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U.S. OPEN

August 30, 2007

Andy Murray

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You had to battle hard there today, didn't you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. You know, he's in really good shape for his age. He's got a lot of experience. You know, this year he's actually played well in the Grand Slams. Obviously last year made a great run at Wimbledon.
I knew it was going to be a difficult match, you know, because of his experience. He changes his tactics quite a lot when you're out there. You know, he's one of the best returners. I like to think that's one of the best parts of my game.
He knew he had to kind of change the pace up by going to my body, serving out wide, not always going for big flat serves. You know, I knew it was going to be a difficult match, but he was really clever on the court. I wasn't expecting him to be as clever as that.

Q. How pleasing is it to win a five-setter like that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was great. You know, you just feel like the hard work you put in, you know, when you were hurt, you know, is worthwhile. It was really, really hot out there, as well.
You know, it's hard to go out and train in those sort of conditions for such a long time. I could have got down on myself when I went a break down in the second set. But I managed to come back well. I was really happy with that.

Q. Were you aware of his excellent five-set record?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I didn't know. What was it?

Q. It was 29-12 before today.
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, he's in really good shape. I know he won two five-setters back to back at the French this year. He also won back to back five-setters last year at Wimbledon against Mirnyi and Stepanek. He's in really good shape. I knew that going in.
When you play against a guy with as much experience as that, you're going to expect a tough match and you have to fight right until the end, because I think that's one of his best qualities: He never gives in and fights until the last point.

Q. How does your body feel after a very stern test?
ANDY MURRAY: It feels all right just now. But I'm sure tomorrow morning it would probably be stiff. Just need to make sure I do all the right things tonight. You know, make sure I eat well, stretch, take a bath, just try to relax. Hopefully in a couple days I should be feeling better.

Q. More specifically, the wrist? Fine?
ANDY MURRAY: The wrist is fine. I didn't feel it once during the match. I just need to get -- you know, after the first sort of two and a half sets I started hitting my forehand much better, hitting it much harder, trying to dictate the points more.
Just took me a little bit more time to get into that rhythm of hitting it consistently hard. I was making a few too many mistakes off my forehand in the first and second set, but by the end it was getting much better.

Q. I noticed you didn't even wear a sweat band.
ANDY MURRAY: I wore a sweat band. I took it off. I think maybe when I lost the first set maybe I took it off. I don't know. I don't know why I took it off. It was just pretty sweaty.
I think, you know, the reason for using a wristband for me is to wipe the sweat off my face. It was so wet that it really wasn't doing anything.

Q. Did you ever come close to having surgery on it?
ANDY MURRAY: No. You know, I didn't tear anything. Nothing was that bad that I needed to have surgery. I could have had a cortisone shot in it. I didn't really want to do it. I wanted to let it heal naturally.
You know, the older you get you might need to do more sort of things like that, especially if you're trying to get ready for a big tournament.
But I think when you're my age, it's best just to kind of let it heal naturally. No, it's all good now.

Q. Do anything special for it after you finish? Ice it after you finish?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, ice my knees and my wrist just kind of for precaution. I think when you play on these courts, they're so hard and so sticky, your joints are pretty sore. It's pretty important to ice different parts of your body.

Q. Is it the toughest physical conditions of anywhere here?
ANDY MURRAY: In terms of the Grand Slams, I don't know. I think, you know, when the weather's like it was today, yeah. It's really tough. But, you know, obviously the French, the rallies would probably be longer.
I think Wimbledon's probably the easiest on your body physically.
Australia, you know what it gets like there when it's unbelievably hot. That's tough.
I wouldn't say these are definitely the hardest conditions, but the humidity does make it difficult.

Q. Do you know anything about your next opponent?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I played him in San Jose this year. I won 7-6 in the third. He's a really good player. Very consistent. Solid. Does everything well. Doesn't do anything unbelievable, but he's in really good shape. He's got a good serve. Forehand, backhand is good. He moves well. It's going to be a hard match.

Q. Were you surprised he beat Cañas?
ANDY MURRAY: No. Cañas hasn't been playing that well lately, you know, since -- kind of since Indian Wells, Miami really, when he was obviously playing great there. He hasn't played as well.
No, I mean, Lee can give anybody problems.

