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WIMBLEDONJuly 3, 2006Andy MurrayWIMBLEDON, ENGLAND THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Andy Murray. Q. Your thoughts on that? ANDY MURRAY: That wasn't good. Uhm, returned, got to be up there with the worst this year that I've returned. That was really not good. I never missed so many second serve returns, especially off my backhand. Uhm, just struggled. I mean, I thought I served okay in parts. Served a couple doubles in the tiebreak which wasn't good. But, uhm, yeah, slightly disappointing after the way I played on Saturday. Q. You kind of started off sluggishly. Did you feel a little leaden-footed in the early stages? ANDY MURRAY: No, it's hard to explain. I mean, I came off, I'm obviously disappointed with the way that I played. Uhm, I just didn't feel good the whole match. I tried to kind of get myself going in the third set, and was obviously a break up in the second. Played a bad service game to get broken back, I think. I was Love-30 on service game to go maybe a double break up. And, you know, just didn't happen. I hardly got myself into any rallies, which is normally what I do best. You know, when you're making so many mistakes and missing so many returns, it's difficult to win the match. Q. Early on in the match you seemed as though you twinged something in your back. The fact that you were thinking about that, was that making it hard then to get into the match? ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, it was just a little bit stiff at the start. And then after the first set, started to ease off, and it wasn't affecting my movement on my serve really. It was just uncomfortable. But, yeah, I mean, it wasn't really a problem. Q. I mean, he played pretty well. He presents a lot more problems in some ways than Roddick, it seemed. Did you feel that? ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, I don't want to take anything away from him, you know. Obviously, he beat me in three sets. But I didn't feel like I put up any resistance today. Definitely didn't deserve to win the match. I didn't get myself into enough of his service games. I didn't, you know, create too many chances for myself, and therefore lost comfortably. You know, I think Roddick, having been to the final twice, you know, he's definitely, you've got to say, has a better record obviously on grass than Baghdatis. I mean, Baghdatis, obviously he maybe moves a bit better. He's solid off both sides, whereas Roddick has got the big forehand but maybe his backhand is weaker. But, I mean, I don't think it posed to many -- you can't say that he posed more of a threat than Roddick. Q. Did you feel any extra pressure because against Roddick you're the out-and-out underdog, maybe Baghdatis, people were thinking it was... ANDY MURRAY: I thought I was the underdog today. Wasn't -- didn't feel any extra pressure. Uhm, I didn't feel nervous during the match. Just I was just struggling to get myself going. Very difficult to explain. I don't know exactly what happened. It's happened a couple of times before, and I need to try to cut matches like that out, especially in Grand Slams, because that's where you want to play your best tennis and you want to play better as the two weeks progress. Obviously, today I played, you know, 10 times worse than on Saturday. Q. You said a couple times before. I mean, are you talking about Davydenko in Australia? ANDY MURRAY: Chela in Australia. Yeah, I mean, that's definitely another one. You know, it's happened. Didn't really happen to me last year. It's happened, you know, there. Tipsarevic match maybe was a little bit like that. I can't -- not sure exactly why it happens. I think, uhm, you know, when I find myself a coach and I can speak about how I'm feeling, someone who's got experience of probably working with players that have felt like that, you get someone that can pump you up, motivate you, try and get you in the right frame of mind. And I felt great, you know, in my matches before this one. I didn't feel bad going into it. I thought I had a good chance of winning. To go out and time the ball like I did today was not good. Q. It seemed as you were almost trying to use bad line calls to pump you up. Even that didn't work. ANDY MURRAY: You know, I got, I mean, what I thought was a bad call on breakpoint in the second. I think it was the second set. You know, if I'd got that, you know, maybe I could have got myself into... Q. Second game of the third set. ANDY MURRAY: Second game of the third set, yeah. You get yourself in front, especially when you're serving, and you can take a 3-Love, 4-1 lead, you're favored to go on and win the set on grass. I was a little bit disappointed. I asked him why on grass, how do you judge when a ball hits a line or not. He said, 'cause the chalk comes up. I said, did you see any chalk on that one. He said, No. I was like, Where is your consistency. So I'm a little bit disappointed with that. But I'm sure it wouldn't have made a huge difference because I was playing that poorly. Q. Were you happy with the support you received from the crowd? Did you feel it could have been stronger? ANDY MURRAY: Definitely not their fault. They were great to me in all my matches. Absolutely no problem with how they were. I think it's difficult to get excited or get yourself really into a match when you've got someone who's giving you nothing to shout about and is making so many mistakes, no rallies, no really good quality shots that, you know, I'd been hitting in my matches before. So definitely no problem with them. Q. Is it a feeling, a flat feeling, when you were going, you know, in the match? Is it just a sort of flat feeling? ANDY MURRAY: No, it's just, you know, I mean -- everybody knows what I do best: I get myself into a lot of return games, you know, I don't mistakes on second, third shots, I get myself into a lot of rallies. Then, today, second serve returns, which is, you know, normally make 95%, and I'm hitting them three meters wide of the tram line, mis-hitting it. It's just not like me. Making mistakes, basic errors in the middle of the court, missing ground strokes that I don't normally miss. It's not a flat feeling; just no consistency. Just so erratic. Q. How did you feel before you came out, in the dressing room? ANDY MURRAY: No, if you can't get yourself up for a fourth round of a Grand Slam, then you shouldn't be playing tennis. That definitely wasn't the problem. Q. Are you good at working this kind of result out of your system? