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SONY OPEN TENNISMarch 20, 2014Andy MurrayMIAMI, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Always pleased to be back in town where you have spent so much time. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, always enjoy being here. I spend months here every year. Do a lot of my hard work here and preparation. Yeah, always gives me, yeah, a good feeling when I come back. I have a lot of memories from this place, especially, you know, the courts here and stuff. Done a lot of work here. Q. Does it make a difference when you play so much on Crandon Park's center court? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think it helps, because, you know, you obviously you know the conditions and stuff. But, yeah, they normally repaint the courts I think just before the tournament, so the court doesn't play exactly the same as it does when I practice on it in December. I think they only repaint them once every year, so when I train them in on December they have been getting used for seven, eight months already. But I know the conditions. I know how windy it can be on the court and how humid it can be. Q. You're playing Ebden. Is he a guy that you have not much history with at all? ANDY MURRAY: I played him once in Shanghai a few years ago. I chat to him a little bit. I know him fairly well. We haven't practiced much together and I've only played him once before. Q. Del Potro, have you talked to him? Are you worried about him, about his future? How important is it from a psychological point of view? ANDY MURRAY: I haven't spoken to him much. I mean, players don't tend to discuss their injury problems or whatever is going on with each other, because, you know, I could play him next week. If he tells me, I really struggle hitting backhands up here, then when I play against him then that's what I'm gonna do. So you don't tend to discuss injury problems with players. But, yeah, you don't like to see anyone injured for long periods. And especially with something like a wrist it's tough, because almost on‑‑ I guess it is a bit different. I think it's the left wrist just now that's the problem. The wrist, on 50% of the shots he's going to be feeling it. That's hard. But he's come back from a bad wrist problem before and got, you know, back close to where he was playing, close to the level he was playing at. Hopefully he can do the same again. Q. How do you feel for this moment? Are you ready to defend your championship in Miami? ANDY MURRAY: I hope so. I mean, again, you never know how you're going to feel on any given day. But I like the conditions here. I like the courts. I have played well here in the past. Yeah, I'm hitting the ball pretty well, so we'll have to wait and see. But you never know. I hope this is the best week I have had this year. I hope I play my best tennis. It's the goal. Q. With the World Cup coming up, is it something you guys talk about in the locker room? Is it something you discuss in who do you think is going to win it? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, the players obviously talk about it a lot; a lot of the players love football. I'm sure as it gets a bit closer we will discuss it a little bit more. About 18 months ago I told Juan Monaco that Belgium were my outsiders for the tournament, and he laughed at me (smiling). Yeah, they are doing pretty well now. They've got a good group. Yeah, we talk about it. Talk about it a lot, yeah. Q. We are doing a fashion piece, and you're known for this kind of traditional style; whereas other guys have a little bit more of an outspoken style on court. How important is it for all of you guys to be able to, through your fashion, to showcase your individual styles? ANDY MURRAY: This is a tough question for me. I don't really know how to answer it (smiling). To be honest, I mean, I just like wearing on the court what's comfortable. So long as the products work well, then that's the most important thing for me. I mean, adidas, the way they work is they tend to have their ‑‑they have their own colors, so all of the players wear a fairly similar kit; whereas some of the other companies, you know, it's more sort of individual. So you see that player's sort of style or what they like a little bit more. Q. Obviously the word is out about you and Ivan. Can you just explain or address what actually happened? I believe it was a mutual thing. What your plans are now? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Well, it was mutual. I mean, we sat down Saturday evening. We went and had dinner. We chatted for an hour about other stuff, and then we chatted about us moving forward. That had been planned for a few weeks. That wasn't something that happened after Indian Wells. We planned to sit down when I got to Miami to discuss, you know, sort of moving forward. Yeah, it wasn't going to happen. Yeah, the best thing to do was just to move on. You know, it's a tough one for me because he's been a big part of my life. He's been a big part of my team. He made a huge difference to my tennis. So very hard person to replace, you know. You can't replace that sort of experience easily. So that's tough. Q. If you had to pinpoint one thing besides obviously winning those major events, what would be the one thing you'd pick up that he's brought, been the biggest benefit to your game? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know that. It's hard to say one thing in particular. The thing that he was brought in to do was to help me get over the line in the big events, and that's what he did. So what improvements he made to my game, I don't think is, you know, how I hit the ball or how I hit certain shots is that relevant. My game was kind of there. It was the mental side in dealing with those pressure situations that he was there to help with. That was the biggest influence he had on my game. Q. I want to ask about your relationship with Danny Vallverdu. He's from Miami. ANDY MURRAY: He's from Venezuela. Q. Right, but he lives in Miami and went to UM. Can you talk about when you first met as teenagers in the academy? I know you guys have been close and he's been with you for a long time, working with you. ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I have known him since I was 15 when I went to Barcelona. I used to practice with him a lot; I spent a lot of time traveling with him to tournaments. We played doubles together, some junior events, and then he obviously came over to play in college. I think he was ranked 2 or 3 in college tennis for a while and played No. 1 for UM. Then, yeah, when I stopped ‑‑I think it was when I stopped working with Miles Maclagan, I asked him to come along to, you know, a couple of tournaments to help out. I lost in the final in Washington, and then I won the next tournament in Canada and was enjoying it. Danny, that was kind of how it started. He's been with me ever since then. Q. The coaching situation, you mentioned he's helped you get over that line. Does he need to be with you? Does the coach need to actually be with you in order to still use those things? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. The Olympics was the first big tournament I won and Ivan wasn't there at the Olympics, so, you know, it's not... Q. You don't need a coach? ANDY MURRAY: Can't replace someone like him. It's very hard to replace someone like him. But I would hope that I've learnt enough from him and a way to approach those matches and how to deal with those situations better. Because I have won those matches, so I know how to deal with it better now. But, yeah, obviously I would still like to have someone like that in my corner in those situations, because he's going to help. Q. In the past like you didn't have a coach and you did very well. You were a great thinker on the court to make your own decisions. Do you think now it will be a little different since now you have the Olympics, you have the slams? Would that be different? Would you feel confident to go for a few tournaments without a coach? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. Well, Danny is still going to be here helping me. He did most of the traveling during the years, even when Ivan was around. So, you know, it's not going to change drastically the next few weeks. But, you know, once I'm finished with Davis Cup, then I will sit down and have a think what I want to do with that situation and how I want to move forward with it. But, yeah, I mean, sometimes, yeah, being a little bit freer on the court can help for a few weeks. I think in the long term it's better to have, you know, someone there and having a structure and a plan as to how you're going to move forward and how you're going to improve. Certainly for a few weeks it can help sometimes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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