	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 16, 2009

Andy Murray

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

A. MURRAY/P. Mathieu
6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You must be pretty happy with that, aren't you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was good. I mean, I hit the ball a lot better than my first match. I served big when I needed to and moved very well again, you know. Bar a couple games where I lost my concentration a little bit, it was a very solid match.

Q. The extra day off give you a bit more time to feel good? How was the recovery?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it was fine. I was a little bit stiff, but that's normal. You know -- yeah, I practiced about an hour and a half yesterday. After my first match, I did some stuff in the gym later on that day.
You know, I'm feeling good. I'm sleeping as much as possible and taking a few naps during the day and feeling good.

Q. You're obviously not finding the early morning starts too bad. Three in a row, first match, and you've been right on the button?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, I didn't start so well against Montanes. Today was obviously the perfect start, you know, going up a break early. I think with the time change and whatnot over here, it's normal to get up early. I've been practicing pretty much 11:00 every day, so I'm used to the conditions.

Q. You said that realistically you don't consider yourself as title contender here. With every passing round with the way you're playing, you must feel that more confident that you can reach the business end of the tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don't remember saying I wouldn't be a contender. I just said I didn't put any pressure on myself to play well this week, just take it each match at a time and see how I was feeling physically with Miami being, you know, my priority to get into top shape for then.
I did say if I can get through my first few matches and feel good, you never know what will happen. I just need to concentrate. I have a very tough match in my next round. Cilic and Robredo have had really good starts to the year. Both have won two tournaments.

Q. Court surface and speed to your liking here?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, it's tough. It's quick. When there's a little bit of breeze on the court, the ball does -- the ball flies even without the breeze. But when it is -- when the wind is with you, it can be quite tough to control the ball.
But if you serve well, you get cheap points off your serve, you know, and it's not too quick from the back, so it's tough for guys to rush me. But I think if I keep hitting the ball like I have been and maybe changing the pace of the ball, I'm definitely going to be tough to beat.
Whether I can win the tournament or not, we'll just have to wait and see.

Q. I asked Roger historically players who finally get to the top, they bring everybody else's game up. You're one of those that's kept rising and coming up. Normally the person that's at the top has to make another jump to stay one notch ahead. He wasn't sure that was accurate. How do you feel about that? Does he have to make another jump up or can he be No. 1 the way he's playing?
ANDY MURRAY: He's not exactly playing bad tennis. I mean, Nadal, had an incredible year last year. Obviously Roger still finished second in the world. He also made every slam final, bar the Aussie Open last year. His record in slams is great, so I think he's not exactly that far off.
He lost an unbelievably close match to Nadal at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. I think if you reverse those two results he would be very close to being No. 1. I don't think he's that far off.
I just think now, maybe compared with three, four years ago, there's more guys that can win against him and maybe believe they can beat him. That's obviously going to make it tougher for him.

Q. So you think he can turn that around and be No. 1 again?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, he definitely -- yeah, no question he can be No. 1 again. I just don't think he's going to be dominating the sport like he did when he was clearly No. 1 by a long way.
I don't think that'll be the case now because I think that he's going to lose more matches than he did before just because the standard of tennis has got better. And the reason tennis has got better is thanks to him, him setting the bar so high and guys who have tried to reach his level, and a few of us have.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297