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SHANGHAI ROLEX MASTERS

October 14, 2011

Andy Murray

SHANGHAI, CHINA

A. MURRAY/M. Ebden
6-3, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: First question for Andy, please.

Q. What was your verdict on the match, Andy?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I created loads of chances. I thought I played better in the second set. I thought I hit the ball a bit better.
But, yeah, I got quite tense tonight compared with how I've been feeling for the last few weeks. I don't know exactly why that was. Sometimes that happens.
I just got out of the ice bath, sorry, I'm shivering a little bit.
But, no, I created a lot of chances. I had game points in almost every one of his service games during the match. I could have done with being a bit more clinical.

Q. Does knowing you're a hot favorite for the title now put extra pressure on you? You seem to have another gear to go into. Can you tell us about that.
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, there's still some very good players left in the tournament. So I just need to keep concentrating on the guys that are in front of me.
But, yeah, I mean, I feel like I can play better. I served well so far. But I think I can hit the ball a bit better from the back of the court. And, like I said a few days ago, it's different conditions to the last couple of weeks. Maybe still adjusting a bit.
Obviously, yesterday playing indoors, it's much hotter. Then today was obviously outdoors, and it was actually pretty cold on the court. So that made things a wee bit tricky.
But, yeah, I hope I can play better in the next match because I'll need to.

Q. Your next opponent is Nishikori, the first Asian player to reach a Masters semifinal. Any impression about him?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I know him quite well. I used to spend a bit of time at Bollettieri's training and he was always there. Yeah, I think he just got to the highest ranking of any Japanese player this week. So I'm sure he's playing a little bit looser since he managed to do that.
He's obviously playing well this week. He's had two very good wins the last couple of rounds, Tsonga and Dolgopolov. He's obviously playing well.

Q. Is he one of those players who could be a star of next season looking forward?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I think there's a few guys that are looking to kind of push on, move up the rankings. Guys like Raonic, Harrison, Dimitrov, Tomic. And, Kei, I think he was injured quite badly, maybe not last year but the year before. I don't know if he had a surgery or not. But he's come back well from it. He's playing good. Yeah, this has been a great week for him.
You never know what's going to happen. But he's going to be, I guess after this, maybe in the top 40 in the world. Maybe not so many points to defend at the start of the year so maybe it will give him a chance to get there.

Q. You're on quite a streak. There was an item on Sky News that you haven't lost since you started tweeting. Is there any correlation between the two?
ANDY MURRAY: I made a joke. Me winning matches and tweeting has nothing to do with that. But I said it as I got asked, You stopped tweeting, and since I stopped tweeting, I haven't lost a match. But it has no bearing on the result of any outcome of the matches. So it was meant to be a joke. If it's not been taken that way, then I'm sorry for whoever didn't take it the right way.

Q. There's a certain gentleman probably sitting beside a telephone in northern California who will be offering Kei advice. What do you think he'll be telling him?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I mean, the first time that happened to me was last week when I played against Baghdatis, where sort of an excoach was maybe helping.
I don't know how much Brad is helping Kei. I don't know how much time he's actually spending with him. But he has a coach here with him. So I don't know how the situation works.
But whatever Brad says, I learnt quite a lot from him, and hopefully I'll be able to use some of the things I learnt from him against Kei.

Q. Because you've become so used to still being at the back end of tournaments this year with Novak and Rafa and Roger, is it slightly an odd feeling, you and three others?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, it's different. Obviously two of them weren't here at the beginning of the week. I mean, that hasn't really changed. But obviously Rafa going out was a bit of a surprise. The surface really is a tough one for him here.
Yeah, I mean, Ferrer, he's No. 5 in the world. So let's not forget about him.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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