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U.S. OPEN

September 9, 2011

Andy Murray

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

A. MURRAY/J. Isner
7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Is there any problem with your back? You were clutching at it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Well, it was sore right at the end that I kind of felt after a serve a wee bit awkward, but it's all right just now.

Q. How satisfying is that in all the circumstances, the opponent, the circumstances of the match, the tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: I thought it was a really high standard today. I thought I played really well. I hit the ball very clean from the back of the court.
You know, when he's serving you have no option other than to just try and get yourself in the rallies. You're under a lot of pressure on your own service games, so you don't want to just be rash and start trying to make huge winners or do anything stupid.
You know, I didn't give him too many opportunities to break me and did a good job on my own serve.

Q. What is that mental pressure like playing with someone with his style?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it's tough, because like in the third and fourth set he started to play better and he started to take like more risk, you know. A lot of times that can sort of be what you want them to do, because, you know, him or Karlovic -- John's a better player from the back of the court than Karlovic -- but when they're going for big cuts, especially early on in the match, normally they'll make quite a lot of mistakes. If you're solid from the back, then that's a good thing.
But, you know, when you're having to serve all the time, and, you know, when he goes through patches like in the third and fourth sets where he's hitting like 120-miles-an-hour second serves, then you're just trying to hang on to your own serve. You're trying to just chase every ball down.
It may look like you're playing defensively or whatever, but it's not the case. You know, it's just what happens. You can't take chances against someone that's serving 140 miles an hour and their second serve is bouncing, you know, like up here on the second serve, and then he's mixing it up with 120-miles-an-hour second serves into your body.
You've just got to try and find a way to win, and I did that.

Q. With the way you're feeling now, how do you think you'll be tomorrow?
ANDY MURRAY: I'm feeling fine now. A lot of times that's the case. It's kinda how you wake up the next day.
It was hot today. It was a pretty long match and it was warm. You know, it's not like you are you go into kind of a classic endurance when you play against him. You have to be so explosive.
You're not like having 30-shot rallies that you might have against Rafa. You're having to react all the time and stretch for balls and chase down like drop volleys. It's a different sort of fitness against him.
So I just have to see how I feel in the morning, but I feel good just now.

Q. There is a stat going around that you're the seventh man to get to the semis of all the Grand Slams in the same year. Is that pretty gratifying to reach that stat?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. It is, yeah.

Q. How big a point was that in the fourth set when he had the breakpoint and you just managed to half volley that win?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, of course it was, because, you know, I wasn't really getting many chances on his serve. So, yeah, some of them were -- yeah, I think the serve was really close. I think it was in.
But, yeah, I just sort of just wandered forward. I sort of wandered forward, and kind of by his reaction I think he thought it was out. I just kind of reacted. As soon as he hit the forehand, I just sort of ran sort of through the ball and made it.
It was a huge, huge point obviously, because if you go a break down against him, he's tough to break.

Q. John said the wind was a bit of a factor for him. Was it for you? What was it like out there?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's always tough normally on that court. You know, the wind picks up, and from one end you have to do a lot of running. From the far side of the court from where you come in, you know, it's very easy to dictate the points and make the guy move a lot.
But from the other side you have to just kind of scrap and hustle and try and find ways to win points. I think as well for him the first set or the second set more so the sun was quite difficult for his serve. But once that moved, he started serving way better. It was so tough to break him.

Q. It looks as if we're going to get the top four in the semifinals again. Can you talk a little bit about that, this stranglehold you guys have got on the slams is pretty impressive, isn't it, over the last few years?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I think it's good for tennis. I think everyone has played great tennis in the slams this year. That's, I think, probably what people would like to see, would be you to play your best tennis there.
I think at the French it happened, and it nearly happened also at Wimbledon. You know, Roger lost in the quarters. Rafa got injured at the Aussie Open. It's been very close to happening in almost all four of them, so it's been great consistency. Glad to be part of that.

