ROLAND GARROS

May 31, 2024

Daniel Evans

Andy Murray

Press Conference

BAEZ-SEYBOTHWILD/Evans-Murray

7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What were your thoughts on the match? Pretty tough conditions out there and maybe a bit of doubt at times whether you were going to come off for the rain in the second set.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it was obviously a difficult match, I thought. They played pretty well, I think. I probably didn't have my best match, but it was, you know, we fought pretty hard. All credit to them. They got a bit of fortune, as well. They played pretty well, I must say.

Q. What did you both take out of it as an experience ahead of perhaps coming back here later in the summer?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, so what's going to happen with that, I guess for both of us, it was kind of an opportunity to, I don't know, put our names in the frame to play the Olympics and stuff. That's why it was a lot of, I think, pretty strong doubles event this year, a lot of singles guys playing ahead of the Olympics.

You know, I think me and Dan obviously were hoping to have a good run here. Yeah, it wasn't to be. So don't know if we'll get the opportunity. There's guys obviously ahead of us in the rankings, and we've got good doubles players in the UK. Yeah, let's see what happens.

Yeah, it was an opportunity to have a good run and didn't happen.

Q. This is more for Dan, but maybe Andy, Red Plus, I know you've hit on Red Plus courts. There is one going at the LTA next week or week after. Could you tell me what it's like, whether it's useful, how like real clay it is. Andy, I don't know if you had any experience on it. Maybe not.

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, I practiced on it a few times in the previous years. I'm probably not best qualified to say if it was good or not, but I thought it was pretty good, and I was obviously with Sebastian at that time and I practiced with him on it. He actually didn't know that that was the surface until after.

Q. He thought it was real clay?

DANIEL EVANS: Yeah, it was pretty cold, wet, wet day, as tends to be this time of year in England. Yeah, it was pretty good. I thought it was pretty good.

Yeah, the guy who looks after it does a great job.

Q. There's been a lot of hanging around over the last few days because of the rains. Wonder how you found that and if you regret being here for those days anyway?

ANDY MURRAY: No, I don't regret it. It's been frustrating for everyone. Obviously when you lose, yeah, I mean, if you could have said, okay, you're going to lose in the first round, you know, four days ago, yeah, you would regret sticking around.

I felt like we had a good chance to do well and we agreed if we were going to play, we would play to try and win the tournament.

Yeah, so, no, I don't regret playing at all. You know, yeah, I have been struggling a little bit with my back the last couple of weeks, so I probably needed a few lighter days anyway.

Yeah, I'll get a chance to get home, start preparing on the grass and hopefully get a few good tournaments there.

Q. A question for both of you. Are you going to play doubles at Wimbledon?

DANIEL EVANS: I have not thought about, yeah, Wimbledon. Yeah, I have not thought about it.

ANDY MURRAY: I may do, yeah. I'm not 100% sure yet. My brother doesn't have a partner for Wimbledon currently. We have spoken a little bit about it. So may do that, but not 100% sure yet.

Q. When would you make that decision? In the days before Wimbledon or...

ANDY MURRAY: No, no, ahead of time. I mean obviously Jamie, I mean, he could also get a good partner, as well. (Smiling.)

DANIEL EVANS: You've got your story now. That's going to be the headlines. (Laughter.)

ANDY MURRAY: We'll see what happens, but yeah, we'll probably decide in the next few days probably.

Q. Your brother said he was under the impression if you did lose today you'd probably be happy to go home and start prepping on the grass. Is that true? Are you both planning to adjust your schedules now you've lost here?

ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, obviously if we did well here, then that might affect what I would have done at the beginning of the grass season, but obviously we didn't. You know, now we'll just come up with a different plan for what the next few weeks look like.

Evo can speak for himself, but me, we had a couple of plans in place if I did well, how would the grass season look, and if things didn't go well in the doubles, what I would do, yeah.

Q. Today is the first day of Alexander's Zverev trial for allegedly physically abusing his ex-girlfriend. Curious to know, in other sports, it may not happen where a player is competing at the same time they are in court. They may be on administrative leave. Do you feel if it's right that Zverev is competing at the same time this court case is going on or not?

ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I got asked about that kind of a few years ago, and the ATP's kind of policy around those sorts of situations. Yeah, clearly it's a difficult one.

You know, the players shouldn't be the ones that are coming in here making comment on it. It's the ATP who should make the decision and make the, you know, the policy for what that would look like. I don't think they did a particularly good job over the last few years with, I don't know what the word is in terms of, you know, in these situations when you might ask me about that in press, like, it's not for us to come up with what those policies are. It's for the governing body to make that decision.

Yeah, clearly it's a very difficult subject, but it's for you guys to obviously report on that, and we'll see what happens with the trial. And then, I guess, a decision will be made after that.