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ROGERS CUP MENAugust 8, 2012Andy MurrayTORONTO, ONTARIO A. MURRAY/F. Cipolla THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. The first question after you won the Olympics gold medal in your press conference was how your kiss was with your girlfriend. You've been a good guy over the years and don't show few emotion. What were you thinking about that question right off the bat after winning the gold? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, you come to expect it a little bit from‑‑ I mean, obviously I have a very good relationship with a lot of the British tennis writers, but the tabloid press in the U.K. do tend to throw some strange questions out. I guess that's kind of what they're more interested in sometimes. But I was glad after that that the serious questions came. Q. How did I feel about today's match? How did you come up physically after it? ANDY MURRAY: I feel okay. I feel a little bit sore in the joints and stuff a little bit. I mean, I feel tired mentally. Yeah, I mean, haven't really slept much the last few days, so that's probably catching up with me a little bit. But, I mean, I hit the ball pretty well. After playing for eight weeks on grass pretty much, it's very different here. The ball is very quick compared with Wimbledon. It also bounces much higher. The court is much slower as well. So there are a lot of things to change. Only got a couple hits on the court, so it was good to play a match and get a win, yeah, fairly comfortably. Q. After Sunday, did you give any thought at all to saying, I need a few days off after this emotional win and give this tournament a pass? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, there was a lot of, I guess, options. You know, it's not just when I finished the match and played the mixed, you know, it doesn't end there. We don't just relax on Sunday night and Monday and then get ourselves ready to come. I wasn't back home until 2:30, did press for about two and a half, three hours after the match, and then the next morning started again at 8:00 for about another three, four hours. So it was quite a long, busy couple of days. Yeah, I spoke to the guys, and we thought best thing to do was to come see how I feel when I arrive here, practice on the courts, and then make the decision after that. I felt okay this morning when I practiced and decided to give it a go. That was it. Q. What happened with the knee in the second set and how is it? ANDY MURRAY: It's okay. It's just a little bit sore. I mean, I haven't played a match on a hard court for four months and haven't practiced on a hard court for four months either. You know, the difference in the way you move on a hard court to the grass is pretty significant; whereas I feel on the grass court the muscles get tired but the joints not so much. On the hard courts, the knees and the ankles and the hips take quite a fair pounding. Yeah, because I haven't had enough days to adjust to the surface, that's probably why there was a few aches and pains. Q. Three days after the whole emotional drama and all that, are you still on Cloud 9? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, the last few days have just gone so quick. I've been, yeah, just not really sleeping much in the evening at all. Normally I sleep for nine, ten hours a night. Maximum I've been sleeping four hours a day. That suggests I'm still fairly excited about it. Then, yeah, the tournament was the best tournament of my life. To win a gold medal in your home Olympics, not many people get a chance to do that. And to do it against Roger on Wimbledon Centre Court made it even more special. It was a great week. Q. Thoughts on playing Milos Raonic in the next round? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it will be tough. He'll obviously be very motivated playing in his own country. You know, he's improved a lot over the last year, year and a half. He's playing really, really good tennis. Very big guy with a big game. Serves well and hits the ball very hard. So, yeah, be a tough match, completely different to today. My opponent today was serving around 150,160 kilometers an hour, and Milos can serve 100 kilometers faster than that. My opponent today was hitting a lot of slice; Milos doesn't hit that much slice and goes for a lot of power. So very, very different match to today. Q. Do you carry on your regular fitness training during tournament play? ANDY MURRAY: Some tournaments, yeah. Depends a little bit whether I've had the time before the event. Like before the Olympics I had three weeks between Wimbledon and the Olympics, so I got some good physical work done the ten days, two weeks before the event. So I didn't need to do any during the tournament. Quite often at the beginning of the year tend to do a little bit more fitness because you won't have played any matches and stuff and you're trying to build up for the rest of the year. But around this period of the year, not really. I've played so many matches over the last couple months. It's more about trying to keep your body healthy rather than trying to get physically stronger. Q. It's not just limited to tennis, but you talk to athletes who have that kind of breakthrough victory like you did last weekend, and they say it changes them. They feel differently about what they can do and how they feel about themselves. I know it's been quick, but how differently do you feel after the gold medal win? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I've only played one match and had one or two practices. I mean, also it's not like it was on the same surface, so when I hit the first time after winning, didn't really feel that comfortable on the court. Very different surface and stuff. But mentally I feel in a good place. Like you said, it was a breakthrough win for me, biggest win of my career, you know, a tournament that I'll never forget. Yeah, I mean, I'll need to see over the next few weeks whether it's changed my mindset going forward. I'm sure I will have gained a fair amount of confidence from it. But confidence in individual sports comes and goes very quickly. I hope it helps me in the long run, but have to wait and see. Q. At the opening of the Olympics games, despite protests from the British, American, Canadian, and other governments, the IOC decided not to give a moment of silence for the murdered athletes from the 1972 games. I want to know if you had any comments or feelings, because you were part of the atmosphere and you lived in England and were aware of the situation, whether you felt the IOC made basically a very, very bad gesture on their part? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I have no idea what goes into those decisions at all. It's not something I really want to comment on or get involved in, a political decision. I know very little about politics and how that stuff works. There is a lot more intelligent, more important people than me that make those decisions. I don't know whether it was the right one or not, but tough decisions have to be made a lot of times. Sometimes you get them right; sometimes you get them wrong. I mean, I certainly don't have any comment on that. Q. You had some reasons not to miss this tournament because of the rules and so forth, but were there any positive reasons to play? Can you just sort of describe the decision‑making process you went through? ANDY MURRAY: Well, positives are the US Open is a few weeks away and I need to try and get some matches on the hard courts because I haven't played on it for four months. Since the Miami final I haven't played on a hard court. That's why I need to try and get matches. That was the reason why I decided to come and play. There are certain rules and regulations as to what the players have to do in terms of playing a certain amount of tournaments and whatnot, but you also need to do what's right for your schedule and not just make a decision based on those rules or whether you get fined or zero points or whatever. You need to do what's right for you, because you can get yourself injured or make a bad decision and it can hurt you down the line. Had to think long and hard about what to do this week. Obviously decided to play, and hope it was the right decision. Q. Has the Great Britain Olympic Committee talked to you about being involved on Sunday for the closing ceremony, such as being the flag bearer? ANDY MURRAY: No, no. Q. Given the magnitude of the victory on Sunday, what provides the greater satisfaction: is it knowing that you got over what you might have considered a psychological hurdle, or that tactically what you did against Roger worked obviously in a straight‑sets victory? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, after the way the Wimbledon final went, you know, where I was up a set and had chances in the second set, had quite a few break points and didn't get them and then obviously the match changed after that, I was happy that I learned from that situation, and when I get in a winning position I didn't let go of that lead this time and carried the momentum through with me. Maybe sometimes in the past I've had tough losses and it's taken me time to get over them and actually fully learn from them. I think I did a much better job of that this time. I worked on all the right things in practice. I practiced really well before the Olympics. I trained really hard, which I hadn't done when I lost in slam finals beforehand. Having someone like Ivan around helped with that with his experience. He's been through that, those tough losses before, and knows really the best way to come back from them. That's what I was most satisfied with, was that I learned from four weeks ago, and did a good job in the final. It would have been easy ‑‑ you know, at the beginning of the second set I was up a set and a break and saved like six break points in one game. That was a really critical moment in the match. Whereas a few weeks beforehand I had my chances and didn't take them and that changed the match, I was glad this time around that wasn't the case. Ended up being the biggest win of my career, so I'm just glad I learned a lot from the Wimbledon final. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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