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ROLAND GARROSJune 6, 2014Andy MurrayPARIS, FRANCE R. NADAL/A. Murray THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please. Q. Andy, it felt like you brought the best out of your opponent today. Do you agree with that? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, he played a great match. He missed hardly any balls. He served very well. I mean, his forehand‑‑ especially with the conditions the way they were today, was incredibly hard to control the ball. As soon as he was inside the court, I mean, he was hitting the ball so close to the line. Yeah, he played great tennis. Q. You played four‑and‑a‑half hours more than Rafa. Do you think that was too much to play your best tennis and have a chance against him today? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know, to be honest. If it was, I've only got myself to blame, because I was in control of a lot of the matches that went longer than maybe they should have been. So if that did have anything to do with it, it was completely my fault. But, yeah, ideally playing against him on this surface, you know, the way he's hitting the ball today, you have to do a lot of running, chase a lot of balls down. I couldn't get enough back. Q. You had particular trouble getting into his serve. Was he doing something different? Why was that the case today? ANDY MURRAY: He served well and I didn't return well. Simple. He served very close to the lines. Ball was coming through the court quicker today. Yeah, my returns were‑‑ timing was off on the returns. You know, also I think ‑‑it is also easy to just sort of say, Oh, you know, he served well and I missed quite a lot of returns. But the problem is if you don't do anything with the return, I mean, he was just battering the next ball into the corner. So you need to try and do something with his return. And, yeah, maybe I was going for a bit too much. Then when I missed a couple in a row I would get a bit tentative. Yeah, that was it. Q. At what point of the match did you sense that it was going to be a very difficult afternoon? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I knew it was going to be a difficult afternoon obviously before I went on the court. I was expecting a lot of long rallies. I was expecting to have to do a lot of running. And, yeah, I just ‑‑yeah, I mean, it was a tough day for me. It was a bad, bad day. Yeah, I'll need to bounce back quickly from it, because I'm not particularly happy with the way I played today. Q. You're a big competitor. How is it to deal with it on the court feeling that maybe you couldn't find any way to really compete? How do you switch back to grass after such a loss? ANDY MURRAY: That's a good question. It's difficult, because, yeah, I normally strike the ball fairly cleanly. Today I was mishitting a lot of balls. It was incredibly frustrating. I wanted to play better and better as the match went on. Yeah, in some ways you start trying too hard, and it doesn't always appear that way. But you want to do stuff too badly, and you end up making more mistakes and things get worse. Yeah, I never want to say forget about matches like this, but obviously the grass court season starts in a couple of days and I need to switch my mind to that. Q. Do you feel the absence of a head coach right now on your team? Has been affecting the game plans, the tactics? Perhaps it was one of the motives because you haven't hurt that much Rafa today. ANDY MURRAY: Again, I don't know exactly. I played a very good match against him in Rome. I played a tactically very good match against him in Rome. But, again, you can go out there with, you know, all the tactics in the world, but when he's hitting the ball like that, very difficult to hit the ball where you want to. You know, his shot was bouncing incredibly high. It was very difficult to do much with the ball. Then when I did have the opportunity, I wanted to make a winner or make him run too much, trying to hit too close to the lines, and end up making a lot of mistakes. So I don't really think that's down to coaching decision. A lot of it comes down to how well he plays. Q. You have played Rafa 20 times now. Is that the most difficult you have found him to handle? That forehand particularly? ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, obviously I didn't play him for quite a while, and, you know, I had obviously watched a bit of him. But there was a period I think when he was having the problems with his knees where obviously he started trying to play more aggressive and further inside the court, was hitting his forehand, you know, flatter. When he was inside the court he was hitting it lower over the court. I didn't feel a huge difference in Rome, but, you know, the conditions were very different. And then today he was hitting extremely hard, extremely heavy, returning well, and was hitting it well on the run. Yeah, that's the toughest match I have played against him. Q. Is it good, do you think, that you've got Queen's to go straight into, or would you rather have a bit of time between the two? ANDY MURRAY: I probably would rather have a little bit of time after a match like that, to be honest. I mean, it's been a good tournament for me in many respects, but I'm very disappointed with today and how that match ended. Yeah, ideally I would like a few days a way to think about it and then start getting ready again. Q. Obviously you match your best result here in Paris. I'm wondering if the disappointment is for the performance of the day or ‑‑ ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, today. Q. ‑‑ or maybe because you felt you had a better chance against Rafa this year or wanted to put up a good result since the back surgery? ANDY MURRAY: Well, you know, coming in there were loads of people that would have expected me to get to the semis. Once you get there you obviously want to try and give yourself an opportunity, and I didn't give myself a chance in any of the sets today. Yeah, that's why I'm disappointed, because you want to be competitive. You want to make it hard for him. I wasn't able to do that. Q. Physically how much time do you think it will take to get over it, and mentally how tough do you have to be to get back out there again almost immediately next week? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, physically obviously I have played a lot of tennis the last couple of weeks. You know, probably the most time I have spent ‑‑definitely the most time I have spent on court in a two‑week span in the last six months since I came back. So in some ways that's obviously a good thing, that I managed to get through some long matches. But, yeah, there is still a lot of work for me to do on this surface in particular if I ever want to have a chance at winning this tournament. That's obvious. But, yeah, I think going on to the grass, you know, in some ways will help me. I have a lot of good memories from the grass court season over the last couple of years. I hope I can play some good tennis. Q. On the mental side, do you try and erase this or... ANDY MURRAY: My view, you need to try and learn from it and realize what exactly went wrong on my side of the net. You know, you can't always control how well your opponent plays, but on my side of the net obviously I can think about a few things. You know, then you look at a tournament as a whole. Like I said at the beginning, you know, there was a few too many sets this week in the matches where I was up. I could have finished sets quicker, could have finished matches quicker. Like I said, I only have myself to blame for that. That's something during the grass and over the next few months I'll definitely need to work on, you know, not letting guys back in when, you know, when I've got the match won. That's something that Rafa has obviously done incredibly well, especially here. Q. You said before the tournament that you were close to naming a coach. What's the situation now? ANDY MURRAY: The same. Same as it was before the tournament. I haven't spoken to anyone since the tournament began. But, yeah, we'll see over the next few days what happens. Q. What do you think the chances are of you having a new coach before Wimbledon? ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I don't know. I would hope to have someone in place. I don't know. 50/50 maybe? I don't know. Q. Have you given any thought to what the leadup to Wimbledon will be like for you going back to defend there for the first time and all the excitement for that and Britain, and what sort of also expectations should be for you, fair expectations for this Wimbledon? ANDY MURRAY: Well, I expect to play well there. I'm really looking forward to going back. I think it will give me a lot of positive energy. You know, I'm glad I'm back playing, you know, to a level that was able to get me through to the last stage of slams. I just need that extra few percent so that I can give myself a chance to try and win them again. But the grass will obviously help me. It's a surface I have always enjoyed playing on. I think it's been my most successful surface over my career. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to Wimbledon especially, you know. It's only two‑and‑a‑half weeks away, so I don't have too long to wait. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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