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MONTE-CARLO ROLEX MASTERS

April 14, 2011

Andy Murray

MONTE CARLO, MONACO

A. MURRAY/G. Simon
6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Always difficult to play against an injured player. But what is it like to be jeered?
ANDY MURRAY: I wasn't bothered at all. You know, I was doing what I had to do to win the match as quickly and efficiently as possible. It worked.
So I know every single player on the tour would have done exactly the same thing. Yeah, you just got to get on with it, move on to the next match, see how they react tomorrow.

Q. He said exactly the same thing.
ANDY MURRAY: Every player would have done it. That's why I'm not worried about it. Even if some players wouldn't have done, it's the right way to win the match. Didn't use up too much energy. A lot of short points. All of the dropshots, even if he was moving well, they were all very, very good. So I was happy with that, too.

Q. Encouraged by your performance before and after the injury?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. End of the first set was very good. I got a little bit impatient right at the start of the match. Once I got ahead, I started running around to hit my forehand, started pressing quite early in the rallies. The rallies against him are going to take a bit of time to get him out of position.
Yeah, I think you have to be patient on this surface, especially against him. Once I settled down a little bit, I got the tactics right, started making him do a lot of running. That helped.

Q. Do you know much about your opponent tomorrow?
ANDY MURRAY: I know a lot about him, yeah. We played a little bit in the juniors around the same time. He's a couple of years older than me. Then when I was over training in Spain, we were playing some futures tournaments together. I practiced with him a few times. I watched his match today, as much as I could.
I know about him because he's been around the tour for a while, just sort of around 100. Obviously, clay court is his best surface.
It will be a tough match, but definitely think I can win.

Q. What were your feelings about the people, the crowd booing at you?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, you just got to deal with it. Yeah, like I say, I wasn't doing anything wrong. You just get on with it and win the match, that's it.

Q. Did you think at any point he might pull out of the game?
ANDY MURRAY: It was a tough one 'cause, like, at the start of the second set, he played a really good game. Then I think maybe he was up 40-15 on his serve the next game. He was hitting the ball well, taking the ball earlier, trying to finish the points a bit quicker. That's sometimes when you do get injured, think, I'm going to go for it, see what happens. He was doing that. Then once I got into it, I thought maybe around 4-1, when he wasn't running for the dropshots, I thought maybe he might stop. But he kept going.

Q. Looked very comfortable out there from the start. Are you happy with your clay form right now? You spent more time preparing this year than you have before.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I feel like I'm hitting the ball well. Each match I'll keep moving better. You need to always try and get yourself in the right position. You don't want to sort of be stationary on clay at all. You want to be moving all the time 'cause, you know, can get some bad bounces, the ball kicks off the court sometimes, sometimes it shoots through a little bit. You always need to be ready for that. That's the one thing I'll need to keep getting better at in preparation for the French.

Q. Do you think it's possible for you to win the tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Why not?

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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