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U.S. OPEN

September 1, 2010

Andy Murray

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

A. MURRAY/L. Lacko
6-3, 6-2, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Is it very nice to finally be allowed to start this tournament Wednesday?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it is different to the other slams. I mean, I guess it's always been that way. I don't really know whether I like it or not. But, yeah, it was good to get off quickly.

Q. Because it obviously means you have a play - to win this title - seven in 12 days. Is that fair?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, it's a lot easier to play seven matches in fourteen days. Anyone would tell you that. It's just different here with the Saturday, Sunday, semi and final is always tricky for all of the players. It's always been that way, so not a problem.

Q. How do you feel to have your first-round match under your belt?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was good. It wasn't necessarily the best tennis, but tricky conditions out there. It was very windy on the court. It was a guy I've never played against on the tour. I haven't really seen much of him play, so took a little time to get used to his game.
But I did enough to win in straight sets, and that was the most important thing.

Q. Is it just about sort of getting off the court as quickly as possible when it's that hot out there?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, you would -- you'd rather win as quickly as possible in any condition, whether it's cold or hot, in the slams.
But the only important thing is to win the match. If it's in five sets it's not ideal, but just want to try to win.

Q. People have been falling over, and Ljubicic has been complaining about how difficult it is. Obviously Cincy a couple weeks it was hotter than this.
ANDY MURRAY: Ah, similar.

Q. Is this tougher here than Australia because it's more humid?
ANDY MURRAY: Honestly, I don't find it that bad on center today. It was hot, but the wind -- it does get a lot breezier on that court than the outside courts. When I warmed up for my match this morning it felt hotter than when I was out there.
And, yeah, it's difficult conditions definitely, but I don't know. I don't know. Australia is -- Australia's very tough as well when you play right in the middle of the day in Australia. I've played quite a few matches on the center court there. That's really brutal. There's not a whole lot of breeze there normally either, so I don't know what I prefer.

Q. This is the benefit of the hard Miami training coming out here. Can you just talk us through what precautions and preliminaries you do to deal with it? Obviously you take in a lot of fluids.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, the night before, as well, try and drink a lot, eat as much good stuff as you can. And then I use an ice towel pretty much from the first changeover. I wore a hat today. I've hardly worn a hat for the last four or five years.
And, yeah, they're the only things you can do. I put a lot of sunblock on and train hard. That's probably the biggest thing you can do to help yourself.

Q. Does that become an issue? Because if you put a lot of that stuff on, you sweat and then you become a bit of a mess.
ANDY MURRAY: A mess?

Q. Well, the sweat coming through the sunblock. My experiences on holiday.
ANDY MURRAY: If you put it on quite -- I put it on like 45, 50 minutes before I go out there. If you put it on right beforehand, it's not great. Gets in your eyes and stuff. But I use the sweat bands too, so that normally stops it from coming down into my hand.

Q. What do you know of Dustin Brown? Have you seen much of him?
ANDY MURRAY: Not really. But, I mean, I've heard about him. He's got a big game, serves and volleys a lot, and, yeah, is very different to a lot of players on the tour. He's a good athlete.
I haven't seen him play, so another unknown opponent, really.

Q. How would you describe what this hardcourt season did for your level of confidence entering this tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, it obviously helped in terms of -- you know, match fitness was key because of the tough conditions. That's important to have, you know, played matches in it.
But, yeah, I hadn't been that consistent. Well, I played badly after Australia, and then Wimbledon was really -- gave me the confidence again. I wanted to do well there.
You know, then I came over and practiced hard, and obviously I've had a good run in the tournaments, which definitely helps.

Q. Would you say that your level of confidence, because of what occurred in this hardcourt season, is the highest it's ever been?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I feel good, but I felt confident quite a few times in my career. You know, Toronto was a big boost for me to win against Roger and Rafa. But, you know, I don't know. I feel good. That's it.

Q. So basically you say you feel good, feel confident. Are you saying you're confident enough this tournament will give you a win? Give us an insight on how you perceive the tournament. You have Rafa and you have Federer. You say you feel confident. Do you think you feel confident enough that the game can take you over the top?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, it can, yeah, but I need to play my best, and am not really thinking that much about Roger and Rafa right now because I'm only in the second round. That's disrespectful to all the other guys that you might have to play on the road to get there to think about playing against them.
For me, I love playing against those guys. But a lot of tennis, you've seen someone like Berdych who has been great in the Grand Slams this year lost in straight sets today; Soderling nearly went out the other day; Djokovic nearly went out.
It's so pointless thinking ahead. I say it every Grand Slam. That's how I feel.

