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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 14, 2009

Andy Murray

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

A. MURRAY/A. Montanes
7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How do you think you played?
ANDY MURRAY: I thought I did well. You know, I wanted to, you know, just give it 110%. I saw that I wasn't going to play my best tennis and it would be dumb to think like that.
I thought I moved great. Best I had moved in quite a while. I wasn't hitting the ball particularly well, but I moved well. After I went down a break in the first set I did well to come back.

Q. Did you try and play on his backhand? He was making a lot of mistakes. Did you think that was his weak point?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, at the start he didn't miss a lot of balls. He was very solid. He's playing much closer to the baseline than he had when I played him beforehand.
After sort of 11:30, the court, the temperature, it was warm out there. The ball started bouncing much higher. I think he's only I think 5'7", 5'8", so the ball was getting up quite high. It was quite tough for him to control it when it was up above his head, and he started to make a few mistakes from there.
I thought he played well with some really good rallies. It was a good tennis for him.

Q. When you know you're not 100%, do you change your strategy as to how you're going to play matches?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, I think you just go in with a little bit less expectation. When I go a break down early, if I was feeling my best and expecting to win comfortably, maybe I would have been more disappointed and panicked a little bit. I don't know.
But when you're sort of not expecting to play your best and you go behind, you just deal with it a little bit better. But I don't change the way I play. You just to have try and work your way into the match. I got more solid as it went on.

Q. Were you especially pleased with the backhand crosscourt to take you to set point in the first set?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, there was a lot of really good rallies. Well, actually, that was just pure anticipation.
Yeah, there was a lot of really good rallies. He hit some good dropshots that I managed to pick up. He had me doing a lot of running as well. It was a lot of good points.

Q. You feel good after that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I feel fine. I mean, you know, like I said, I felt like I moved really well, didn't feel like I was too out of breath after long rallies.
I didn't feel like -- you know, I think the match was just over an hour and a half. I felt like I could have gone for at least another 45 minutes or so, which is pleasing.
I just need to sort of rest, recover, and get ready for the next match and be in the best shape possible for that one.

Q. When someone has been playing as long as you have or any top pro and you have to take a few weeks off, how rusty do you really get?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn't feel like -- it's just a little bit more nerves than, you know, normal. You know, against someone like Montanes, I know it's going to be a tough match and I'm going play hard, and I feel like I have a chance to dictate a lot of rallies, but because I hadn't played, you don't know exactly how you're going strike the ball. Here it flies a lot.
If you were to watch the first sort of six, seven games of the match, I was hitting a lot of the balls short and letting him dictate the rallies. They're just the little things that change, but as the match went on, you start to get better and start to relax and play better because of that.

Q. Do you think Wimbledon will be the same when they put the roof over?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I have to play on it. I think every time you do have a cover on the court, you play indoors, there's no wind. You know, that's obviously a change. Sun is not going to be in your eyes, so that's obviously different.
In terms of the way the court plays and the speed of the court, I'm guessing it should be the same.

Q. In terms the atmosphere, which is of course so special there, to have that court with the roof, how do you think that'll affect things?
ANDY MURRAY: I think that'll improve. Every time I've played a big match indoors, you know, or like in Davis Cup, even if it's sort of 3,000, 4,000 seats, you know, the noise sort of gets trapped in there and it becomes even better.
With center court I think, as well, it's so quiet on there normally in between the -- sort of during the points, that I think with the roof over it's going to be even, I would have thought even less noise. You're not going to be able to hear cars driving past or planes or anything.

Q. What do you make of the idea of there really being a big four in tennis and as to whether or not there's a big gap between yourself and the other three guys and the rest of the field, or do you think that guys like Tsonga and Verdasco or maybe a Roddick are a lot closer than they're given credit for?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, the rankings, the difference in points would suggest that there's a big gap. But, you know, on any given day, I would think that any of those guys could beat the top four players.
I think that's why right now tennis is, you know, in a really good spot because, you know, it's not that predictable.
I think it's just a consistency thing. I had a -- sort of before when I struggled to sort of keep my game, you know, at the highest level for the whole of the year, last year was the first time I managed to do it. That's the tough thing.
There's no question those guys can play the same level as the top players. It's just a question of whether they can do it for the whole year or not.

End of FastScripts

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