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AUSTRALIAN OPENJanuary 22, 2014Andy MurrayMELBOURNE, VICTORIA R. FEDERER/A. Murray THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Was it just too good from Roger in the end? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, I gave him the break at the end of the match. That was disappointing. In the first two sets I thought he played great tennis. When he was serving for the match I felt like I raised my level because I had to basically, and obviously prolonged the match a bit further. You know, just wasn't able to get ahead in the fourth set. Yeah, I was disappointed with the game I played at 4‑3. Q. Amazing resilience. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I was proud of the way I fought. Q. How were you physically in the fourth set? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I was okay. I mean, obviously, you know, that's the highest level I've played at in a long time. My serve slowed down a bit in the fourth set, especially the first couple points when I was getting up after the change of ends. But, you know, I hung in well. I pushed through it. You know, almost got myself back in the match. Q. Are you pleased with the resolution that you've shown not only today but in the championships so soon after coming back? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I've come a long way in four months. You know, I mean, obviously right now I'm very disappointed. There's a few things I would have liked to have done differently. There's maybe some things, you know, I would have done a bit differently if I was ever to have surgery again possibly. But it's the first time I ever went through something like that. I thought I did a good job getting myself in good shape to be competitive at this level. Wasn't too far away in the end. Q. Was your back bothering you at all? ANDY MURRAY: My back was okay, yeah. Q. What would you have done differently? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don't want to go into it. There's certain things I would have done slightly differently. I mean, I got myself in good shape, you know, to play in this event. I was able to push very hard for three and a half hours. Very high quality, high intensity match. Obviously Roger plays a pretty high tempo, so the points are fairly quick‑fire. The ball's coming at you quickly. I dealt with that fairly well. So, yeah, you never know. With a few things that you can tweak here and there, maybe you could have found a few extra percent. Q. I'm guessing you'll reflect on a good tournament, given what's happened, given the buildup. ANDY MURRAY: I don't know how many players have come back from surgery and won the first Grand Slam back in their second tournament. Very unlikely to happen. I just need to use this as, I guess, a steppingstone to getting better and be happy that I've got through five matches. The last two were particularly tough. And, yeah, I'm playing at a decent level fairly quickly again. Hopefully I'll be back playing my best tennis soon. Q. As well as Roger played in the first two sets, did you feel you were pretty close to getting that breakthrough? ANDY MURRAY: I didn't return well enough, to be honest, the first two sets. He served extremely well. As much as I would have liked to have returned better, he served very well. Didn't allow me to do that. When I had the opportunities, some second‑serve returns and stuff, maybe didn't make him play enough. 30‑All points, could have done a bit better. You know, there's a few points here and there where I hit tapes on returns and missed the shot by a little bit. But, I mean, he started off the match playing great, great tennis. Glad I managed to respond and made the match competitive. Q. You've played him going back to sort of 2008. Where would you put his level at times out there tonight? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know, to be honest. It's so hard to tell. I mean, he started the match extremely well. But, yeah, I mean, it's very hard to judge from match to match. I mean, guys change and evolve; they do certain things differently to what they did a few years ago. Obviously as you get older you're going to make adjustments to your game as well. But I thought he served well tonight. I thought he served especially well. But in terms of compared with six, seven years ago, I mean, it's tough because sometimes I beat him six, seven years ago and didn't play as well as I did tonight. Sometimes he's maybe played better than that and I could have won the match. It's very small, small margins at this level. Q. Is your sense of frustration heightened by the fact you know from the way you played today that you feel as though you're almost there? Is that the sense you come off the court thinking with? ANDY MURRAY: Look, it's frustrating because, you know, when you start the process, you're getting ready, it's basically been four months when you're lying on your back not being able to move or walk. You put in a lot of hard work for this long period. Then, you know, as much as you haven't played enough matches and stuff, a lot of work and time goes into getting yourself ready. You want to give yourself the best chance to win. Yeah, like I say, a lot of work went into this slam compared with other ones where you have a few weeks to prepare. This time I had a long time to prepare, maybe just not enough matches. Q. Going down two sets to love, did you still feel you could pull back into the match? ANDY MURRAY: I just kept fighting. I changed my tactics a little bit, started playing a little bit more aggressive, and that was maybe my undoing a little bit at the end, because I really started going for my shots to get myself back into the match. Then when I got broken in that fourth set, I went for three balls. Maybe one or two of them weren't there to be hit, so... I tried to fight. I tried to adjust the way that I was playing. I was happy with that, because if I hadn't made those adjustments it could have been a bit quicker. Q. On court Roger was saying basically the difference between his play this year and last year was he felt more freedom of movement this year. Could you talk briefly about the importance of movement and quickness. ANDY MURRAY: It's very important. I mean, there's certain injuries and niggles that you'll have that don't hamper your movement too much. They can just hurt a little bit, but you can still move absolutely fine. But there's certain times where certain issues will hamper your movement, and that 5%, 10% at the top, top level is going to make a big difference 'cause the game is played at such a quick pace now. You know, guys are moving so, so well. Being able to retrieve those extra two, three balls in a rally can be the difference between winning a set and not. You know, if you're moving freely, it's going to make a big difference. Q. Did you expect to be able to play the level you played tonight when you first came into the tournament? ANDY MURRAY: I didn't really know exactly what to expect. Like I say, I've never been through this process before, so I don't know how long it takes. I don't know, you know, what's normal. Some people have surgeries and don't come back from them well at all. So there's that in the back of your mind. And some come back and do fine. But it's obviously not easy. Yeah, the only concern was I hadn't played enough matches. I can do all the practicing and training I want. Like I said, I trained for a good couple of months, although it was a bit slow at the beginning. I trained for quite a bit of time to get ready, but I just wasn't sure exactly how I was going to feel playing matches at this level because it's different. Q. With your short turnaround getting back to full strength, how tough and challenging is this quick switch to clay for Davis Cup now? ANDY MURRAY: It's not perfect for rehabbing a back surgery. Yeah, ideally I'd stay on the same surface. Q. The women's tournament is so surprising now. Do you have any thoughts on it? Agnieszka Radwanska is... ANDY MURRAY: I would like her to win, yeah. If I could pick someone to win, I would like her to win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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