AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 14, 2014

Andy Murray

A. MURRAY/G. Soeda
6‑1, 6‑1, 6‑3

THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  When you knew you were going to be going on court about the time they were predicting the highest temperatures, did you fear the worst about the conditions?
ANDY MURRAY:  I mean, yeah, you're obviously a bit nervous and apprehensive about it, you know, for a number of reasons for me.  I was nervous because obviously the matches in Doha were good, but this for me is a big, big test playing in those conditions, potentially playing for, you know, anywhere from two and a half to four hours it can be.
So, yeah, I was a bit nervous before the match.  But obviously, you know, when the shadow comes across the court it cooled down a little bit.  But still, the air is extremely warm.  I was glad to get off quickly.

Q.  How did you find the conditions?
ANDY MURRAY:  They were fine.  I mean, it's not the easiest conditions I played in.  I think, you know, if you were playing on one of the outside courts, in the sun, that would have been worse.
Yeah, I mean, I obviously wasn't on the court for a long time.  That's what's very draining about being in conditions like that.  I mean, most of the players are conditioned well enough to last in that weather for, you know, a certain amount of time.  But doing it for three and a half, four hours is tough to recover from.

Q.  From the sidelines it looked as those every component of the game was flowing rather nicely for a first match in a slam.
ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I played well today.  Practice the last week or so was very good.  I played with a lot of good players.  Hit the balls very well on the courts here.
And, yeah, I maybe didn't expect to play as well as I did today, but the signs have been good in practice.  You know, I started the match off very well and did everything solid.

Q.  Are you hitting the ball with a bit more freedom since the back operation?  You seemed to be able to change direction quite easily, seemed more loose in your movement.
ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, in certain strokes, yeah.  It's not every single shot that my back hurt on before.  But certain shots I'm a lot freer in the movement just now.  I hope that continues.
That was the whole point of having the surgery.  So if I was still in pain and stiff and sore then I'd be a bit worried about the next few years.
But I'm hoping, you know, it was the right decision.  I felt freer today than I did for the last 18 months.

Q.  Is it strange going on court, given how many times you played in these events, not maybe knowing quite what to expect?
ANDY MURRAY:  Well, yeah, I mean, going through surgery is different than going through any other sort of injury or break that you have.  I don't know.  It's hard to explain.
You know, a lot of players don't come back from surgery and are the same player that they are before.  That's something that's always in the back of your mind, something that will worry you a little bit and something you'll think about.
And, yeah, before the match today, you're worried about the conditions, but you're also just kind of praying that everything is good with the back and you can wake up the next day ‑ even now ‑ and hope that all is good tomorrow.

Q.  When you hired Ivan, you sort of kicked off this recent trend of players with legendary coaches.  For the fun of it, if there were an imaginary tournament with the player and the coach teamed up, you and Ivan, Boris and Novak, Roger and Stefan, Nishikori and Chang, how would that tournament happen?
ANDY MURRAY:  A doubles tournament?  I think me and Ivan would win.

Q.  Why?
ANDY MURRAY:  I don't know.  I mean, it's a completely hypothetical question.  I think me and Ivan would win.  I have no idea why and we're never going to see it, so I'm backing me and Ivan.

Q.  When you were with him on the court this summer, did he still have a lot of the strokes?  When you were playing that XO?
ANDY MURRAY:  Going fairly light.  That's the first time he played on grass in about 15 or 20 years he hadn't hit on it.  I hit with him when he practices a lot and he gets himself in good shape.  He still hits the ball very well.  You know, all of those guys do.
You know, the thing that changes is not that you stop being able to hit tennis balls.  You can't move anymore.  That's normally what goes with players.
So when the ball is there they're great.  It's moving that's the issue.

Q.  Do you think the conditions were safe out there?  A couple players collapsed.  A ball boy collapsed.
ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, it's definitely something that you maybe have to look at a little bit.  As much as it's easy to say the conditions are safe ‑ you know, a few people said there's doctors and stuff saying it's fine ‑ it only takes one bad thing to happen.  And it looks terrible for the whole sport when people are collapsing, ball kids are collapsing, people in the stands are collapsing.  That's obviously not great.
And I know when I went out to hit before the match, the conditions like at 2:30, 3:00 were very, very, very tough conditions.  Anyone's going to struggle in that heat.
Whether it's safe or not, I don't know.  You just got to be very careful these days.  There's been some issues in other sports with, you know, players having heart attacks.  I don't know exactly why that is.  Or collapsing.
In this heat, that's when you're really pushing it to your limits.  You don't want to see anything bad happen to anyone.

Q.  Were you surprised the heat rule wasn't implemented today?
ANDY MURRAY:  I don't know what the heat rule is, so...

Q.  Nobody does.
ANDY MURRAY:  Exactly.

Q.  Bearing in mind how hot it was this afternoon, you could have had a roof and air‑conditioning.
ANDY MURRAY:  Apparently it wasn't that humid today.  That's why it wasn't implemented.  There's different rules for the men and women.  I don't know why.  I don't understand what the difference is in the two rules.
If I'm told to play, I play; if not, then we don't.

Q.  What's the talk in the locker room?  Are people unhappy about it?
ANDY MURRAY:  I don't know.  I mean, I didn't sit down and discuss whether the guys are happy with the rules or not.
But every single person that I saw coming in from practice or going out to play a match or coming back from a match, everyone just said like, It's really hot today.  That was what they said (smiling).

Q.  You play Millet next.  Do you know anything about him?
ANDY MURRAY:  No, I don't.  I know he's left‑handed.  I didn't see any of his match today.  I haven't played or practiced against him before.  I haven't seen any of his matches.
So I'll try and watch a bit of video of his match from today to see how he plays.  But I'm glad he won.

Q.  Given you haven't played many matches, are you happy with quick wins or would you like the odd competitive match?
ANDY MURRAY:  I mean, in these conditions you want to win fast.  Whether I've played a lot of matches or not, every player would want to get off the court as quick as possible.
I'm well aware if I go further in the tournament, if I win my next match, the matches are going to get longer and tougher.  You know, I'm still kind of waiting to see every day how I'm going to wake up.
I'm confident that I'm going to be okay.  But, you know, these tournaments over best‑of‑five‑set matches on the hard courts, over two weeks, it's tough on the body.  So it was a good test for me.

Q.  You said you're happy that Vincent won.  Is that...
ANDY MURRAY:  Yea, I would have liked Millot to win, that's for sure.

Q.  Do you think Odesnik should be on the tour?
ANDY MURRAY:  I don't know.

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