BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 11, 2023

Andy Murray

Press Conference

A. MURRAY/R. Albot

6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Well done, Andy. Finally a straight-set win. Now a big matchup against Jack. He said you helped him a lot since he came on tour. How do you see that third-round match?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it will be a good match. I mean, he obviously plays really well. You know, and he's not actually competed that much on the tour, but when he has done, he's always performed really well. You know, I think he's going to be a top, top player for a long time, providing he stays healthy.

Yeah, it will be a good match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Obviously there has been a wait for this straight-sets win. I know when you finally started to win some of the close ones last year they then started to snowball. I know it's as simple as playing well a lot of the time, isn't it? But is there a sort of habit or a technique, do you think, to winning more efficiently based on your career? You played a lot of years. Can you get into a bit of a groove of, well, that's how you win matches?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, look, I think, first of all, I mean, playing better will give you the chance to win matches quicker. You know, you could argue that some of the matches that I have won this year, you know, I probably going into them wasn't the favorite going into them, so they were always likely to be tight, close matches.

Certainly some of them I potentially could have finished a bit sooner. But, you know, in a lot of them as well I have come back and come from behind.

I do know that being seeded in tournaments and things like that and having a higher ranking means that, you know, you're generally playing players that are not quite as good as you, so if you go on the court and finish well then you finish the matches a bit quicker.

Whereas for me, that's not been the case. I have been playing against guys that have been playing probably better than me or above me ranking-wise or very close to it. Like when I played Sonego in the first round of Doha, our rankings were identical going into that match.

Yeah, hopefully I can keep pushing myself up the rankings, keep building that confidence, and, yeah, maybe get a few more straightforward draws, as well.

Q. Can you sort of describe the difference between how your body feels after an afternoon like today versus the other day or even after some of the long matches in Australia and what the rest of your day ends up being like and how it might open up possibilities in terms of recovery, the snowball effect, I guess, of having a shorter day rather than a longer one.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I mean, usually I will sleep better. You know, if you've had a shorter match, there's probably less aches and pains, so it's easier to sleep. The day off as well becomes probably a bit more productive, because, you know, there is just less fatigue, less sort of soreness from the match. So probably able to practice at a slightly higher intensity and probably, you know, practice more specific things, whereas yesterday I just really hit a few balls, and that was it.

Yeah, you know, still, even this morning when I got up, you know, I slept very well last night, but I was still a bit fatigued when I got up, bit of soreness in the lower back and things, which I would imagine by Monday that won't be there. Certainly makes a big difference.

Yeah, going into the match with Jack should be feeling good.

Q. There are so many rules, so many traditions, so many customs, regulations in tennis. If you were in charge of things and could change one thing about our game, in our game, what would that be?

ANDY MURRAY: I'd probably get rid of the four-minute warmup. I'd probably do that. You know, it would make certain things probably a little bit trickier in terms of timing, like when you warm up for the match and stuff like that, because usually players -- you know, I would warm up two-and-a-half to three hours before I go on, whereas my preference would actually probably be to warm up sort of 20 minutes before you go on, but because of the way that the matches are scheduled, you know, that's a bit trickier.

But, yeah, I'd probably get rid of the pre-match warmup.

Q. You mentioned on your on-court interview you felt a bit nervous because of the late change of opponent. When that happens, are you able to cram in a little study of who you're going to face or do you just go out there and...

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I didn't know if it was because of that. I was trying to give reasons for why I may have felt that way. I felt nervous on the court today.

You know, a lot of the way that Radu plays and Carreno Busta plays, it's not too dissimilar in terms of the way they like to play points and maybe where and how they like to serve. Obviously there is differences in their games, but it wasn't a huge change in terms of my game plan or what I was expecting going into the match.

But, yeah, maybe I felt like it was a good opportunity for me and that, you know, the draw had opened up slightly. Yeah, and obviously wanted to try and finish the match quickly.

There was quite a lot of chances coming and going, as well, even though I was serving really well and, you know, he wasn't having too many opportunities. It was still like, you know, there's still a bit of scoreboard pressure the whole way through because I wasn't managing to get the breaks until -- well, certainly the first set was right at the end of the set. But middle of the second, as well. I probably could have made it a bit easy on myself had I taken those chances.

Q. Just on those nerves, Andy, how rare is that to feel nerves like you did today?

ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I generally much prefer feeling nervous when I play matches and feeling, yeah, feeling pressure. It just sort of felt a bit out of sync with the situation. You know, like I was in, I guess, pretty decent control of the match. Like I said, I was serving well. I was hitting the ball pretty well. But there was just, I don't know, yeah, there was just more tension than probably there should have been out there on the court.

But usually I prefer to feel nerves, providing they are sort of, you know, in check. And maybe today they weren't for whatever reason. But nerves, I would way rather feel more tension than feel flat, which, you know, is really never a good sign for me if I wake up and I don't feel any of the butterflies or anything like that, it's generally a bad sign.