BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL

December 30, 2023

Andy Murray

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Andy, your first-round match against Grigor is probably one of the most talked-about matches. Your thoughts on that, please.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it will be a good match. Grigor had a brilliant season last season. Played against him at the US Open. He won comfortably.

Yeah, need to play really well, certainly much better than there, if I want to get through it. Yeah, a lot of interesting first-round matches. I think everyone is excited for Rafa and Naomi to come back and play.

Yeah, it's a good start for the tournament I think.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You had a pretty solid hit-out with Rafa. Have you had that many eyes on a warm-up session before?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, usually if I'm practicing with him or Novak, yeah, there's a bit of interest. Well, certainly in them. Not so much in me.

Yeah, it's great to have him back playing. I mean, he's obviously working extremely hard, like always. Always very, very intense practices with him.

Yeah, he looked physically good, was playing well.

Q. On your round-one opponent, they said 2013 you played him in the final here. Do you remember that, or am I making you feel too old?

ANDY MURRAY: To be honest, no, I don't remember a whole lot about the match. I mean, Grigor, he was pretty young at the time. But, yeah, I really don't remember a lot about the match.

I used to remember everything about my matches, like up until I had kids. Literally my memory's gone. I remember hardly any of my matches, like scores, anything like that, so...

Yeah, sorry.

Q. You mentioned you've had crowds like that before at practices with Rafa. Both of you were moving well. Do you take anything out of that particularly for yourself or what you saw of this version of Rafa as he comes back from injury?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, there's certain things he's probably doing, yeah, slightly different. Well, maybe slightly different to earlier in his career. When I practiced with him at the Australian Open last year, he certainly was like on his second serve hitting. His second serve is significantly harder than what he did earlier in his career.

But yeah, I mean, the rest of the game, unless there's a physical issue, there's not really much reason for him to make huge changes to that. It's been pretty successful. When he's fit and healthy, that game style is what has worked really, really well for him, looking for his forehand, trying to dominate with that shot. It's something that has been successful in the past. If he wants to be successful in the future, that's what he should be looking to do. That's how he was trying to play today.

But, yeah, it was good. For me, like, I didn't get the opportunity to play that many sets and stuff in the off-season. I had a couple of issues physically. Yeah, it's great for me to come out and get to play against him at that sort of intensity, play sets and matches against those guys. It's brilliant.

Q. Would you like to have more actual matches against Rafa and Novak? Is that a motivating factor at all for you?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, obviously I would like the opportunity to play against them again, ideally in the latter stages of big tournaments. That's something that obviously I've missed that feeling, not had that opportunity really. I can't remember the last time I played them, to be honest. With Novak, I think it was like in 2017 or something.

Q. (No microphone.)

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, so I was supposed to play him there.

Yeah, I think before then was, yeah, 2017. With Rafa, I mean, I don't know if I played him in 2016 or not. So, yeah, it's been a really long time.

If I get the opportunity to practice with them, I still really, really enjoy that. It does bring back some good memories. But ideally, I'd want to be doing that in the tournaments, not in the first rounds. I'd like to be doing it in the latter stages, if I can.

Q. You touched on a couple of issues that you've had in the off-season. Are you happy to expand on them? Particularly given we saw you here a couple years ago feeling like your career was probably over, emotional, has this almost been a real bonus? How long do you think it will go on for?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don't know how long it will go on for. But, yeah, definitely been lucky to get the chance to come back and play here again after where I was a few years ago. Certainly feel in a much better place physically and mentally than I did then.

So, yeah, obviously brilliant to be back, yeah, playing and feeling good. In the off-season I injured my shoulder right before the Davis Cup. It wasn't a major injury, but it stopped me from serving for a number of weeks. I wasn't able to do that. Then I got quite sick during the off-season just as I was leaving. I went to Dubai to do my off-season. I got quite sick. That kind of restricted me for a few days. I also had a bit of an issue with my knee, as well.

I managed to get a lot of work done. I practiced a lot, but I was just restricted a little bit in what I was able to do. Whereas now that I'm here, the last few days before I traveled here, I was able to play sets and play points. That's kind of a little bit what I missed in the off-season.

Yeah, great to get here and, like I say, play against the top players and get really intense practices.