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LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMESAugust 2, 2012Andy MurrayLONDON, ENGLAND A. MURRAY/N. Almagro THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Sprint to the finish line in the end. You must be pretty pleased with the performance? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was good. I served well. From my side of the court, I played solid on serve. In the second set, he was struggling with his serve. He obviously had a problem with his shoulder. So it was much easier for me to return. So from my side, it was good and important that I got off the court quickly. I've obviously got mixed later. If it had been a long one, we had a long mixed as well, that wouldn't have been great for tomorrow. But, yeah, getting off the court quickly was nice. Q. How excited are you knowing you'll be back here playing for a medal on Sunday whatever happens? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's great. You know, that was the goal coming into the tournament. It's nice to get the opportunity. If I win one of the next two matches, I'll give myself a shot at the medal. Obviously winning the first one is the most important thing just now. Obviously going to be a tough match against Jo or Novak. I need to be ready for it. But, yeah, it's very exciting. Q. What was it like having William and Kate there? Did you get a chance to speak to them? ANDY MURRAY: I didn't see them after the match. It's always nice playing in front of royalty. They came a couple times during Wimbledon, as well. Probably dealt with that a bit better than I did the first couple of times. I think it's great for tennis when you can get people like that coming along, it helps raise the profile. Q. Is this schedule more demanding or less demanding given the three‑set matches, but two matches in one day, for instance? ANDY MURRAY: It's just different. You know, there's no sort of rest mentally. Obviously when you're playing Wimbledon, you get the day off. That always helps 'cause you can relax a little bit and get away from it. Whereas here, you know, pretty much every day we've played. That's what's challenging, is making sure each morning you get up and you're ready to perform. Because it is such a quick match with the three sets, any mistake can cost you. I mean, physically it's easier. Mentally, I don't know whether it's easier or not. It's just different. Q. It's enthusiastic to see the British public cheering so much for you, but also for the other British athletes. How much is this important in the situation of, for example, an economy that is not doing very well at the moment in the sense of the country itself as the recovery goes? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I don't know what it does to help the economy. I know what it does to help the athletes and give sort of a sense of togetherness. From what I've seen and what I've been around, the whole of the country's got right into the Olympics, which is great. But for the athletes, it makes a big difference to play in front of a home crowd. It does add a little bit of extra pressure, but normally, you know, it helps raise your game. I've always enjoyed it. We've done well so far. But I don't know how important it is in difficult times or for the economy. I wouldn't know what difference it made. But I know for an athlete, it helps a lot. Q. What does it mean for you to be playing for your country here? How important is that for you? ANDY MURRAY: It's very important. And I think that's why it means so much to the players. I mean, I know there's a lot of people that think that maybe tennis isn't necessarily an Olympic sport. But I know how much I care about it and how much I want to do well here and want to try to win a medal, be part of the team and try and help Britain's medal count if I can. I've really enjoyed it so far. I hope I can go one better, you know, on Friday and get a medal. But I really enjoy being part of a team and playing for my country. It's a different sort of emotion when you're on the court. Q. I wonder what you thought of Bradley Wiggins' accomplishments in the last month or so? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's been obviously great. One of the hardest competitions in sport is to win the Tour de France. It's not a sport that I followed loads over the years. I don't know too much about the ins and outs of it. But I've learned a lot just from watching the last sort of few races and stuff. Yeah, it's been very good. You see what it's done to raise the profile of cycling, how good it's been for British sport. I'm sure we'll see a lot more cyclists on the roads over the next few months. That's what it's all about, is trying to get more people out, being active, inspiring kids to take up different sports. He's done incredibly well. Q. When you go home at night, chill out, watched the BBC's 24 Olympic channels, which sports stand out for you? Anything in particular you enjoy watching? Any moments that stood out for you so far? ANDY MURRAY: Well, because of the timings, I mean, I've watched a lot of the swimming. When we got home in the evening, a lot of the finals and semifinals of the swimming has been on. I saw the British gold medals yesterday, which is obviously great. But also seeing Michael Phelps pass the record for most medals in the Olympic Games history was pretty amazing. It was very hard not to support him. He did a great job. So I enjoyed seeing that, as well. Q. Getting back to the Bradley Wiggins thing. Your coach is quite keen on taking on people in bike races. You told us he challenged McEnroe to one. He told us he challenged his daughter's boyfriends to bike races. Has he ever challenged you to one? ANDY MURRAY: He does seem to think that he can keep up. Like when I do something in the gym on the various machines that we use, he always asks the fitness trainers what I'm doing, then tries to do the same thing. Seems to think that he's still in his 20s (smiling). The last time he got on one of the machines that we use, he was trying to do one of the sessions. He lasted about 10, 12 minutes and was just laid out on the floor at the NTC in Roehampton. Didn't even make it to a mat. He was off the machine, lying on the floor. He still wants to push himself, but he does think he is a bit younger than he is (smiling). Q. You talked about home support, how much it helps you. Is it, therefore, a bit disappointing that you see hundreds of seats during the first set, when the hill is full of your fans cheering you on? ANDY MURRAY: I think everybody would say ideally you'd like to see all the seats full in all of the stadiums. For whatever reason, you know, they haven't been. But the support inside the stadiums has been unbelievable, and outside. So, yeah, hopefully over the weekend we'll get all the courts packed. Centre Court was very busy the last couple rounds I played there. Yeah, hopefully they'll all be full 'cause everybody wants to see that. There's loads of people that want to see the games, trying to get tickets. It's not easy. So, no, don't want to see any empty seats. There's also a lot of empty seats in here, as well (smiling). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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