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AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 9, 2011

Andy Murray

LONDON, ENGLAND

A. MURRAY/J. Tipsarevic
6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How was that in terms of movement and fitness?
ANDY MURRAY: My ankle felt fine today. I thought I moved pretty good. I didn't feel it at all, which is the best it's felt, which is good news.

Q. Did you do anything different last night which has meant that you are now feeling so much better, or was it just the case it didn't react...
ANDY MURRAY: I did start doing some strengthening exercises for the first time last night, and I just did them just now as well. I mean, not that that probably would have made it better in one day, but that's what I've started doing now.
I'm going to do it after each match and make sure I do it every day between now and Wimbledon. It will definitely make a difference and also make me feel more comfortable, I think, on the court.

Q. When you won this title two years ago, looking back, was that kind of a really good thing for your confidence, or in some ways did it sort of add to the pressure a bit for you when Wimbledon came around?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I think it was a good thing. I think this was the first grass court tournament that I won and I played really well. I went into Wimbledon and did -- I think I made the semis?

Q. Yeah.
ANDY MURRAY: Is that right? Yeah, I felt like I could have gotten to the final if I played a bit better in the semis. I don't think it affected me.

Q. What's the hardest thing against him, a guy who goes for shots a lot? Did you have to be cautious and pick your moments today?
ANDY MURRAY: I thought I hit the ball much better from the back of the court today. I just didn't help myself the beginning of both sets going behind. If I would have gotten off to a better start I could have possibly won more comfortably, but because I went behind early in the sets, it was always sort of just trying to get my way back into it.
I did a good job of that. Especially in the second set I thought I played much better towards the end. I was creating quite a lot of chances to break and didn't get all of them, but that's a good sign that I'm giving myself chances.
He has a big first serve, so it was a good test.

Q. Very unusually there is another British player in the draw with you on this Thursday.
ANDY MURRAY: Smiling, Mike? Why?

Q. I just wonder if that has any kind of helpful effect, and if it happened on a regular basis, would it have, you know, a long-term effect for you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. It's not so much -- I don't think one player would make a difference, but I think like if you look at -- you know, the Spaniards are unbelievable, and obviously the French as well have so many players.
I do think that does help, because, yeah, there's obviously less attention on yourself and it's not sort of -- you know, I'm sure if I lost the match it wouldn't be like, oh, you know, really, really bad news, you know, because there would be 10 other players in the draw. I think that's what happens in Spain and in France a lot.
It does take a little bit of the pressure off. But it's not -- you know, it's not an excuse for losing matches or a reason why you would lose matches, because it's just something I've gotten used to because it's been like that for probably three or four years now.
There hasn't been anyone coming up behind. No, it's good for James. He had a great win against Stan, and it will be a good test later on to see if he backs it up with another good performance.

Q. I assume you're not expecting to change any time soon in your career, are you?
ANDY MURRAY: I wouldn't have thought so, no. Wouldn't have thought so.

Q. You have a lot of boxing, but amongst Team Murray there is no cage fighting component. Are you intrigued by the use of someone like that, or is that something you'd look at?
ANDY MURRAY: I've looked at him a few times, yeah, since he's been in the locker room. He's a pretty big boy. I didn't know at first who he was, and then obviously I heard that he was an ex-cage fighter, so I sort of stayed away a little bit. (Laughter.)

Q. But James, in terms of fitness, other areas bringing into fitness, obviously you have guys with you all the time, but are you always maybe looking to bringing anything new in or not?
ANDY MURRAY: I think that's -- obviously with the coaching situation, I made a change there. Looking at something different there in terms of the physical side, it's not necessarily finding someone new but finding different ways of training, different techniques, you know, and it's always good.
I like talking to other trainers and other players about the way they train. There's these new -- I haven't gotten them yet, but a lot of the trainers I've seen walking around -- the Tursunov trainer has them and the Bryans' trainer has them, these like -- they're called like Five Fingers? I don't know if you've heard of them. I checked them out. They're quite strange. They're shoes, but they've basically got like -- each toe is sort of cut out in them and they're really thin.
The guys that have them. They swear by them. They say they're great, really good for your movement, less injuries. That's something I might think about trying after Wimbledon.
So, yeah, I always ask around to try and find out new things. But in terms of a new person, I'm happy with the guys I've got.

