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U.S. OPENAugust 30, 2008Andy MurrayNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK A. MURRAY/J. Melzer 6-7, 4-6, 7-6, 6-1, 6-3 THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How did you get back in the match? Did you think you were out of it at two sets to love down? ANDY MURRAY: No. I didn't think I was out of it, but I knew it was going to be tough to come back because he was playing really, really well. He was serving close to the lines and hitting the ball so hard and flat and very deep. Taking a lot of risks and was going in for the most part. Just had to try and hang on. The toughest part was probably after -- you know, it was when I got broken serving for the third set. I felt like he hadn't had too many chances on my serve up until that point. To lose it after I had only broken once the whole match was tough. But played some great points in the tiebreak to turn it around. Q. Is it one of those things where when you've done the fitness and had the experience of coming from two sets down before you realize it's possible and that gives you more confidence? ANDY MURRAY: No. I think it comes from, you know, like I said, you put in the work off the court and, you know, you've got to use it on the court. I did it against -- the first time I did it was in the Davis Cup. Q. Andy Ram? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, but for me if you feel like you can run the whole match and run all day, doesn't matter if you've done it before or not. Sometimes if you come back from an injury or whatever, you might not feel that comfortable with your fitness. But I worked hard and I felt like I was able to come back. Q. Did you feel good at the start or were you just surprised by the way he came at you? ANDY MURRAY: The guy played great. It happens sometimes. I'm not that good of a player that I can just blitz guys. But I said it was going to be a difficult match, and he's very talented. He's given top guys a lot of problems in the past. He's beaten Agassi three or four times when Agassi was still around. He's a tough guy to play and he played great. I wasn't surprised. It's tough to get in a rhythm when a guy is taking every ball on the rise, and coming to the net and mixing his serve around. He was playing well. Q. Can you talk about the point in the third set where you broke his serve and then you came back and served five consecutive points to win the next game. Was that a turning point for you? ANDY MURRAY: From Love-40? Q. Yeah. ANDY MURRAY: I was down Love-40? Q. No, you won. ANDY MURRAY: I was. Q. He was. ANDY MURRAY: I was down Love-40. Q. No, no, no he had 15. That's right, but you got the game back on your serve after you broke his serve. So that made it 4-2. ANDY MURRAY: So basically what happened was it was 3-2, I had just broken him, Love-40 and I won that game. That obviously helped. But like I said, I obviously got broken back at 5-4 in that set, which made it a little bit harder. But I don't think that that game in particular had much bearing on the outcome of the match. Q. Have you hit bigger than 138? ANDY MURRAY: I think this was probably -- I had hit 138 quite a few times. I think 138 is probably the biggest. I hit 140 out, but never bigger than 137 in. Q. Were you more pleased with your serving percentage today? ANDY MURRAY: I don't even know what it was. I just looked to see how many times I got broken in the match. If I served 10% of first serves and lost the match, that's fine by me. But yeah, didn't get broken too much today, so yeah. I was happy with the way I served. Q. At the end, flexed your muscles like Popeye. Is it spinach? Is it more lifting or in that moment for you is it just a lot of relief? ANDY MURRAY: There are a lot of different emotions going through your head. When you're training and wondering why you do all the work and feeling sorry for yourself and what have you, and you kind of push through and keep working. Then when you have moments like that on the court, you know, you feel like it's all worth it. It's sort of more a sign to my fitness trainers and the team that's around me. They've seen everything I've done off the court and, you know, it's a lot of the results that I've had in the long matches have come down to them helping me out and making me do the right things and making sure I'm working hard. Q. Any spinach or organic materials? ANDY MURRAY: No. Q. The fitness issues come into play more when you start thinking at whatever age you started thinking that you had a chance to be a Grand Slam player? ANDY MURRAY: I think experience can help a lot. You know, when I played Wimbledon the first time, I had never played four sets in my life, never mind five. I think it's understandable to be a bit tired, then if you're not used to doing something before. Then, yeah, you understand that you need to work on things, but for me, you know, I did start to work hard after that. But, you know, you have to respect your body as well. And I was still doing a lot of growing and what have you. You can't push