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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 21, 2007

Andy Murray

KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are our feeling physically, Andy?
ANDY MURRAY: I feel okay. I haven't played too much since my match with Djokovic, so I'm not 100 percent sure how my body is. Just I feel much better than I did a few days ago.

Q. Have you got more pain in one area, or is it about the same?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, I don't feel any discomfort I think right now. I just haven't played for a while. I've been chasing every ball down in practice, so we'll see how it is. I'll do that tomorrow and see. But everything that was sore on Sunday-Monday is feeling better now.

Q. Pleased to have JP on board? Second or third opinion?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well he's my first opinion. He's the first guy that I speak to about injuries and stuff. You know, normally he's at every single Grand Slam and match. To have him around is always a bonus, and I try to get him here as often as possible.

Q. What about conditions? It's a little different in a few respects from Indian Wells. What do you make of it? Breezy, just something that you to adjust to?
ANDY MURRAY: It's pretty windy here most of the time. In Dubai this year it was windy. It's important to concentrate well in these conditions. Because you might not be hitting the ball well and feel like you're playing badly, but your opponent is feeling the same way. The most important thing this week is to keep the head focused on the job in hand you know, hopefully I'll go up.

Q. Do you feel you have a personal rivalry with Novak? Might be there have been a bet between the two of you who would be in the Top 10 first?
ANDY MURRAY: No, no bets. No rivalry. I'm playing for myself not against other guys. I played against a lot of the teenagers, and there are a lot guys that are doing well in our age. There's not really any rivalries between anybody.

Q. Just look sort of beyond the injury and everything that happened last week. Just putting that to one side, and look at the way you played against Davydenko, and Haas in particular.
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I feel like in year has been a big step forward. The only guys I lost to in Indian Wells were in the top 5 in the world.
You know, last year I was kind of up and down coming in here, and I feel like I'm playing much more consistent. I'm not losing to guys that are most worse players than me. That's important.
I've won all seven of the three-set matches that I played. It's been a really good start to the year, I think. 19 and 4 or something, which is very good.
You know, one of the better records on the tour, so far. You know, that's what I wanted to do and I've done that.

Q. The fact that you're not losing to the players that the rankings say you shouldn't lose to, players that you're going into the match you know you have to keep that record going, will that help you?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, that's one of the basics to improving the rankings and your game. You know, when you do come up against guys that are not ranked as high as you, you know, you're going into the match and you should in theory win them.
That's what you have to do to improve your ranking. You can't one week win against Federer and next week lose to someone that is No. 60. You have to step up your game, you know, hopefully win a few of those matches against the Top 10 players.
I've done that so far, and I just need to keep that going.

Q. How much attention do you pay to someone like Paul Goldstein before you play the match? Do you scout him a little bit and think about how he plays?
ANDY MURRAY: I've practiced with him quite a lot. He lives in San Francisco near Brad, so I practice with him a lot. I practiced with him for a few days before Indian Wells; practiced with him before San Jose.
You know, so we know each other's games pretty well. Brad will always scout the guys and watch the match they play before I play them. You know, he gives me some tips, but we know his game pretty well.

Q. Is he pretty hard to play against?
ANDY MURRAY: He plays tough. Last year in LA, he plays tough. He's not that tall. Doesn't have any huge shots, but he's very quick. A lot of experience and doesn't miss too many balls. He's a tough opponent to play against, and like I said, it's important to stay focused on your game and not get too frustrated with the way you're hitting the ball.

Q. This time last year, Andy, you didn't have such a good time. Obviously you haven't got many ranking points between now and Wimbledon to defend. How well do you think you can do in the next few months?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know how well I can do, because I'm focusing on this week. It's about this week and not about Monte-Carlo or Davis Cup. It's about right now. I'm not thinking about what I might be doing in Rome or Hamburg.
It's important for me to concentrate on this week. I want to play well, and, you know, if I play like I've been playing there's no reason why I can't do well here.
I just want to focus on one tournament at a time and not start thinking about three, four weeks down the line. That's not going to help me play better.

Q. They've talked about making this two out of three instead of five. This tournament has always had the best three out of five for the final. How do you feel about that?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't really mind, to be honest. Whatever the TV wants I guess is the most important thing. The guys that keep the tournaments running and the fans as well. So I don't think that for the players it makes a whole a lot of difference.
I think that in all the other Master's series events it's best-of-five matches. I don't know if they're reducing them. I think in Rome and Hamburg they're playing three-set finals.
It doesn't make a whole a lot of difference unless you're in the final, and I haven't been in a Master Series final yet.

Q. Do you think people know who you are and where you're from more now? Do you get people coming up to you in the stadium wishing you good luck, anything like that, recognition of what you're achieving?
ANDY MURRAY: Maybe get a few more people watching my practices than I did at this time last year. You know, most of the tournaments that I go to there's quite a lot of British fans as well, which helps. I wouldn't say it's a whole a lot different, but I just think at my practices there's definitely more people watching.

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