Q. Do you ever get bored with the physical work, or do you actually enjoy it?
ANDY MURRAY: I like it more when -- like after Wimbledon I've got time to do it properly. Like it's just like sort of like the week before Wimbledon, you know. It's good to do physical stuff, but it's like -- you can't really improve yourself in two or three days. You just are kind of maintaining.
The period after Australia I quite enjoy, period after Wimbledon is good; US Open, the same. Obviously the end of the year. I do really enjoy training, but it's the sort of maintenance stuff that is -- just because you're kind of doing the same thing over and over, it's not that much fun.

Q. Just to vary it a bit, as well, to make it more interesting, different things, always looking for a bit of variety, as well?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I play like quite a bit of football just because it's something different, five-a-side football, play some eleven-a-side, too. That's fun. I enjoy doing that. It's just different. It's good for you, as well, providing you're not playing with a bunch of idiots. (Laughter.)
So we've had -- yeah, that's what I like doing. Playing football is the only other thing. I would like to do some sort of boxing, training, but never really had that much time.

Q. Football banned before Grand Slams, just in case you get injured?
ANDY MURRAY: I played eleven-a-side the Monday before the French. We were maybe going to play one the Monday after here, but I think that's out because of the ankle.

Q. You played in Australia, didn't you?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I played five-a-side football with Djokovic actually a few times, a couple times before Australia.
But yeah. It isn't any more dangerous than playing tennis providing you're playing with people that understand it. Slide tackles are a no-no.

Q. Which position do you play?
ANDY MURRAY: I play up front or on one of the wings. Yeah, I prefer playing up front. I always played there as a kid.

Q. Who are the other stars of the team?
ANDY MURRAY: Jonny Marray is very good. He's a very good player. Neil Bamford, who used to play, he's very good, too. They're probably the two best ones.

Q. You said some don't understand slide tackles and stuff. Are you going to name names?
ANDY MURRAY: No one -- we play on the artificial grass at Roehampton next to the NTC, so you would be stupid to slide tackle. You'd probably hurt yourself more than... Yeah, you've got to avoid that.
Yeah, no one's -- we played against the guys at Soccer AM a few weeks ago and played against some other -- tennis players against tennis players and coaches and stuff, so no problems.

Q. Have you got a nose for a goal?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I do, yeah. I scored quite a few goals. But the level we're playing at, as everyone always says to me, that's the easy part, because there are so many chances because the defending is horrible.

Q. Your potential opponent, can you talk about both of them?
ANDY MURRAY: I think Cilic and Bellucci? I played Cilic I think once on grass. I think I played him in Davis Cup. I had -- I think it was five sets. You know, he serves big and he's a big guy, hits a big ball. It will be tricky because of that. I have to return well against him.
And Bellucci, I don't know how he plays on grass. I haven't seen him play before. I just played him the once in Madrid and he played very well there. He served well. Obviously he's a lefty, too.
But I'd say Cilic is probably more comfortable on the grass.

Q. Is Killer watching your matches here?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don't know where he's watching them, but he is watching because he's been messaging me. He is in Vegas, I know that, but I don't know what he's watching it on. I don't know what channel on the Internet or if it's on Tennis Channel or anything.

Q. Is that how it worked in the French? Because he made no bones about the fact that his main commitment was to ESPN and he has a contract, et cetera, with them. Were you talking to him between matches? Was that how it worked out in the end?
ANDY MURRAY: No, the thing is he did stay away a lot during the French. I spoke to him more like a little bit after the matches, but not about really tactics and stuff beforehand, you know.
And then like I was playing like against Troicki, as well as. He's also an adidas guy, too. So he's not given me any help there. But I'm still going to speak to him and see him. He's obviously someone I work with, but it wasn't the same as like the week before when we spent every day on the court together, and then like in Madrid or Rome where, you know, he's in the box watching and I'm speaking to him, he's on the practice court every day.
You know, it's better he took a lot more of a sort of back seat, because his main commitment was with ESPN.

Q. Just on the youth situation, Oliver Golding has gone to this academy in Spain with Blanco. Do you think that's a good move for him to go out and with a Spanish coach and see it from a different perspective perhaps?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I heard he was in Mexico beforehand. It's whatever works for the individual. I really enjoyed my time out in Spain, so from my experience it was great. I really enjoyed it.
You know, I would advise guys to try it and see how it goes, but I just don't think that -- I think you can stay in the UK and still become a tennis player. I don't think that's an issue. But you have to do what's right for your own career, and if he loves it over there, then he should do that.

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