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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 19, 2012Andy MurrayMELBOURNE, VICTORIA A. MURRAY/E. Roger‑Vasselin THE MODERATOR: First question for Andy, please. Q. Solid performance. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Was that a question (smiling)? Q. How solid a performance was that? ANDY MURRAY: Oh, it was better. I served well today. Obviously got off to a better start here. He struggled at the beginning, and I was making a lot of balls. He made quite a few mistakes. Then I thought towards the end of the second set, beginning of the third especially, he started playing much better. He was taking the ball early, trying to come to the net, made it difficult. But I served well and didn't give him any chances, so was happy. Q. Do you believe you were hitting the ball a bit harder today? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, normally once you get used to the conditions, you're going to feel a bit better. The other day as well. It was just very, very lively. Maybe wasn't hitting the ball as well as I would have liked. I was sort of worried about hitting the ball long tonight. It was much different conditions. It was obviously cooler. When the shadow or the shade comes across the court, it plays much slower. It's much easier to play on. I was playing closer to the baseline from the beginning of the match, as well, which is good. Q. I think you hit 41 winners today, which sounds like quite a high number. Is that down to the quality of your opponent or of your play? ANDY MURRAY: I hit the ball better. I hit the ball better tonight. Probably eight or nine of them were volleys up at the net. Won quite a few points coming forward knocking volleys off. Yeah, like I said, because I served well, I set the point up with my first serve pretty well. Got quite a few short replies off of that. Served a few aces, too. That was probably why I hit more winners. The unforced errors were down. Often the guy who hits pretty much ‑‑ 90%, 95% of the time, the guy who hits the least unforced errors wins the match. That's important as well. Q. Are you going to look forward to the different sort of challenge that Michael is going to give you? He's got one way of playing, and he'll keep playing that way up at the net. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, he's very good at it as well. He's been a great doubles player, been very good at singles for a long time. He's got a lot of experience. He makes it difficult because of the way he plays. You don't see guys playing like that much nowadays. When you do play against them, it normally takes a little while to adjust. It's going to be tough. But I've always enjoyed playing guys that come forward in the past. Hopefully I can play a good match against him. Q. A lot of players, especially the younger players, talk about playing aggressive. Do you buy into that, or would you say playing smart is equally as important? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think you want to be able to play the match on your terms. There's more than one way of doing that. It's not like just going out and hitting the ball as hard as you can, trying to play more aggressive. For me, playing closer to the baseline is a good sign of that. Normally you're getting a little bit more on your ball. Because of that, you're taking time away from your opponent. If you stand one or two meters further behind the baseline, you're giving them a lot more time on the ball. I think, you know, someone like Tomic, people might think he doesn't hit the ball that hard and whatnot, but he dictates how the match gets played because of the variety that he uses. That's something that I try to do, as well. Play the match at the pace you want to play at. Yeah, there's more than one way of playing aggressive. Someone like Llodra, he comes forward obviously all the time, which people might say that's a very aggressive style of play. But, yeah, you can be aggressive from the back of the court obviously like Rafa. There's many different ways of playing. It just has to be within your game style. And, yeah, mine's by using a lot of variety. I feel like when I play closer to the baseline, that's when I have my best results. Q. Are you seeing a lot of patterns where you know the guy you're playing, and are you being more reactive, or are you seeing four or five moves ahead? ANDY MURRAY: Once the rally starts, normally by the shots that you play, you kind of know where the ball's going to come back. So when I played against Harrison, at the start of the match, I hadn't played him before, I wasn't seeing the ball well, started playing a few games. After playing the first set I started understanding the patterns of play he didn't like and kept doing them over and over again. Yeah, once you can understand a player's patterns, you can anticipate the balls much better, see the shots they're going to hit a lot earlier. Q. When you win the first set as powerfully as you did today, he picked up his game. Do you start to explore some shots as you go through the next two sets? