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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 3, 2012Andy MurrayLONDON, ENGLAND THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. What do you make of the draw? What do you need to do specifically against Berdych in your first match? ANDY MURRAY: I knew my first match was going to be against Berdych or Del Potro. Obviously, there are differences in their games. But, you know, both are big guys, big hitters, flat hitters of the ball, can generate power and winning shots from all parts of the court. You need to try and use some variety. I mean, against all the guys here, you're going to have to play a top‑quality match to win, but you're going to have to make adjustments to your tactics, slight ones, in all of the matches. I will go through the tactics for that match with Ivan tomorrow. Q. Talking about Ivan, what is like to be back with him really for the first time since the Grand Slam? ANDY MURRAY: It's good. I mean, I always enjoy having him around. He's been a great asset to me and all the guys that I work with. He's been very easy to work with. He's helped me and everyone in the big events this year. He's helped me come back from some tough losses, you know, and finish the year in the slams very well, which was nice. It's nice to have him around. I hope we can have a good tournament. Q. Andy, it seems to be every time you play in London, there is some kind of like curse you have to break. No British player has won this tournament. Any extra pressure? How do you focus on that? ANDY MURRAY: I think there's always pressure, I mean, all of the major tournaments you play. For me, I feel maybe a little bit more relaxed coming in this year than I have done in previous years because I managed to win the US Open. But, yeah, I mean, there's going to be pressure on me here to play well. The only thing I can guarantee is I'll give 110% on the court, fight as hard as I can till the end of all of the matches, see where that gets me. I hope it will get me a few wins. Q. It's your first time playing back at home since the US Open win. I guess it will be a special moment when you're announced as US Open champion to the crowd here. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I'm sure it will. I'll have to wait and see what it's like when it does happen. But, yeah, I mean, it will obviously be nice. I'm sure all the players will say it, it's one of the nicest arenas to play in. The atmosphere is great and it's packed from the first point of the matches right through to the end, which sometimes isn't always the case. You can have guys coming in late. Often that happens. But here it's packed right from the start, for the warmups, for all the announcements. I'm sure it will be good. Q. You're not on the players council, but one of the top players. I'm sure you're well‑informed with the negotiations about prize money with the slams. Can you give us an update on that? Also, specifically talk about Roger's role behind the scenes in those negotiations. ANDY MURRAY: The last conversation I had about it was in Shanghai. I spoke to Roger a little bit about it because all the Grand Slams, they went over there. They had meetings with the council there. I was in Tokyo at the time, so I wasn't involved in any of those meetings. From what I was told, the meetings went very well. All of the slams were pretty cooperative and understood everything, had points they wanted to make as well. Yeah, I think it was pretty productive to have them all over there. I don't think this used to happen in the past as much. I think the communication between the ATP and the slams has been much better this year, which is a step in the right direction. Roger's role, I mean, I don't know how it differs to other players on the council exactly. But I think having someone like him on the council can be a big benefit, especially when you're going into important meetings with the Grand Slams. He's obviously a very good person to have at those meetings. Q. Staying on the political side. An extension of the contract to keep the tournament here is on the table, if you like. You obviously have a vested interest, being a British player, to keep it here. What do you judge from the rest of the guys, talking to them, whether they want to stay here or move on? ANDY MURRAY: Honestly, I haven't spoken to any of the other guys about it. The only thing I would say is if they were going to move it, they'd need to move this little Paris week, maybe put one week back on the schedule. I don't think you could have it on another continent if you're having to play first‑round matches on Monday and Tuesday. That would need to change. But if it does stay here, that's obviously good. They do an excellent job here, put on a great show. Everyone seems to enjoy it. I think from a player's point of view, because we've obviously finished the year in Europe, it's nice to have a tournament of this size be convenient. You wouldn't want it to be a hassle for guys to go to. I think London has been a great spot and they've done a really good job. Q. You were asked about the groups. You kind of didn't answer it. From my perception, it would appear you're in a tougher group. Do you look at it that way? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I don't know. Indoors, Roger's been the best player over the last couple of years I would say. I mean, Juan won two tournaments indoors just before Paris. It depends. If everyone plays their best tennis, I don't think one group will be necessarily tougher than the other. But now that it's done, you just have to look at it like the quarterfinals are the fourth round of a Grand Slam and try to play it like a knock‑out event and try to win all the matches, if you can. Q. I read recently you made some comments calling for increased drug testing, specifically blood testing. I'm wondering if those came out of what's been going on in cycling or something you've been thinking about for a while. ANDY MURRAY: Did you say I said that? Q. Yes. ANDY MURRAY: I just got asked about it in Paris because we had the blood testing done. We had a random blood test done two days before the tournament started there. I was just making the point that in tennis we do a fair amount of drugs testing. There could be more. But a lot of it has been urine, not so many blood tests. I think it's important to make sure we have all of those bases covered. I think tennis is a clean sport. But the more we can do to improve that all the time is good. Q. Has what has happened in cycling and other sports given you some security about the overall cleanliness in the game? ANDY MURRAY: Not in tennis. Obviously, what happened there is pretty shocking. You just want to make sure you can completely rule anything like that out in your own sport. Because I love tennis, you would hate for anything like that to happen to your own sport. Q. Boris Becker said the Murray/Djokovic rivalry is the hottest ticket in tennis, will replace the Federer/Nadal rivalry. Is that something you relish and can be motivated by? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I'm always motivated when I play the best players in the world. I think if you're playing at the top of any sport, you know, you want to compete against the best guys. It's the best mark of where your game's at. I've always enjoyed that challenge. Whether me and Novak would replace anything Roger and Rafa have done, I think that's a long way off. But I think some of the matches we've had this year ‑ obviously in Australia, the US Open, then the match in Shanghai as well ‑ I think were high‑quality matches, fun to watch. Yeah, I'm all for playing more of those matches, if I can. Q. After the cycling comments, I noticed you had to do a few comments from Twitter. Does that put you off, social networks? Or do you like that social platform because you have a chance to further explain your comments? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I mean, it doesn't matter. A lot of things you can say may come across the wrong way. It's not always easy when you're in a room filled with people and you get asked a question, you have to answer straightaway. One or two words can make something that's meant to be meant the right way come across badly. So, you know, I try my best to not make any silly comments or say anything jokingly that may be taken out of context. It's unfortunate that it comes across that way sometimes. I'll just try, you know, better to not make any more mistakes like that. Q. I remember having a conversation with you in Tokyo where you said you always feel pretty comfortable finishing matches off when you're in a winning position. Ever since then, it's kind of gone the other way. Have you had a chat with Ivan yet about the mindset of finishing matches off? ANDY MURRAY: I did say also in Shanghai that when you speak about things like that a lot, it's bound to go against you. I'm aware how hard it is to finish matches off. It's not an easy thing to do. Obviously in Shanghai, I didn't just play against Novak, I played three matches previously. I've played hundreds and hundreds of matches on tour. Obviously sometimes it's going to go your way and sometimes it's not. I don't feel like in the match with Novak I did too much wrong. I was disappointed with last week. I didn't feel like I focused as hard as I needed to when I was serving for the match. That's something this week I'll make sure to play every point at a time, take my time, fight for every single point, 'cause they all count for the same at the end of the match. I'll need to try and do a better job of that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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