|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BNP PARIBAS MASTERSOctober 29, 2012Andy MurrayPARIS, FRANCE THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Roger's pulled out this week. You were unable to play in Bâle last week. Do you think that something needs doing about the schedule this time of year having two 500s, Masters one week, the O2 the week after? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I mean, there are certain things that aren't probably ideal. With the way the schedule is just now, I think when the Tour Finals moves from London to a different continent I think there are big issues potentially with that. Guys aren't going to know they're in‑‑ guys 7 or 8 or 9 maybe. You're not going to fly all the way to a different continent if there is a chance you're not going to get in and not find out until Sunday probably and potentially have to play on Tuesday. So I think that's probably where the biggest issue will be when the Tour Finals moves. But, yeah, I think it might change the way guys maybe make their schedule, because playing, you know, Basel, Valencia, and Paris and having a week off and then playing the Tour Finals is fine. I think now it's going to be tough to play all three back to back with obviously the Tour Finals, you know, I assume being most guys main priority wanting to be fresh for that. Yeah, it's probably going to affect a couple of the tournaments, but that's what happens when you take a couple of weeks off the tour. It's never going to be perfect. Q. Are your back issues over? How do you feel coming into this tournament? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I feel pretty good. I had a full week rest after Shanghai, which I needed. I just started to build up my training gradually. We came here on Friday, you know, so I have had pretty decent preparation for the tournament, which is good. Q. London, playing next week, do you feel like you can still play here your full game, or in back of your mind is it, I'm going to save my energy for the Masters? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think it doesn't really make sense to come and save energy. I think, you know, having a full week rest at this stage of the season in the past I hadn't really had, so I do feel much fresher coming into Paris than I had done the last few years. So, yeah, I'll try and play my best this week, you know, and then see what happens in London. But, you know, because of what happened last year, not being able to finish London as I would have liked, it's a very important tournament for me this year. I want to make sure I'm 110% fit for that event. Q. Comparing yourself to last year when you did have to pull out of the Masters finals, how do you compare where you are physically, mentally, with how much you got left in the tank and that kind of thing to 12 months ago? ANDY MURRAY: Well, like I say, I mean, being able to have a full week of rest is important for me. I had obviously the match, the final in Shanghai was a very, very long match, very physically tough. You know, I don't know how many of you guys were there, but I picked up a bug on the way to Asia and still didn't get rid of it until a few days after I got back. So I needed to take a few days' rest, because after I got over to Asia I played almost every single day for those couple of weeks. Yeah, it was important to rest. Now, yeah, I feel better coming to Paris than I did last year. We had a break in between. I don't know how I feel about that. I feel better in this stage of the year compared with last year, I think. Q. Looking back at the incredible year you have had, what would you say made the difference? ANDY MURRAY: I don't think there is one thing that made the difference. It's probably a lot of factors. I think having Ivan working with me definitely helped and was beneficial. I think having played in a final at Wimbledon before the Olympic final, I think that benefit was immediate. I learned well from that experience. And then the US Open, yeah, I think mentally I did a good job there. It was very, very difficult conditions at the end of the tournament. It was incredibly windy. I think I dealt with the conditions better than the rest of the players. So that was, for me, the difference there. Q. You showed a lot of variety in your game. Do you feel like that's an area that you've progressed in more than in the past, together with the mental ability to stay up on top? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think when you play with a lot of variety sometimes, you know, your game can become quite complex and you might make bad decisions or, you know, try shots at certain moments in matches that maybe weren't the right ones. I think having played more matches and having more experience of playing against the top players in important matches you learn what shots to play at the right time. You know, better. I think sometimes in the past I maybe didn't play certain points well in matches and understand why I needed to sort of put the foot down and, you know, try and finish matches off a little bit better. I mean, I think having variety, I mean, it's obviously beneficial in a lot of ways; sometimes it can be a hindrance if you don't use it the right way. Q. You have trained a few times already. What do you think about the surface? Is it the same, same as it will be in London? Do you have an opinion on it? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I'll see when we get to London. The courts can often change from year to year. It's extremely slow here, the courts I practiced on. London has been pretty slow the last few years as well, but I have only played once or twice on the center court and then I have been practicing off‑site. So I don't know exactly how the center court is playing because I only hit on it for an hour, hour and a half. But it felt pretty slow. Q. From the outside, Ivan looks like someone who is a very stern kind of personality. Now that you have been spending quite a good amount of time with him these last months, is he really like that, or is it just his outside image? What kind of person is Ivan? ANDY MURRAY: I mean, when he's competing or when he's watching my matches and stuff, yeah, he is very serious. He doesn't joke around and laugh and whatnot, you know, when I'm competing or when he's competing. But, I mean, when we're training or we're at dinner or away from the court, he's very, very different. He jokes around a lot. Yeah, I would say his personality ‑‑well, I don't think when someone is on the court that's necessarily their personality, but I think, you know, when he's off it, he's, yeah, very good fun to be around. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|