Q. How would you feel about a Sunday start here and spacing things out a little better?
ANDY MURRAY: No, just Monday and Tuesday first rounds is fine with me. I don't think -- I just don't think it's necessary to have extra days. If they want to put an extra day in, then they better increase the prize money substantially because it's an extra day's work for us.
It's happened before at tournaments where they think, Oh, we'll put an extra day in, and then, you know, the tournament is getting a big increase in their -- because obviously it's a weekend so they'll get more people through the door, but that money doesn't go back into the prize money at all.
So I'd rather just keep it Monday, Tuesday starts rather than the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Q. The French example doesn't appeal to you?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I just like the way it is with the Monday/Tuesday starts and no semifinal and final at the weekend.
The game I think now has just become so physical and so demanding that, you know, you look at a way a lot of the guys move that if you -- obviously this time it's different because of the rain and stuff -- but if you play a match on Saturday and a long five-set match, be four-and-a-half, five hours, and to recover and play good tennis the next day is very difficult.

Q. If we could assume that Rafa's two sets up, this is becoming quite a familiar scenario for you right now, playing him in the semis of a slam. Do you feel that maybe each time it happens you've learned something from the last time? It's never gonna be easy, but do you think it gives you any more chance?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I've beat him before in the semis; I won against him also at the Australian Open. And when I've won against him, it's always been on hard courts. It's a good surface for me to play him on.
Obviously at the French I would go into that match not being a favorite; then Wimbledon I've got a chance, but his record has been great there.
I think on the American hard courts I think it's a close, close matchup.

Q. Tournament supervisors said the decision to move the match was a collaborative decision between the tournament and the players. Were you involved in that and what are your opinions?
ANDY MURRAY: I wasn't involved in that. I didn't speak to anyone about it. I almost would have preferred it if they just left it just as it was on the Sunday, because now the guys on the other half are playing like a normal slam. They're playing one day on, one day off, you know, from the quarterfinals onwards.
If they kept it as it was, they would have had to play three days in a row and we would have had to play four days in a row. I would have rather had that.
So I didn't speak to anyone about it.

Q. Were you expecting them to make that announcement, or was it a surprise to the players?
ANDY MURRAY: Got told they were thinking of moving it to Monday. I said in here the other day I just would have liked them to have kept it how it was.

Q. This is the third time in a row that you've played, if it is Rafa in the semis. What in particular will you need to do if you're gonna get past him?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I need to serve well, and then try and be patient from the back of the court but dictate the points when I can.
When it's windy on that court from one of the ends, it's very difficult to dictate the points. Very difficult. So from the side when I have the wind with me, I'll be looking to make him move.
You know, but the serve is very important against him. If you can get free points on your serve and you can like hold comfortable service games, you can put pressure on him that way.
But if you're not, then you have to play a lot of rallies. He obviously doesn't make many mistakes and his ball is very heavy, so that makes it tough.

Q. Mary Joe's haircut. You seemed to like it.
ANDY MURRAY: I saw her getting her haircut as I was warming up this morning, so I just thought I'd throw it out there. But, yeah, I saw her in there this morning.

Q. (Comment about Rio Ferdinand Tweets.)
ANDY MURRAY: I think he likes tennis a lot. I never actually got to meet him, but he's sent me messages for the last few years, and he's quite a prolific tweeter, as well. Yeah, it's nice.
But, you know, if you get sort of into all of that stuff right now, you know, there will be a lot of support back home. You need to just try and stay focused.

Q. We've got three boys in the junior semifinals. Is that an encouraging thought?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, it's great. I mean, I've always said the last few years, you know, when I've spoken to people sort of at the LTA or whatever and they said, Yeah, like there would be one junior in a junior slam, and they were like, Yeah, but it's about seniors.
It's actually not really when you look at the -- you know, the guys that have won junior slams and you look at the top 10, like in the rankings, like top 10 junior rankings, the amount of guys that get through into the top 100 in the seniors is a pretty large number.
So, you know, if they can keep pushing their ranking up, and we've got a pretty good chance of one of them winning here, that's always good. It's good. Good for them.

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