Q. Where is the court speed in your comfort zone? Where does it fit in?
ANDY MURRAY: I think this is a great surface for me. The balls are fast. The court is kind of medium-paced, high-bouncing. It takes sort of all the spins. The slice stays low. When you play with the topspin, it kicks up pretty high. If you're hitting your serve big, you can get a lot of free points from it.
No, I think this is one of my best surfaces.

Q. Do you get a chance to do anything in New York away from tennis during these two weeks?
ANDY MURRAY: I went to Times Square the first day I got here, and then I went up the Empire State Building, I think that was on the Saturday before the tournament.

Q. Obviously I know what it's like for you in the UK. Do New Yorkers recognize you? Do Americans know who you are when you're walking on the street?
ANDY MURRAY: Not really Americans. When I go to sort of the tourist city places like Times Square and the Empire State Buildings I get noticed, but not really from the Americans.

Q. Is the psychologist still here?
ANDY MURRAY: I think he left straight after the match, yeah.

Q. While he's been here, has he been working with you on anything, or did he just come to see you?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, you know, I watched little bits of videos from my matches here from last year. Watched a bit of my match against González.
I spoke to him, you know, after my first match. You know, everything was good. You know, the things that we'd spoken about before were fine, so there wasn't really anything to chat about.
But, yeah, I watched some videos of other sports people, Mohammed Ali, Lance Armstrong. I watched bits and pieces of them last night.

Q. When you left Cincinnati in a bit of a trough, could you have envisaged beating such a good five-set player within a couple of weeks like Bjorkman?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, definitely. You know, the reason why I wasn't playing well in Cincinnati and wasn't happy was because I was going on the court not in a hundred percent shape.
You know, it's tough to beat guys when you're playing like that. It's not a nice feeling going on the court. You know, I knew the best thing for me to do would be to go back, you know, work on some things, get treatment on my wrist every day, and just build up the confidence in it because I didn't have that before Montréal and Cincinnati.
Yeah, you know, I don't think because I haven't played that many matches, you know, I was going to come in here playing badly, because I think my hand-eye coordination is good. I didn't think that was going to be a problem.

Q. A match like this where you have so many ups and downs, so long a road, is it worth three or four matches in terms of the experience factor in getting you back to where you're really comfortable?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think this was great for me. You know, obviously you don't want to play too many five-setters in a Slam early on. In terms of the position I've been in, having hardly played for the last five months, you know, to play a match like that and come through it is great for your confidence.
I hit more balls in that match than I had in a long time. I haven't had any -- my wrist was fine. It was good for my body to have, you know, that sort of test.

Q. Did you watch the match last night of Federer?
ANDY MURRAY: I saw a little of it.

Q. The women are making all these fashion statements. Roger made this statement. Could you see yourself doing something like that? What do you think of him?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I'm not going to do that (smiling). I don't know what I thought about it. It was okay. It wasn't his best outfit. It wasn't his worst. It was okay.

Q. What does the treatment entail on your wrist? Would rest be the better option, but it's not really an option because it's the US Open?
ANDY MURRAY: My wrist is fine. I don't have any problems with it.

Q. What was the treatment? What sort of treatment did you have?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, yeah, I had acupuncture. I had massage. I iced it a lot. I had some laser treatment. I used a Compex machine. You know, I did a lot of different things. Also exercises to try and strengthen it back up and get the confidence in it.
You know, regardless of how many exercises you do, how much treatment you have, most important thing is to go on the tennis court and try and hit the balls as hard as you can. It took me a long time to feel comfortable enough to do that. Now it's fine.

Q. Do you feel the Isner/Federer matchup is worth the hype that it's starting to generate?
ANDY MURRAY: Definitely, yes. I think it's going to be a great match. The guy -- him and Karlovic definitely have the best two serves in the game. I'd probably say Isner is better from the baseline, returns better than Karlovic. Federer's played Karlovic three times and only broken him once.
So, you know, if Isner returns better and Federer isn't on his game, then, yeah, it will definitely be an interesting match. Definitely Federer is clearly the favorite, but you never know. In Slams, if maybe Federer gets nervous, I don't know. He hasn't in the past. But it's a tough match against an American. You never know.
If he plays like he has been the last few months, then I'd probably say Federer will come through.

End of FastScripts

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