QATAR EXXONMOBIL OPEN

February 17, 2024

Andy Murray

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Andy, how excited are you to be back in Doha once again?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I have enjoyed playing here over the years. Obviously had a good run last year. Yeah, sort of tough start to the year. Good to be back somewhere where I feel comfortable in the conditions and everything.

Yeah, hoping for a good run.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Andy, you have picked up Marseille, Doha, and Dubai. Of course you haven't had a great start, as you may have expected, but could you just tell us as to how you deal and how you feel when there is a lot of writing back home for you and they say how many more punches you can take? I mean, for a senior player like you, how have you taken all this and how do you keep going?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it's difficult obviously. You know, this is the period I'm going through right now and I have never experienced in my whole career. You know, it's not, like, the nicest experience to go through. I'd obviously much rather be winning matches.

You know, if you can treat it as sort of, yeah, something to learn from, you know, obviously, yeah, usually have consistently won matches, yeah, this is something new for me and a different challenge. You know, loss of confidence and those sorts of things.

Yeah, it's been difficult, but, you know, I'm still enjoying everything that goes into preparing for the tournaments and preparing for the matches. Yeah, hopefully this turns around, but, you know, it's a good experience for me to go through, not just for my tennis career but for, yeah, for general life as well. Things aren't always perfect and everyone goes through difficult periods where things aren't going well for them.

You know, that's happening to me now. Obviously I hope that it changes, but I'm certainly learning from this and something that even when I do finish my tennis career, yeah, I have a different understanding and appreciation for a lot of the players on the tour go through this, you know, the majority of players go through periods in a year when they lose four, five first rounds in a row. Top players don't, but, you know, a huge amount of the players do. It's something that I'll be able to use in future, I think, you know, to my advantage. You know, if I do any coaching or anything, yeah, it will help with that.

But I think I'm, yeah, strong enough to take the punches or, like you said, the criticism and those things. I haven't lost any of my appetite for the sport or the training or the competition, so hopefully it turns around.

Q. You have all the experience in the world, but just coming from indoor and having to adjust to the heat and playing outside, how does that look for you right now?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, that's always the hardest transition for me, like going onto the clay courts always at the beginning is tricky for me. But then coming from outdoors [sic] to indoors [sic] is also really hard.

I never had a problem the other way, going from outdoors to indoors or going from clay to grass, for example, but yeah, it's always hard after a few weeks indoors, but I was in Dubai last week, I was practicing and training there, so, yeah, it's not like today was my first day practicing outdoors.

You know, you can't expect to turn up a couple of days before a tournament outdoors if you have been playing, you know, the European tournaments for a few weeks and expect to feel great. It's completely different with all the elements.

Yeah, it's why I always, if I'm playing an outdoor event off the back of being indoors or training indoors, I try to give myself enough time.

Q. Novak's on 98 titles as we speak, so not bad. Firstly, if he gets to 100, he'll join Federer and Connors as the only players to do that. How big of an achievement do you think that will be? You have played him in your fair share of finals before. How tough is he to play in those finals and those matches?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, obviously unbelievably tough. You know, and then the sort of middle, latter stage of his career, you know, I think even stronger.

I have obviously played lots of finals against him and it was extremely difficult for me even when we'd sort of grown up together and had a lot of experience of playing against him in major competitions. But I think with what he's gone on to achieve, you know, in the last five or six years, I think for some of the younger players coming through to be stepping into playing a final of a Masters Series or a Grand Slam and he's on the other side of the net when he's won, you know, 24 majors and, like you say, 98 titles, it's not easy when you have limited experience in those situations and, you know, you're standing across the net from a guy who's won as much as he has. That's really difficult.

I felt that a bit early on like when I played Roger in my first US Open final or when I was playing Rafa in the latter stages of events when I was quite young. Yeah, it's not the same, not the same as playing them in the quarterfinals or semifinal. And I certainly think that for the younger guys now, when it's Novak on the other side of the net, you know, really, really difficult for them to win against him, not just from the tennis side where, you know, he's obviously exceptional, but I think from the mental side, as well, because he's done it all, whereas a lot of the younger players coming through haven't.