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INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA (MEN)April 27, 2009Andy MurrayROME, ITALY THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Could you just talk about the match against Monaco? Clearly you just had recent experience playing him on hard court. What do you think he offers different on clay that is a challenge for you? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, he plays well on hard and on clay. He had a bad illness last year, and before that he was ranked inside the top 20. You know, he plays well. He got to the fourth round of the US Open a couple years ago and, you know, pushed Djokovic really close. You know, on clay, he plays well in the, you know, South America clay court tournaments at the start of most years, and that's where he's had most of his success. He obviously likes this surface. But I'm feeling better on the clay this year than I was last. Q. Are you aware of the sort of very complex calculations about Nos. 2, 3, and 4 in the rankings? Have you sat down and worked out yourself how things are the next few weeks? ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, I'm a long way behind Federer. I need to win a lot of matches if I want to try and catch up to him. I know this week I'm pretty sure -- well, Novak has to win the tournament to stay 3, I think, you know. But looking at Federer, I haven't really thought about it. I've been asked about the No. 3 ranking a lot, and I'd be there if I didn't get penalized for withdrawing from one of the tournaments last year, which I didn't know what the rules were. You know, I've only get my best 17 tournaments instead of my best 18, so hopefully that's not going to come back to bite me. Q. Could you perhaps talk about the different elements? I mean, Monaco and now here and then Madrid, sort of three different types of clay and different conditions, et cetera, going into the French. Do you think it's tougher this year to prepare for the clay season with the different elements and conditions and the altitude and what have you? ANDY MURRAY: No. I think it's, you know, the altitude does affect the game a bit, that's for sure. I guess a lot of the guys that are ranked a bit higher are taking a week off in between, you know, each tournament, which gives enough time to get to the tournaments early to practice and prepare properly. I don't think it should take you more than, you know, five days to sort of get used to the conditions. You know, I got here on Friday. You know, before Monte-Carlo I was there on the Friday and didn't play until Tuesday. Madrid will be the same thing, and Paris I'll probably be there a couple days earlier. Shouldn't really be a problem. Q. You played a doubles match just now. Do you get a feel for the courts based on that, or is it not something you can do in a doubles match? ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, the conditions out there today were terrible. It was so -- there was so much like from the trees and stuff blowing onto the court, like there's no clay on it at all. It was like really dusty. We all had to stop quite a few times to shield ourselves from the clay getting in our eyes. No, I mean, in conditions like that you don't really get used to a surface or whatever. I practiced a few days here, and, you know, I mean, it's a clay court. You play the same sort of way. You just adjust a little bit. It shouldn't be a problem. Q. Those kind of conditions, have you seen those before, or is that a little bit abnormal? ANDY MURRAY: I've played in very windy conditions before, it's just on the clay it becomes a bit different just because of a lot of stopping, you know, in between points and sort of you got to delay the points a bit because of the, you know, the clay sort of blowing into your eyes. You only really get it here. I mean, I practice in Barcelona a lot and it can get windy there, as well. I've seen bad conditions, it's just it's different playing in windy conditions on grass or hard. Q. Anything about 10 Downing Street take you by surprise? ANDY MURRAY: Not really. I mean, it was, I guess, kind of what you expected. Nice place. Obviously first time I had been there. You know, it was nice to meet the prime minister. He was very, very nice. You know, knew a lot about everything, you know, as you would expect. No, it was great. Really enjoyed it. End of FastScripts |
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