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PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 16, 2007

Andy Murray

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Andy, please..

Q. Well, done.
ANDY MURRAY: Thanks.

Q. Where do you begin to tell the story of that match? It had so many incidents, so many different things going on.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of difficult to explain. But, you know, first set he played well. I played one bad game on my serve, didn't really have any chances on his serve.
You know, the second set, I obviously had the momentum, 2-Love and game point. And then you know, I fell over and, you know, I felt -- I was in a bit of shock when I went over because I'd had problems with my ankle before, and I said to Tommy and to the trainer when I went down that, you know, I heard something click, but I think it might have been the Velcro on the brace.
You know, and then the trainer said to me that it wasn't -- you know, it wasn't too bad. So he's gonna strap it, see what it's like. And then after ten minutes, it wasn't my ankle that was hurting, it was my side because I'd fallen, you know, so hard on it. And it was quite hard to push off on my right leg for the serve and the balls on my forehand and that's why I had to slice quite a lot on the forehands.
And then when I sat down at the change, I told him it was my hip that was giving me some bother, so we put some like ice cream on it or whatever. It was to make it cool. It kind of helped a little bit.
And then, you know, obviously at the end of the third set, you know I think he got a cramp a little bit and took the injury time out at 6-5., and then was serving slow at the start of the tiebreak. And then -- but then once he got into the rallies, I think he was okay because he was chasing the balls down okay. And then he started serving big at the end of the breaker, so it was quite -- it was obviously pretty eventful.
It's probably the longest answer I've ever given at press conference.

Q. Definitely.
ANDY MURRAY: But, yeah, it was, of course, a great match. But I was more happy about my ankle not being too bad.

Q. Taking all of that into account, how proud are you to be sitting there having won a match like that?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't feel proud. You know, I'm just happy that I won. It kind of took a while for it to sink in because there were so many ups and downs. At one point I didn't think I was going to be able to play; I felt okay. He obviously had the problem.
I felt like I should win the match and then save the two match points and then managed to go on and win. So it was -- I'm not proud. I'm just happy that I managed to win, and, you know, hope I didn't cause anybody too many problems with the injury time-out that I took.
But, you know, it's just unfortunate it had to happen because it's -- you feel bad when, you know, you take an injury timeout as long as that, which I never really had to do before. And then you feel like you the can run around okay and you feel like a bit of a brat for taking so long to stop the match and you feel like you can run around.

Q. (Indiscernible) it all the time.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I know. I just hope tomorrow when I wake up tomorrow everything is not too sore, because, you know, first and most important thing is my health. And, you know, my ankle I've had problems with it before and I don't want to risk anything if it's hurting a bit.

Q. How do you feel right at the moment?
ANDY MURRAY: I'm pretty sore actually. The cut on my knee is pretty big one. You know what it's like when you stop and it kind of seizes up a little bit; it's hard to bend my leg; it's pretty painful. And my side's, now that I've stopped, is kind of tightened up a little bit.
I just had ice on my ankle, so I can't really feel it just now, but that felt worse when I came off, as well. So I feel okay, but I've definitely felt better.

Q. What did Tommy say to you when he came across the net after you fell?
ANDY MURRAY: He just said, like, you know, what happened, like, can you get him some ice. You know, and I was like, I'm sorry. You know, I felt something go and that might have been the brace, but I hurt my ankle before.
And he was just, you know, like, I can't really say the words that came out of his mouth, but he was, you know, obviously pretty concerned, which was really nice. And, you know, I practice with him a lot in the off-season, got to know him a bit. He's a really nice guy, and they're the sort of things that make tennis a special sport, when you get matches like that and guys coming over to show concern for your health.
You know, unfortunately, you know, one of us had to lose, but it was definitely a great match. But that's -- he was just concerned about my ankle and what happened.

Q. When it actually happened, it looked as if you were writhing in agony, but was it excruciatingly painful at that moment or were you just terrified that something had gone wrong?
ANDY MURRAY: It was a little bit of both. I wouldn't say I was in agony, but I had, you know, landed on my hip, I'd scratched my knee, and I felt like I'd done something to my ankle. And it was kind of a combination of things where, you know, I was in a little bit of shock, because I really didn't want to have problems with that ankle again, and I felt like since I had it happen at Queens, I'd done a lot of exercise to get it strong, and wearing the brace and stuff, and then something had happened, you know. You can take time out. And I felt I'd been playing well. All those things start coming through your head.
I definitely wasn't in agony, but it was kind a combination of things that it was hurting pretty bad all over.

Q. It didn't stop you taking another dive, though. You fell again, didn't you? You tripped up on the Hawkeye wire, wasn't it?
ANDY MURRAY: That's ridiculous. They should never have something like that on the court. You know that could have been way worse than the first fall. You know 'cause I wasn't expecting it at all. At least when I kind of felt like I was gonna go down on the first one, you know, you kind of roll out of it a little bit, and you kind of put your arm down to stop yourself. But that one, I was looking to see if the ball had gone in and then, you know, the back of my heels caught the wire, and I just went right under it. That could have been my hamstring or, you know, if I'd caught the front of it with my foot, I could have gone flat on my face.
So they've got to make sure they tape those things down because if not, it's pretty dangerous for the players.

Q. Andy, after the injury did you ever really feel comfortable on hitting the ball again, because it seemed like the latter part of the second set, beginning of the third, you were just guiding it around, didn't really start cutting loose until deeper in the third.
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't -- it wasn't that I didn't feel uncomfortable hitting the ball. It was more my movement to forehand side. And that's why I had to end up having quite a lot of sliced forehands, because I couldn't really push off on that side and load up to hit my forehand.
So I didn't feel uncomfortable hitting the ball. It was just more the movement part of it and the kind of -- I didn't feel like I had that much strength because my hip was kind of giving way a little bit.

Q. In a match like that, that's got lots of incidents, how is it for you to regain your concentration and your composure and refocus when you've been sitting out or you've fallen over or anything like that?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't really feel like I -- I can't really remember that many of the points during the match and what happened, and normally that's something that I do. And I think after it happened, I was kind of in shock for a couple of games, and then, you know, I wasn't really thinking. I was kind of more concerned about how I was feeling and I didn't feel nervous at all. And maybe that's why I managed to kind of win in the end, because I wasn't really thinking about the situation I was in. I was just kind of -- you know, I know I'd been hustling, my way into the match and just getting to balls and putting the ball back. I just didn't feel like I was that nervous at the end because of what had happened. I was just more concerned that my body was okay.

Q. I just want to know if you thought about bouncing the second smash in the middle of the tiebreak?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I -- you know, first one I hit, I hit pretty well, and I maybe wasn't expecting it to come back. And then, you know, at night with the floodlights and stuff and everybody's kind of gasping, it's kind of a long wait for the ball to come down. I waited a little bit too long and ended up hitting it, like, around my head. I wasn't thinking about bouncing it, but it definitely wasn't one of my better smashes.

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