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U.S. OPEN

August 31, 2011

Andy Murray

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

A. MURRAY/S. Devvarman
7-6, 6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Andy.

Q. How did you feel the match went from your point of view? He plays a pretty good game.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, he's very solid. I've seen a little bit of him before. Watched a few videos of him the last couple of days just to see what his game was like.
But, yeah, he doesn't give you many free points, especially early on in the match. You have to kind of, well, get him to work hard before he starts making mistakes.
I was a little bit nervous at the start and making some bad decisions. Then once I calmed down, felt better the middle of the first set, and started hitting the ball a little bit better.
But second and third sets were good. I was hitting the ball pretty clean.

Q. Why the nerves?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, try being a British player going into a Grand Slam. It's not easy (smiling).
You know, there's obviously pressure playing in these events to start with. Then, obviously, you know, when you haven't played the guy you're playing before, it's a match you're expected to win, there's obviously going to be a bit of nerves.
But I'm happy with that. You know, if I'm going in and not nervous, you know, there's something wrong with you if you're going into a slam not nervous. So it was good to get it out of the way. Played better as the match went on. Hopefully next round will be better.

Q. Did the fact that you had to wait an extra day, does that prey on your mind a little bit? Do you have too much time to think about starting off?
ANDY MURRAY: It doesn't make a huge difference. But, I mean, whereas I guess if you sort of play Monday, Thursday, or a Tuesday, Friday, if you have a really long match you got a long time to recover.
Whereas if you have a long one, you know, if you get a Wednesday start, you know, you've only got the day. So you want to try and, if possible, conserve energy. You're prepared to play a long one.
So obviously wanted to get through the match as quickly as possible and maybe was rushing a little bit at the start. Once I settled down and started to play some longer points and stuff I played better.
Yeah, the Wednesday start, it didn't make a difference necessarily to how I was preparing. But just I think it makes more sense to have Monday, Tuesday starts.

Q. How is the court? Is it slower than last year?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it's similar. There's not a huge difference. I think the conditions make a huge difference, 'cause when I practiced first couple of days I got here it felt slow. But it was pretty cold and cloudy and heavy; whereas today it was obviously warm. So it felt quick.

Q. How did you cope with the heat out there?
ANDY MURRAY: The heat was fine. About 20 degrees less than what I was practicing in in Miami.

Q. You said before about try being a British player going into a Grand Slam. Is that an added burden for you?
ANDY MURRAY: It was a little bit of a joke, a little bit of truth in it.
I think for anyone that sort of wants to go on and win a slam or, you know, feels like they're in with a shot, you know, I think it's natural to start. You know, you put a lot of effort and preparation into getting ready for these events and, you know, you don't want to get off to a bad start or whatever.
I think nerves are a good thing. I think it shows you care and that, like I say, I put a lot into getting ready for it. I hope my game's going to be there and the hard work pays off.

Q. What are your thoughts on Hasse?
ANDY MURRAY: He's tough. He's a tough player. He nearly beat Rafa a few years ago at Wimbledon. Got to be ready for that one. He's talented. Has quite a big game. He'll start off very fast, very flashy. He likes playing on the big courts.
Also played a close match with Roddick, I think, at the Australian Open. Had him struggling a little bit. He's tough and he'll definitely come out swinging, so I need to try and weather that, play a solid match.

Q. Nice red shirt as well, mix it up a little?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I liked it. Thought it was quite good. Yeah, I mean, normally I'm just in the whites and blues. I think it was all right, yeah.

Q. After the second and third set, you go away thinking everything is pretty much working as you want it to?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think I definitely can play better, and that's important. You know, I don't think you want to be playing your best tennis right at the beginning of the tournament. I think that's something that over the years I've got better at, sort of understanding that, you know, I would get very frustrated maybe in matches if I wasn't playing great right at the beginning.
But today I didn't start the match great. But I actually calmed down more as the match went on and fought my way out of a little bit of a tricky situation in the first set. So I'm happy I can still improve.
Yeah, it's all about just winning. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

Q. In Canada you were suggesting your preparation hadn't been quite what you wanted, you had heavy legs or something. What's the difference now? Have you done something different?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I prepared differently for Canada than what I had done in the past few years because I played really good tennis there and come to the US Open and been a little bit flat, low on energy.
I didn't go into Canada preparing like I played there. I did want to do better. I did want to make sure that each week I was playing a little bit better; when I came to the US I was feeling fresh. I think I feel better this year than I did last year, and that's important.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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