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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 29, 2008

Andy Murray

MIAMI, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you just give us your impressions of the match.
ANDY MURRAY: Bad first set, good second set, you know, decent third set. You know, I didn't play well at the start. Made a lot of mistakes. Wasn't moving my feet well.
Second set I started to move better, I was using my forehand better. I played a better second set. And then in the third, I, you know, got off to a bad start, and then I obviously came back pretty quickly.
Then, I was just disappointed to lose my serve at 4-2. But I still had chances to win the match. But it's difficult to win a match against someone as good as Mario when you're serving that poorly.

Q. Was the wind much of a factor down on the court?
ANDY MURRAY: No, not really. It wasn't too bad. The only thing that was a bit tricky for both of us was, I'm not sure exactly, maybe right at the start of the third, when it went from being pretty light to pitch-black. Both of us struggled a little bit with the serves after that.
It's just a different, obviously a different scenery. You know, when you're looking up at a black sky compared to a blue and white one. So, that was the only thing that I think both of us struggled with a little bit. We both double faulted, I'm sure, more in the third set than we did in the first two.

Q. Is that kind of what happened when you were serving for the match there in that second?
ANDY MURRAY: No, that was just a bad serve. You know, it was the first time on tour that I've lost a match when I've had matchpoints. You know, so that's pretty disappointing.
But, yeah, I mean, I didn't serve well the whole match, so I probably wasn't feeling as confident as I normally would at that stage.

Q. Why do you think your serve wasn't quite what you wanted?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. You know, I didn't serve great last week. You know, it's just been inconsistent. Whether that's, you know, something that you know you can really work on or something that you change instead of going for big serves, you know, maybe taking something off and going for a higher percentage.
You know, I don't know. I'll have to think about it and decide what the best way to play is, because it is difficult when you put -- I mean, I'd be shocked if I served over 45% for the match. You know, if you serve like that against someone that serves as big as Mario, it puts a lot of pressure on you.

Q. You still did a heck of a lot of very good things and played a pretty assertive match, didn't you, compared to some recently?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I was hitting the ball pretty good from the baseline. I thought, anyway, towards the end of the match, I was dictating a lot of the points. You know, moving forward. Missed a few volleys which, maybe, maybe I shouldn't have.
But in terms of the way that I was playing or the game style, that was sort of what I've been working on. It's just, again, getting the consistency right on the serve, and you know, not making sloppy mistakes.
Like at 3-1 in the tiebreak, with, you know, the volley that I missed, you know, you can't be doing that. So those are the things that I need to try to cut out. It's happened too often in matches, so I need to try to get rid of that.

Q. Didn't see the Marseille final, but did you play better tonight than that?
ANDY MURRAY: It was a different match. You know, Marseille final was both of us struggling to break serve. We were holding relatively easily. He hadn't lost serve, you know, the whole tournament in Marseille until the final. You know, so it's different, obviously: More breaks tonight.
You know, yeah, maybe I changed the way I was playing a little bit too much. Going for a little too much on the returns early on. You know, once I found the right way to play I gave myself a lot of chances.

Q. When you're playing a game, talking with your team, whatever, what's the philosophy on drop shots? You still feel that the percentage is high enough to keep going for it?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, it's interesting you say that, because this year that's been something that I haven't -- haven't hardly played at all. Not something that I've been -- you know, I've tried to get rid of. I don't practice them at all.
But today, when you play against someone like Mario, he plays -- if you watch a video, you'll see how far behind the baseline he can play. You know, the drop shot can be a very effective shot against someone that plays that deep if they're played well, and I probably overplayed them, three or four too many.
You know, but, again, they did work on quite a few occasions as well. So it's just playing them at the right time. Making sure that it's the right moment to go for them. Again, it's just understanding the right way to play.

Q. Obviously you have a lot of points to defend here. Is there any - relief is not the right word - but, you know, would it be easier now to look forward? You've got a lovely sort of clear run where the only way is up from now on.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I said a couple months ago that the race was the ranking that I was going to look at this year, because I obviously had an unbelievable start to last year and missed three and a half months where I was pretty much, or five months where I got no points to defend at all.
So I knew my ranking was going to go up and down a bit. I obviously would have liked to have done better here and at Indian Wells, but I didn't. I lost a couple of tight matches.
Yeah, I've got a long time now before I have to think about points or anything like that. So I mean I wasn't thinking about that when I'm on the court. You know, obviously, my ranking's going to drop a bit now, but I've got a long time until I've got to defend points again.

Q. Very soon after the match, but this is the only chance we get to ask you. Do you know what you're doing now?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, obviously, try and get ready for the clay court stretch. Playing Valencia is my first tournament on the clay, so I'm going to work on -- I've hardly played any matches the last 18 months on clay.
So, I mean, I have to practice a lot. Get used to the moving again. You know, maybe go to Barcelona to train for a little bit, you know. But maybe take a couple of days off here and there and then get back.
You know, hopefully I'll be refreshed and feeling good for the clay court stretch, because I think it's a surface that I can play well on. But I need to make sure I'm well prepared.

End of FastScripts

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