Q. Does that mean you're very impressed by the level of talent you see here so far?
ANDY MURRAY: I'm not impressed. I've been around it for the last three, four years. That's what the tour is now. You have to be switched on from the beginning of every tournament. All of the players play very, very well.
And, you know, on any given day, if they play great tennis and you're not up to, you know, up to your best standard, then you can lose matches early in tournaments. It's happened to me before. I don't want it to happen to me again.

Q. To have beaten Rafa and Roger in the same tournament, does that have any special significance to you, to beat them in the same tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was nice. Any time you beat those guys is good. But, look, beating Roger in a final for the first time was nice. You know, it's the easiest scoreline I've had against Rafa in a match, so I feel like I'm playing well.
But, you know, I need to try and keep that level up if I want to win the tournament.

Q. In terms of the speed of the court and the balls, how does this compare with Toronto and Cincinnati?
ANDY MURRAY: This is way, way quicker than Toronto, and it's a bit different than Cincinnati.
I just feel like it's really difficult to control the ball in Cincinnati. But here I don't think it's as tough to control the ball, but it's really, really fast out there. The balls get really small and fly, so they almost get -- they almost get quicker the more you play with them; whereas normally it would work the other way around.

Q. Do you prefer that?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't mind it. It's just different. It's just something to get used to.

Q. Going back to Dustin Brown, when you don't know too much about a player, how much do you try to find out, or do you just rely on getting out there and working it out for yourself?
ANDY MURRAY: Try and find out as much as possible. You know, you've got to try and get your tactics somewhat right. You do need to concentrate on your own game, as well.
But it is important to know about your opponent and try and find out, you know, even if it's just little bits and pieces about them that might have helped you in the match.

Q. Did you have a chance to see Roger's shot between his legs the other night for a winner?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah.

Q. What were your thoughts about that and how he's able to come up with these shots?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I saw it. I thought the one against Djokovic last year was better.
But, no, they're difficult shots. They're very difficult shots to time. And if you time them well, it's very difficult for the opponent to reach them if you get, you know, reasonable direction, because you don't see it very often.
So to judge your split step, like if you see Dabul the other night when he hit it, he hit a really clean, great shot. But Dabul was charging the other direction. He had no idea when Roger was going to make contact with the ball. So it is very difficult if someone hits a clean one to get your movement right.

Q. Why do you think the one against Djokovic was better?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, because Novak was at the net. It was a bit harder. Dabul was out of position when he hit the lob. They were both great shots.

Q. Is that something that you work on at all?
ANDY MURRAY: Um, I occasionally hit it. If it happens in practice you just always try -- you know, if you're in a situation in a match, you always try and get back and put up a lob, you know, if you can.
So you don't hit them that much. No, I practice them sometimes messing around in practice a little bit.

Q. How do you do?
ANDY MURRAY: Ah, yeah, not bad. Not bad.

Q. Would you try it in a match?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, for me, a lot of it depends on the scoreline and if purely -- if you can't get there anyway, then I would try it. My opponent today tried a sort of a similar shot, you know, not through the legs but, you know, similar shot.
So if you are, you know, in a really tough position, then I'd go for it. If not, always try and stick up a lob.

Q. Novak said he'd be more concerned about damaging himself with a racquet. You wouldn't worry, too?
ANDY MURRAY: You've got to be careful, yeah. (Laughter.) I have never had any problems when I tried it.

Q. This year in Russia we are celebrating 10 successful years in tennis. Just want to know what do you think about Russian tennis in whole and about the last ten years of Russian participants in particular.
ANDY MURRAY: Well, yeah, they're definitely one of the strongest nations. On the women's side what they've done has been pretty incredible. The results on the women's side have been great.
And then on the men's they've always had, you know, a lot of top guys: Kafelnikov and Safin and you know, guys like Youzhny. They've obviously won Davis Cup, as well. They're one of the toughest teams to play in Davis Cup. They've done very well.

Q. Talking about Davis Cup, are you intrigued that the next opponent would consider playing with Great Britain?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I don't mind if it's -- yeah, I don't mind. If it makes the team better, I guess that's a good thing. But you never know. I don't know how English or British he feels, and I think that, for me, is something that's quite important when you're playing for your country.

Q. Do you think we might see more serve and volley in the evolution of the game in the near future?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think so. You know, the players are definitely getting bigger, so I think that, yeah, with that you'll get probably more -- I don't think it's ever going to dominate the game again like it used to, but I think you'll start to see more in the next five, ten years, yeah.

End of FastScripts

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