US OPEN

August 31, 2023

Andy Murray

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you describe from your side what didn't feel right on the court today.

ANDY MURRAY: Well, I felt like there was two things: One, I created lots of chances on the return and didn't break serve enough; I didn't serve well. Obviously started every single set. I think I got broken at the beginning of every set so could never sort of get any scoreboard pressure really.

Then, yeah, the times when I did sort of get back into sets or sort of break back, yeah, I just didn't play well enough. Didn't serve well enough. And like I said, when I created the chances on the return games, it felt to me there was, I don't know, like lots of like Love-30s, 15-40s, breakpoints, and yeah, just couldn't get any momentum.

Q. The stats would say that you didn't hit many winners as you normally do. Is that his defense, or...

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, he obviously moves very well, and then the way that he plays in terms of, you know, obviously hits a lot of slice backhands. It's not always easy to finish points, you know, off that shot.

But obviously the goal when someone slices is to put them under pressure. You know you can find areas of the court to force more errors rather than hitting winners off those balls.

So that's probably one reason for it. Then, yeah, the second is if you don't serve that well, you don't get as many chances on the third ball of the rally to, you know, to hit winners and finish points or hit and come to the net, which is, you know, for me is usually when I would tend to move forward more earlier in the points, you know, behind my serve.

And, yeah, wasn't getting many free points there. Yeah, serve wasn't big enough and not enough in the court.

Q. Obviously pretty amazing in some ways that you're out there at all playing at this point. Just wondering, you have had so many great moments out on that court. Does that make sort of a match like today all the more painful?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it's obviously disappointing, yeah, to not play how you would like, you know. But maybe I need to accept that, you know, these events, I had the deep runs and everything that I felt like I'm capable of, they might not be there, as well.

So, you know, I'm aware what I'm doing, it's unbelievably challenging to play at the highest level as I am now. And yeah, some days it's harder than others. But yeah, today is obviously a really disappointing defeat and probably the manner of it as well. I mean, I fought hard enough, but yeah, just didn't, like I say, didn't play well enough.

You know, ultimately these are the events that you want to play your best tennis in, and, you know, create more great moments and didn't do that this year.

Q. At Wimbledon you were obviously frustrated and disappointed with the exit there because you were playing so well. Does this in a way feel worse today?

ANDY MURRAY: No, not really. I think when you don't play well, like, yeah, obviously it's frustrating. But, you know, it can happen. At the highest level if you don't play to a high enough level, it's very hard to win. Whereas at Wimbledon, obviously when you're playing at a good level and, you know, potentially had a good draw there and everything, you know, yeah, that's tougher to take.

You know, obviously, like, at Wimbledon I almost had -- Queen's didn't go well -- but I had a great buildup in terms of all the matches and everything going into it. Here was slightly different.

Yeah, didn't perform well.

Q. You mentioned that you might need to accept that the deeper runs may not be there, but you obviously had some good deep runs in smaller tournaments this year. What is it that keeps you motivated both at the smaller tournaments and at these tournaments when you know it might be trickier? Obviously you have accomplished so much already in your career so what is it that keeps you grinding away out here?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I've obviously been progressing this year from a ranking perspective. You know, I had some great matches in Australia. Well, quite a few amazing matches at the beginning of the year really, in Doha, as well. Yeah, I think was close to, you know, you never know what's gonna happen, but I think I was close to having a good run at Wimbledon.

Yeah, like, I still enjoy everything that goes into, you know, playing at a high level. I enjoy the work. You know, the training and trying to improve and trying to get better, I do still enjoy that.

Yeah, and that's what keeps me going. If things change and I stop enjoying that or my results, my ranking and everything, like, if I start to go backwards in that respect, you know, in a few months' time I was ranked 60 in the world or whatever instead of moving up the way, things might change.

Q. What are your plans for the next couple months tournament-wise?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, I was going to play a lot over in Asia. I didn't actually get into the Beijing tournament. Ridiculously strong, I think. The cutoff was like 23 or something, which I've never seen before. So I didn't get into Beijing. So, yeah, don't know about that.

Obviously the plan was to play Davis Cup, but if I'm being honest, you know, the other guys deserve to play ahead of me. Yeah, I know it's obviously probably a difficult situation, like, obviously for Leon with Jack. He's had quite a few injuries coming in, but if he's fit and healthy, he's obviously playing very well. You know, Cam and Evo, you know, Evo has had a great run in Washington. So yeah, we'll see about Davis Cup and what happens there.

Yeah, I think there is probably a chance that I'm not on the team. Yeah, see where I go from there. I'll try and get home this evening or tomorrow morning, yeah.

Q. Does this stress again how valuable it would be to get those extra few places it would put you in the top 32 and save you from playing a seed the first rounds?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it could do, but also, I mean, I'm going to be in a tough match, you know. It's more about how well you play. Like, you know, if I want to have deep runs in these tournaments, I'm going to have to come up against players like Grigor or Tsitsipas or, you know, whoever in Australia, played Berrettini in the first round and Bautista in the third round. These are obviously top players. Obviously being seeded avoids them early.

But yeah, for me, it's more about sort of the level you put out there and the performance and whether I was seeded or not here in the top 32, then I don't think that that guarantees that I'm going to have a deep run either.

But you can see, like, in the bottom half of the draw just now there is possibilities with, you know, a lot of the top guys are not having deep runs, it is possible that the draw has opened up a little bit, but yeah, wouldn't necessarily matter if you don't play a good enough level.