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think I've done that in all of my other, you know -- when I played like that in other matches. In Australia, I had one more tournament after that, I lost to Ljubicic in three sets, then obviously I won in San Jose. Yeah, I think it will get out of my system. Best thing to do is go play a tournament as soon as possible, go win some matches, and then you start to forget about it. No point in thinking too much about the match or letting it drag on, because I've got a long, long summer ahead of me. Q. When you look back at this, it will still be satisfaction, won't it? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think to get to the second week of a Grand Slam is a very good achievement at my age. You know, I just have to kind of look at the way I played today and be disappointed with it, but really to learn from it because you don't want that to happen in Grand Slams, like it did in Australia and like it did today. I don't want to play like that again in a Grand Slam. You know, I'm gonna try my best not to. Obviously, you have some days where you play badly, but it's still not an excuse to come off the court without having created any chances. You have to try and win playing badly, try and find ways of getting yourself out of a tight situation. You know, I didn't really try and find too many ways to get back into the match. Q. With the experience of this week, do you feel that you're close to being a contender at Grand Slam tournaments, or have you still got miles of work to do? ANDY MURRAY: I definitely have got a lot of work to do. But I think, you know, I proved to myself that I can beat some of the best players in the world playing in Grand Slams. Uhm, you know, I still think physically I need to get stronger. You know, mentally, I need to get better. My game needs to get better. Everything needs to improve. So, you know, maybe not this next year or the year after, but I'm hoping by, you know, 21, 22, I'll be playing my best in the Grand Slams. Q. Are these the sort of ideas where maybe that improvement doesn't come at the same rate you're accustomed to, that it's a bit more incremental? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think, you know, a lot of players have, you know, tough second years on the tour. You know, I can't really say I've even finished my first year on the tour because I only broke into the top hundred in September/October time last year. So I do think it is going to take a little bit longer. But my ranking is still going up. I'll be ranked around 35 after this week. I'm going into the best part of my season, I think, playing on the hard courts. I hope that it keeps going up. But I'm pretty happy with my progress so far this year. I don't think -- it's obviously not been as rapid as it was last year, but it's still going in the right direction. Q. You've had growing support the last week. Is Wimbledon somewhere where you want to come back and sort of it to be your place? I mean, is this the sort of -- is this the institution where you want to dominate? ANDY MURRAY: To be honest, I'd rather British tennis wasn't just surrounded by me. I'd rather if it wasn't my place and there was five, six other players. You know, Wimbledon is a great tournament, and one that means obviously a lot to me. I played well here the first two years I played. But I don't want it to be that, you know, I'm the only player that's getting into the second week. I'd much rather it was two, three other players doing that. I'm hoping that that's gonna happen in the next sort of five, six years. Q. You haven't wanted to rush to get a new coach. Do you believe now is the right point just to put that pen to paper, just to give you that extra X factor? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think before Cincinnati or Toronto, hopefully I'll have got it done. You know, I'll probably take a few days off. I got next year (sic), then I'm going to go to Newport, then obviously Davis Cup. I'll try to take a few days off and think about it, speak with my management company and get everything sorted out. You know, I don't -- as I said, I didn't want to rush into anything, but I said before Cincinnati and Toronto I'd have a coach. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I will. Q. You have used your own expertise, you'd like to sort out problems during these days of the championship, do you now see where the extra bits could be added on? Is it clearer in your mind? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I think I did a good job this week of getting to the fourth round on my own without, you know, a coach or physical trainer, you know, and people really helping me out. I did everything myself, which is obviously good. But, you know, if I can get a coach coming into these tournaments, someone that I can speak about my matches with, let me know what I've done really well, what I need to do better, because, you know, I come off against Roddick, it's very easy to think, you know, you played a great match. But, there's still things in that match that I could have done better, especially on my serve, because I let him have so many breakpoints. So, you know, you want a coach who's gonna tell you -- obviously tell you the good things, but make sure you improve the bad things. That's why I'm looking for a coach that's worked with the top players and knows how to tell you those things. Q. When you speak about getting other British players in the second week, would that help you as well, not only help you raise the bar of British tennis, but help spread expectation and pressure? ANDY MURRAY: I don't think the pressure and expectation thing should be a factor, really. It's just something you have to get used to. If ten million people want you to win a tennis match, it doesn't make a difference if it's five or ten, it's still people wanting you to win. And the most important thing is that you perform for yourself. Only pressure should be the pressure you put on yourself, which, you know, for all the great players, I'm sure it is like your Federers and stuff, you know, and they all deal with it really well. So, you know, it would be nice if there was more players for the fans to support and it wasn't just, you know -- Wimbledon wasn't just like my tournament and there wasn't so much not pressure, but so much surrounding me. It would be better if it was more people, because obviously that's been the problem the last 10 years.
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