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U.S. OPEN

September 8, 2011

Andy Murray

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

A. MURRAY/D. Young
6-2, 6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I know the conditions have been tough out there. We just spoke with Nadal, and he said the problems as he saw it, it had not to do with the officials, but representation. What does he mean by that? Do you think changing representation would change the rain policy out here at all in the future?
ANDY MURRAY: The official representation?

Q. He said the representation of the players here in the tournament, and that that should change.
ANDY MURRAY: Oh, I just think -- I think because we have the ATP and the ITF, and they don't like each other very much, that there's always going to be some issues with Davis Cup, the schedule, the Grand Slams, and things like what happened yesterday.

Q. Well, how do you think if that was different that might change the rain on the court, calls like that?
ANDY MURRAY: The rain on the court?

Q. I think he was talking about how he was upset, all three of you were.
ANDY MURRAY: Well, the difference is that for at the ATP tournaments, the ATP tournaments, not this one, we have like ATP representatives, we have like an ATP Tour manager, like ATP referees, so they're sort of there looking out for the players is what they're obviously there to do.
Here we have an ATP Tour manager who was in the locker room with us beforehand yesterday, and he was saying, it's still raining out there, guys. You shouldn't go out there and play.
And then the referees here, it's different. You know, it's the ITF. They want us to go out on the court. If it was at an ATP tournament we wouldn't have been on the court, but because it's not, the ATP don't run the Grand Slams, then it's not always up to us.

Q. Do you think commercial interests trump player well-being?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah.

Q. Do you think it's more so here than in other tournaments, particularly Grand Slams?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I don't know, to be honest. I mean, because in Australia and at Wimbledon they have a roof now. You know, Wimbledon, maybe in the past, a lot of times, you know, the guys would go on for 10, 15 minutes at a time sometimes.
And even when Roger and Rafa played the final there, you know, the conditions were still pretty bad and whatnot.
But I think now it's kind of you see it maybe a little bit more here because there is no roof or anything. There is a lot more pressure to get matches on regardless of what the weather is like; whereas at Wimbledon and Australia you're guaranteed tennis now.
So there is not as much of a panic to get matches on.

Q. Are the players frustrated with the fact they haven't had a roof put on? This seems to be the same conversation.
ANDY MURRAY: No, it's not the roof. It's not the roof that's the problem, I don't think. It's, you know, having a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday first round doesn't help. Having the semis on Saturday and Sunday I don't think helps.
Some basic covers I would think would do for now. I don't think the roof is necessary.

Q. What kind of reaction have you gotten from other players for the stand that you and Andy and Rafael took? Some people are saying it's a watershed moment in terms of players actually standing up for themselves.
ANDY MURRAY: I think after the tournament is done, probably a good time for a lot of the players to kinda sit down and have a big discussion about just the tour in general, because right now we're looking for a new CEO.
And also with obviously the problems that we've had here, I think it's probably now a good time to sit down and discuss how we would like the tour to be run and who we would like to run tennis.
You know, I feel like we, the players, understand that it's not just about the players, but there's many other things that go into it. Having a commissioner that wasn't biased to one side or the other, you know, towards the players or the tournaments or the TV I think would be a step in the right direction.
But the thing is everyone needs to agree on it. If you have two or three guys agreeing on it and two or three guys disagreeing and then half of the tour aren't really bothered and some are, I don't know.
And also the women's tour I think needs to come into it, too. I think that would help.

Q. You're facing the prospect of four matches in four days. Is that daunting or does that not enter into your mind?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, it's not ideal, but that's kind of what you have to deal with just now. You've just got to get on with it. Like obviously the last few days haven't been great, but also, there's nothing -- it was raining anyway. There's nothing we could have done about it at the time there's no covers and whatnot.
So you've just got to try and embrace the situation and do all the right things to get yourself ready if you have to play four matches in four days.
But I'm still a long way from having to play four matches in four days.

Q. What do you think about the fact that the top half of the draw are playing their quarterfinals today?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I was saying I hope it rains tonight, you know, because then everyone is then in the same boat, really. (Laughter.)
Yeah, I hope it rains. Then there can't be any -- I mean, we're still having to play four matches in four days rather than three in three.
But, yeah. I mean, it's clearly an advantage. Anyone that plays sport will tell you that.

