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WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERSAugust 14, 2007Andy MurrayCINCINNATI, OHIO THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. I imagine it must be very difficult to play and lose to people that you probably stand a fair chance of beating, but do you feel in six days there's been an improvement over your previous tournaments? ANDY MURRAY: In terms of pace I'm hitting the ball at, yeah. I was hitting the ball harder today off my forehand and hitting topspin returns. You know, it was definitely better but there's just a lot of things that I wasn't really doing well. You know, not moving fluidly which is normally the one thing that I do really well. Moved badly, so obviously wasn't hitting my forehand 100%. Combination of those two things and also playing against a great player like Marcos doesn't help. Q. Why would it be that you weren't moving well? Was it a confidence thing? ANDY MURRAY: I guess it was maybe more the anticipation. Just seeing balls, you know, and points again. Obviously he's hitting the ball at a pretty hard pace and flat. You know, I don't know exactly, but I only played a few matches since I came back. It's the one thing that might take a bit of time to come back is the movement and the anticipation. Q. Do you still feel pain when you hit on the forehand side? ANDY MURRAY: No. It was much better today. You know, I've been -- I decided after my matches last week and then a few days before the tournament here I was going to try to hit some more and hopefully be pain-free, and I haven't had any bad reactions. It was feeling better, and I guess it's pretty much 100% now. It's a good sign. Q. Was anticipation part of problem on your return? You're usually able to get a lot of breakpoints, but today... ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I think that's what I was trying to say. When you don't play a lot, obviously -- maybe not so much the return just the movement off the return, the fresh shot. I'd return and his shot would be by me. So I think that was maybe not so much the return, more the movement after I've hit the shot. Q. How much has that surprised you that you haven't picked up that part of your game as quickly as maybe might be expected? ANDY MURRAY: It's not surprised me too much. I had a knee injury when I was 16, 17 and I was injured for six months. It took me time to get used to the movement again after that, but after a couple of months I started playing better. I won a few of the Futures tournaments and won the US Open Juniors. It just takes a bit of time. Hopefully the more matches I play and more I'm around the best players I'll start moving better. Q. Has it affected the way you construct points? ANDY MURRAY: I guess slightly. You have to -- you have to be a bit more aggressive. You need to try and take the weaker forehand out of play a bit and try serve and volley a bit. Go for shots up the line that you might not normally try. You know, that's just something that I've got to get used to for the next month or so, and then hopefully be able to start playing well again. Q. You have said the wrist is almost 100% in terms of pain-free. Sometimes when you opened up it looked good and then didn't open up on shots you might have on otherwise. Is it now mental rather than physical? ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, I'm pretty comfortable now that it's not going to hurt, but it's just getting, again, used to -- your swing changes a bit when you're not hitting for a while and you're obviously not swinging as hard. It's just getting used to swinging hard consistently all the time, and then when my swing is back to normal then I should be hitting at a consistent pace again. It's just sometimes when the ball is in a different position I might slice it or I might hit it a bit different. But when I've got enough time I was trying to hit up on it more. Q. Is it frustrating waiting for that process to happen, or do you feel comfortable knowing that's going to be a while? ANDY MURRAY: I guess you just got to try and deal with it. You know, I guess it's kind of to be expected maybe. But I don't know, it's not -- obviously I'd rather be playing 100% and playing my best tennis, but I know it's going to take a bit of time. Q. How long did it take to you decide whether or not to play here after Montreal? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I spoke with Brad and the physios straight after my match and said that the next day I was going to go out and practice and try and hit, you know, sort of fool out, or much harder than I had been. I had to find out if it was going to hurt and make it worse or if it was going to be fine and then I could keep playing. So perhaps in the morning I was hitting the ball harder and didn't have any bad reactions and decided I was going to come. Q. What did Brad say about it? Did he try to guide you in making your decision, or did he leave it up to you entirely? ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, he wanted me to play. I just wanted to see what it felt like to swing hard again and see if it was sore or not. But at the start it feels a little bit sore and then you start to get used to it again, and then it feels better. So, you know, I'm just happy that it's pretty much 100% now. Q. So is the plan still to go to New Haven next week? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Q. Do you stay here and practice for a bit? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know yet. I guess I'll probably go somewhere to practice or maybe just go straight to New Haven and try to get used to the courts there. Not sure yet. Q. Are you writing off the US Open? Is that just going to be another practicing experience because of the slow way it's coming back, or do you have some hopes? ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, I want to go there and do well. You know, I mean, not too much of the top players will go and play, the top 10 players, will go play tournaments the week before the Grand Slams, so I'm making a decision to go there and play and try and win some matches and get my confidence back and my movement back and see exactly where my game's at going into the US Open. Because right now obviously it's not looking great. I want to try and play better in New Haven and then get some matches under my belt before the US Open. Q. You said recently that the results aren't important for now. You're just working through the process. Must be quite hard to take, not so much today but last week, just mentally for your confidence. Or can you write them off? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it's something that, you know, there's results that will hurt you really bad sometimes and get you really down. But I just have to stay positive just now because I'm hoping that it's going to come back sooner rather than later. Sometimes you can go out and play in an important match and you're feeling great and you just don't play well, and then that hurts you a lot. But I'm just trying to get myself back onto the tour and used to playing against these guys again, and then hopefully I'll be doing that better in a couple of weeks. Q. Can you tell, has it been difficult for Brad and for Jamie and the rest of them watching you as well? ANDY MURRAY: I guess so. I think after having the start to the year that I had and then to be in this sort of position is not probably not the easiest thing. But, you know, I'd like to hope that they'd be behind me supporting me and wanting me to get better. It's not fun for anyone watching me lose matches like that. End of FastScripts |
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