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, once you get ahead in the set, I mean, you can try a few things when you're returning serve if you want to. Just because you won the first set, you're a long, long way from the finish line. Once I got up a break in the second set, you know, would have liked to have tried a few different things. But he started playing much more aggressive, playing much better. So I had to just play solid the whole way throughout. But sometimes you can if things are all going your way. But, yeah, I mean, match court is not the best place for an experiment. Do that on the practice court. Q. You like to express yourself, get a little bit angry. The concept of smashing four racquets in 20 seconds is an alternative to just shouting at the ball? ANDY MURRAY: I saw that yesterday with Baghdatis. Yeah, I mean, everybody's different. You just have to let guys kind of do what is natural to them, I guess. I mean, someone like McEnroe, I saw some clips of him yesterday, I think he was playing Anders Jarryd maybe, I think the match was in Sweden, he's like smashing bottles like into the stand and stuff. Then people say, you know, Baghdatis smashed a couple of racquets and it's a huge thing. I mean, before the guys were way worse behaved and said way, way worse things to the umpires. I think it's pretty mild compared with what happened. Also he ended up winning that set as well. So sometimes it can help. I guess the more you keep your emotions in check, the better. That's what I've done well so far this week. Q. Would you like to go back to those days? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I mean, I think if they had the rules that they have in place now, it would be interesting to see what would happen to some of the older players with the things that they did, to see the fines they would be racking up. Yeah, I mean, they'd be getting defaults left, right, and center. I think beforehand they were much, much more lenient. I would like to see someone try the things that McEnroe would have now to see what would happen to them. Q. If you take away the rules, go back to the old rules... ANDY MURRAY: Would I like that? Q. Yes. ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I don't know. Q. Everybody expresses themselves. ANDY MURRAY: To be honest, I mean, for you guys it would probably be more interesting. I think tennis nowadays, because of the level of it, you don't really need all the other stuff. But I'm sure it would make for a few better headlines if everybody went back to what they were like a few years ago. Q. Spectators might like it as well. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, you could say that. But if I swear on the court, I get asked about a hundred questions about it. Before guys were swearing at umpires, swearing at ball kids, people in the stands and stuff. I've taken my fair share of stick for saying stuff on the court that was very, very mild compared with what the guys used to before. I'm happy with the way it is just now. Q. The taunting and teasing in the old days, you talked about how Mohammed Ali did that with Fraizer. I take it you might enjoy someone to spar with? ANDY MURRAY: We do a lot away obviously from the press room. You know, the guys you work with, we all have a laugh and a joke, wind each other up, tease each other. That's one of the things I do like about boxing, because it does make the matches more interesting, or the fights more interesting. But the problem is, you know, if I was to say something about Roger or Rafa in here, I have to sit next to them in the locker room the next day. It's better just to be sort of respectful, say all the right things. Q. If you had a chance, would you watch Mayweather and Pacquiera? Who would you like to see win that one? ANDY MURRAY: I've never been to see a fight in the States. I'd like to try. I think Mayweather would win, and I'd like him to win because he's my favorite to watch. But I don't think it's going to happen. Q. Did you lament the demise of the tackle in football? ANDY MURRAY: The demise of the tackle? Q. They don't tackle anymore. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, I like watching a good tackle. I mean, I like Arsenal. Obviously a couple of the guys had their legs broken, as well. You obviously want to see guys going in for challenges properly. I've listened to what a lot of the managers have said. A lot of the managers have said that guys don't learn how to tackle properly these days. I'd like there to be more tackling so long as it's done properly. Q. Outside of your own rivalries, what match would you turn on TV between any two guys? ANDY MURRAY: Monfils, 100%. Before, it's Santoro. I'd always watch him. I like watching Tomic. I wouldn't mind watching Monfils/Tomic. Monfils, just because of his athleticism, I think he's an unbelievable athlete. Always enjoy watching him. And Tomic has just got a funky game, so different to everyone nowadays. It's fun to watch. Q. Are you going to watch that funky Dolgopolov/Tomic match? ANDY MURRAY: There will be some junk in that match for sure. I'll watch a bit of that, for sure, yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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