Q. Now that you've won, can you sympathize with him at all for having a big moment here? He got some momentum here, which has been hard for him to do in his career, and he's got to wait two days. Did you feel any sympathy for him, or do you think that played any kind of a role in his performance today?
ANDY MURRAY: No. Well, I don't know whether it played a part in his performance or not. He's not young anymore. He's 22 years old, 21, 22 years old. Everyone has to deal with those situations, and maybe me and a few of the other guys will have had more experience in dealing with those situations.
So if he struggled today and if it was a little bit because of that, then yeah. But there's nothing any of us could have done for the guys as well that are, I think, here to try and win the event.
There's a lot of pressure to try and get matches done quickly. And also because, like you say, playing four matches in four days is a bit pressure not to have, you know, a brutal match, so it was tough for everyone.

Q. There has actually been some suggestion that they could play best of three just try to get it in on before Sunday at some stage.
ANDY MURRAY: No, I'd rather just go for it now and try and get it done in a way. I think if something happens to a player or something, you know, the final turns out to be an absolute, you know, dead match because someone's so tired, I think it would show up -- yeah, obviously a lot of flaws have shown up, but it would be time to say, Look, this is meant to be the biggest match or one of the biggest matches in tennis, and it's messed up because of schedule.
I think we should just try and play the best of five, try and get through it. Hopefully everyone will be okay, and then after the tournament sit down with whoever and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Q. What are your thoughts on the opponent, possible opponent for the next match?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I've only played John once or twice, and Gilles I played quite a lot.
I have had good results against Gilles. I've always quite enjoyed playing him. He's a tough guy to play because he doesn't give you anything. You need to play a very solid match and a smart match, because he can be, as you saw winning against Del Potro the other day, he can frustrate a lot of players. He makes it very difficult.
I mean, John, he's got a huge serve and can hit big forehands and is a little bit erratic and doesn't give you much rhythm.
So they're completely different matchups.

Q. Given the situation, how pleased were you with the way you handled things out there and the way you played?
ANDY MURRAY: I thought I was hitting the ball well from the back of the court. I would've liked to have served better. I was a little bit frustrated in the middle of the second set, because I was returning well, hitting the ball well from the back of the court and was kind of giving him chances that I shouldn't have been giving him just because of serving not well enough.
That's the only thing I would have liked to have done better. But I thought I had good intensity from the start of the match and made it difficult for him to get any free points.

Q. How dramatic a stand do you think the players would take for the future to make the US Open kind of go in line with the other slams in terms of having a day between semifinal and finals, et cetera?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know, because it isn't just about this tournament. It's about all of the slams and just tennis in general, I think, rather than just this tournament. There is a lot of things that need to be changed aside from just maybe some of the scheduling here.
There are many things that could get better. So I think, like I said, once this tournament is done I think it's a good time maybe after Davis Cup - because there are a lot of big Davis Cup matches coming up as well - for some of the guys to try and get together maybe in Asia, The Masters Series over there, and try and sort of work something out.
But I think the sooner it's done the better for everyone.

Q. Six months ago you were in a bit of I slump; no doubt about that. You lost to this guy, Young; today you owned him. Where did you get the inner strength? Where was the support coming? When did you finally know that you were going to get this game of yours back?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, on the practice court and many hours of training hard, working on my game, and then, yeah, just the guys around me. A lot of them I've had with me for four or five years.
Family always helps. Yeah, it was a tough moment for me. You know, and obviously it's not only are you playing badly, but you're not happy either when you're playing like that. I wasn't practicing particularly well. I went through like a coaching change, too.
So there was quite a few things going on. It was kind of when I got to the clay in Monte-Carlo I had done a little bit of work with Darren Cahill just before Monte-Carlo, which helped. Went into the clay court season with a really good attitude.
Spoke to a few people in the buildup there that gave me kind of a different perspective of things, and that was it. I mean, most of it's hard work. And so much of sport is mental, as well.

Q. Has going through that made you stronger today?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, I think going through tough moments definitely helps, and the last couple of years I have had quite a lot of highs and quite a lot of lows. There hasn't been that much sort of just average tennis or just middle ground. It's been pretty up and down.
Right now I'm happy that I'm playing well again. But I think, yeah I do think it helps if you can go through moments like that and come out the other side and be a better player.

Q. If someone, another player, came up to you and said, I want to start a players' union totally independent of tournament directors who you're kind of in league with at the moment, a complete separate players' union which has been tried before, would you support that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I think so, yeah. I think a lot of the players would now, as well.

Q. Because it has been tried before and there just wasn't the unity to do it.
ANDY MURRAY: I think, yeah, that's the problem a lot of the times that there might be a few guys that maybe don't think it's the right thing to do.
But, you know, the players I think need to have more of a voice, and the only way to do that is by starting a player union and coming to an agreement with tournaments and the ITF and stuff.
Because if not, the same things will keep happening and nothing will change.

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