first time in a long time, how does that feel? Feels like you're still playing out there and you've still got all those competitive juices flowing. That never kind of goes away from you. Tell us a bit about that.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, so obviously, yeah, I have made some of my shorter-term goals quite clear and things I still want to try and achieve. Yeah, I want to try and win tournaments again.

You know, that's one of the reasons why I'm still playing, because I believe I can still do that. So, you know, I'm a couple of matches here from winning another one, and, yeah, I'll give it my best effort to do that.

Yeah, unfortunately because of how the last couple of years have been, I have not managed to get in many of those situations, but now that I'm here now, I will give it a good go and see if I can get another title this week.