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U.S. OPEN

August 25, 2007

Andy Murray

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How is it feeling? You've had a couple good days of consistent hitting. Is that the way you see it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, like before Cincinnati and Montréal, I had a little problem with my knee as well. Had to take a few days off just before the tournament started so I didn't really get the chance to sort of push my forehand in the practice before the tournaments.
After Cincinnati, I went home for a few days, got five, six days of really good practice, and really just working on my forehand, hitting it, getting more confidence in it. Saw a psychologist, saw the physio every day. Feel much better now than I did 10 days ago.

Q. In what way was the psychologist helpful?
ANDY MURRAY: It's just more I watch videos of what my forehand looked like before, just having sort of positive thoughts, someone that's listening to everything, pretty much everything that you say, and you can just get stuff off your chest, let them know exactly how you're feeling. It was a really good idea and it's helped me a lot.

Q. Do you feel like you've got faith in your body now; you're not worried about it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think, you know, before like Miami I'd been pretty much injury-free for two and a half years. I'd never had anything that kept me out for more than a week, two weeks, which is pretty good. And then all of a sudden, you know, I hurt my back. Obviously then it was my wrist. My groin was hurting, as well. You know, it was obviously quite a tough time for me.
Now I've had some time off. My body has had enough rest time. It's time for me to go back out on the court and start giving it a hundred percent again. I feel confident that I can do that.

Q. Had you been to a sports psychologist before or was this the first time?
ANDY MURRAY: I'd seen one before, when I had my knee injury when I was 16, 17. I found it really helpful then, too. Obviously it was three months longer, the knee problem. Maybe slightly harder time for me.
But, yeah, I mean, I've seen a sports psychologist before. I think they're really good. I don't think it's a good thing if you're having to use them every single day for six, seven months. But, you know, on and off for a few days at a time, I think it's very beneficial.

Q. Have you actually in practice, whether that be here or in other weeks, hit a forehand winner that you know in yourself that is as hard and as well as you can hit it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, yeah, I've hit quite a few. Sort of four or five days after I started hitting again in London, I decided before I came out here, you know, I had to try and hit through on it.
Yeah, I still feel it sometimes. But, you know, I've had all that explained to me that, you know, I'm going to feel it for a couple months, still a couple more months, before it feels a hundred percent again.
So, yeah, I've hit some big forehands. Now it's just getting used to doing that over and over again.

Q. The mental barrier that appeared to be there in the Baghdatis match and the second match in Montréal, that's gone now, is it?
ANDY MURRAY: It wasn't so much a mental barrier. It was difficult going out on the court knowing that you haven't been able to do something in practice. It's not just going to click in the match.
You know, my first match in Montréal, you know, Ginepri obviously didn't know exactly how bad my injury was or if I was still feeling it. Obviously then guys watch my matches and saw that I was still struggling. Guys are obviously going to play to it more. It's really difficult to win matches at the highest level.
You know, I wouldn't say it was like totally mental, but I just needed some time to go back and just work on that one shot in particular and get the confidence back, you know, where I feel like I can hit it hundred percent again.

Q. Who were you hitting at Roehampton?
ANDY MURRAY: I had one of my friends over from Miami. He plays No. 1 on the University of Miami team. I trained with him in Spain for three, four years. I practiced with him. He came over for four days. And then I hit with a couple of the younger guys, Daniel Cox and David Rice, the last two days that I was there.

Q. What sort of hours were you putting in on court?
ANDY MURRAY: I was playing -- the least I played was an hour and a half. The most I played was three and a half hours the last day before I came out here. But it was mainly between sort of 2 hours 45, 3 hours 15. Wanted to try to get the stamina up. I was doing a lot of drills, just a lot of continuous points, not stopping for breaks, first to 21 points at a time. So you were playing for sort of 10, 15 minutes trying to get the concentration levels back. Did a lot of things that I think are going to help me here.

Q. What would you say would be a satisfactory US Open for you?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I'm being honest, I haven't even looked at my draw. It's the first time I've really not seen who my second-round, third-round opponent is. I'm just trying to focus on one match at a time. It been so long where I haven't had a good run of matches where I've been injury-free. It's been since Miami really. So I just want to play one match at a time and enjoy being out on the court competing again.
Yeah, obviously I'd love to do it better than I did last year. Whether that's realistic or not, I'm not sure.

Q. There have been players like Andre Agassi who could take quite a long time off and hop back on the court and feel totally comfortable immediately. Then there are players that have to see the ball every day. What kind of player are you in that respect?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I think my hand-eye coordination's pretty good. I haven't had, you know, too much of a problem with that in the past when I've been injured.
I think coming back, you know, obviously I didn't really have any warmup tournaments that are weaker than -- obviously Cincinnati, Montréal are really strong, then straight into a Grand Slam.
I feel really good on the court. I've been winning sets in practice against the guys I've been playing with, all top hundred players, top 20 players some of them. I don't feel like there's going to be a problem, especially coming back, playing my favorite tournament.
Regardless of whether I haven't played or not, I'm still going to fight a hundred percent, try my best. Sometimes, even if your game's not at its highest level, you can still get through matches just on pure guts and determination.

Q. You practiced with González, didn't you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah.

Q. He hits it about as hard as anyone hits it off the ground. How did that go?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, yeah, it was a good practice. That was probably one of the best ones that I've had for myself, knowing that, you know, I could go on the court, he's hitting the ball as hard as he does. And I practiced with him yesterday. Woke up today, no bad reactions, nothing. I played with Hewitt the day before, and Tim, which are two completely different styles of players, hitting a lot of different types of shots against them. Yeah, my wrist has reacted really well.
Yeah, practice yesterday was really good.

Q. Do you have to do anything now...
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, yeah, I'm not wearing any type of brace now. I don't really like it so much. I feel like it sort of restricts the movement, the flexibility. I use my hands quite a lot when I play. You know, I said after every practice, you know, I'd do some exercise with Thera-Bands and with light weights just to try and get the strength back.
You know, there's not too many things that you can do for your wrist really.

End of FastScripts

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