yourself too hard. It's not good for your body. Now I'm starting to grow up, and finish growing and I can do more weights and train harder. It's much easier to do all that stuff now. When you're sort of 17 and 18, I think it's tough on the body to push so hard. Q. How do you compare that to the Gasquet victory? ANDY MURRAY: They both were very good. I was in danger in both matches, but I felt like today Melzer was playing so well that it was going really tough for me to get back into the match. Against Gasquet he was obviously playing great, too, but I still felt like I had a shot of getting back in there. And I had known in the past that he had struggled to close big matches out and struggled a bit over five sets. So that made it a little bit easier than today maybe. Q. In three weeks you're going to see that guy again in Wimbledon. Can you give a little preview of that match? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think hopefully it won't be as tough as it was today. But I think he struggled in Davis Cup in the past. I don't think he has a particularly good record. I think hard courts, these courts, indoors, I think he plays very well. I don't know how his record is at Wimbledon. It'll be a tough match for sure. If he plays like that, I'm going to have to play really well if I'm going to win. Q. He was struggling physically at the end, the last set. How were you feeling? ANDY MURRAY: I felt good. I feel all right. No problems. Q. Were you very much aware that you had the advantage then because of the fact that you felt good and you could see that he... ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, it's tough sometimes. When I got ahead in the fourth set, he obviously didn't try particularly hard at the end of the fourth set. You never know how -- he didn't look to me like he was cramping. So I expect him to come out strong at the start of the fifth set, and he hit some big shots again and was chasing balls down and had a couple of chances to break me early in the fifth. The fifth set was always going to be difficult. But once I broke him, yeah, I think he was tired. Obviously felt like I was in the driver's seat then. Q. Do you think it's a fair rule that a player can get a massage because he's tired rather than an injury and keep you waiting? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was nothing to do with him. I think it's probably got to be one of the few sports in the world that, you know, you're allowed to have treatment when you're not fit enough. But it's also a tough judgment if you have a five-, six-hour match, which is possible. If someone is struggling, you would like to think that you would sort of look out for the players as well. So it's a difficult one, but I guess if it's fatigue, you don't have to continue playing if you're cramping. You can stop the match. Yeah, they're going to find ways anyway. Players will find a way to get around the rule. I don't really think it's a huge problem. Q. Do you understand why there is no Hawk-Eye at the richest tournament on earth, in the third biggest court? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I don't think there's Hawk-Eye on the third court at Wimbledon. I don't think there's Hawk-Eye in the third court at the Australian Open. I said in my previous press conference, I would like to see the Hawk-Eye used on every single court. It's so expensive. I think it would have helped both of us today. I think now it's also tough for the umpires. I think they're getting used to having Hawk-Eye as well, so they don't want to step in as much as they used to, which can be a good thing sometimes, but I would rather see it on every single court. Q. You're into the second week now. How do you look at your situation now and prospects? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think I'm hitting the ball well. I just feel like my return game needs to get better. Try and create a few more opportunities on the return. I don't think I'm hitting a lot of unforced errors. I feel like I'm moving well and I feel fit. I think if I just improve the returning, you know, my chances in the next match will be good. Q. Going to the next round, when would you allow yourself to kind of smile and say, Hey, I've achieved something in this tournament as opposed to now? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think when you're at a tournament like this, for me, there is a chance that I could win the tournament. So I say to myself, you know, I'm going to give it my best shot to try and win. That's my goal for the tournament, to try to win it. I don't think that if you set yourself a target of the third round and you reach it, you know, you can kind of feel like you've achieved what you came here to do. I think it's better to set the bar high and maybe you don't reach it. I might not necessarily win this tournament, but if I go with the intention of doing it, it might not come as such a surprise if I do go deep. So maybe when the tournament is finished. End of FastScripts |
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