TENNIS WIMBLEDON 2014 – 30th of June. A. Murray d. K. Anderson 6-4, 6-3, 7-6. An interview with Andy Murray
Q. You mentioned in your TV interview, you said you played well outdoors, and when it went indoors you kind of fell back a bit. Could you expand on that, what the difference is with the roof?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, obviously everything was going my way when we stopped, and then, yeah, it’s different conditions. I mean, most players will tell you that there’s a big difference between playing indoors and outdoors. It changes the way the court plays.
And, yeah, that was it. He started hitting the ball cleaner. I started off a bit tentative when we came back out.
But, you know, I still did well. I still created loads of chances, a lot of opportunities in the third set, and just couldn’t quite get them.
But, I mean, I still played pretty well under the roof. I was just a little bit more tentative and he was going for his shots a little bit more, was maybe feeling – you know, when there’s no wind, it was drizzling a little bit for like 20, 30 minutes before we stopped, he was maybe a bit more comfortable under his feet as well when he was moving. Maybe that was it.
Q. With the roof, were you given an explanation why the match started with the roof open when there was rain coming?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, they should always try to play with the roof open because it’s an outdoor event. I think we need to give the players the opportunity to play outdoors as long as possible.
Yeah, when it does rain, you know, it’s going to be there for a while. Yeah, they obviously need to close it.
But, I mean, we played for, what, 1 hour and 20 minutes or 30 minutes outdoors. It wasn’t like it was just five or ten minutes.
Q. How happy are you with your performance?
ANDY MURRAY: I don’t mark myself. I was just happy that I won the match. I was a bit disappointed with how I started under the roof. The beginning, like I said, I was a little bit tentative. Apart from that, that sort of three or four games when we came back out, I played well.
I created many chances, gave him a few opportunities. That’s what you need to do on grass court tennis. You don’t always break. But if you keep putting them under enough pressure, you’re going to get through in the end.
Q. When you went off court, I presume you spoke with Amélie, what were the logistics of that? Did you have a chat in the corridor?
ANDY MURRAY: I’ve been asked that question quite a lot about the locker room. On the women’s tour, there’s literally no female coaches, so they have to deal with those things every single day.
I went in, I showered, I got changed. Then went outside the locker room and chatted with Danny and Amélie five steps from the door to the locker room. That was it.
Q. Sir Alex was in the Royal Box today. Have you had a chance to see him? How much contact do you have with him generally?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, sent a message to each other at various times during the year. I chatted to him for a few minutes after the match. Not for long, but just immediately when I came off the court, I had a little chat to him.
Yeah, we stay in contact throughout the year.
Q. You mentioned you talked to Alex Ferguson. Last year you mentioned gold dust from him. Without giving away any secrets, did he tell you anything today you might use further on in the tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, we chat about a lot of things. We talked about my match today, spoke about football, World Cup a little bit. Then, yeah, he just said a few things, what he’s observed when he’s been watching me, not necessarily about technical or tactical things, but more sort of mental things, how you respond to tough or tight situations.
Yeah, I mean, obviously you’re going to listen to someone like him. He’s witnessed a lot of big sort of tight sporting occasions. He obviously knows his stuff.
Q. You play Dimitrov next, who is not a top-10 guy but has gotten a lot of attention. When you see someone getting this sort of buildup before they have a major breakthrough, what do you think? Can it be harmful to them or does it just encourage them?
ANDY MURRAY: I think everyone deals with those things differently. I think maybe right at the beginning of his career it was hard for him because everyone was comparing him to Federer. That’s impossible to live up to what Roger’s achieved.
You know, maybe no one again will ever win that many slams. I know Rafa’s got a shot, but it’s going to take a while I think before someone wins 18, 19 majors again. So that could have been tough for him at the beginning of his career.
But now he’s starting to come into his prime. He’s won a lot of matches this year. You know, he’s a tough player. Will be a hard match for me.
Q. Your reading of what Kevin Anderson was going to do today really stood out. Was that luck or was there a bit more, a sixth sense in reading what he’s going to do?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, anticipation is – yeah, a bit of it’s guessing, but a bit of it is just sort of being educated in a way that you can see certain movements that they’re making just before they hit the shot and almost thinking what they’re thinking, as well, in that little split second that you have to make a decision which side to go.
But, yeah, that’s just part of defending in the game. Anticipation is very important. It’s something I’ve done well since I was a kid.
Q. Back to Dimitrov, what changes have you seen in him since he took up with Roger Rasheed?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, he’s a more mature player now, I think. He makes better decisions on the court than he used to. I mean, watching him play, his strokes and stuff, technically he hasn’t made many changes to his game.
But he’s playing higher-percentage tennis, making better decisions. That adds up to winning many more matches.
So he can obviously hit a lot of different shots. He has a lot of variety in his game. Sometimes it takes time to know how to use that properly. He’s starting to do that now.
Q. How big a step up do you think Grigor is from what you’ve faced so far?
ANDY MURRAY: It’s a step up because it’s one round further, and the guys that are in the quarterfinals are going to be playing top tennis. He obviously won Queen’s a couple weeks ago. He likes the grass courts.
Yeah, it’s a big opportunity for him, as well, playing on the Centre Court, the courts at Wimbledon for the first time.
Yeah, it’s a great opportunity for him. Hopefully we can play a good match.
Q. What are your thoughts on the idea of a timer for the time in between points? Do you think that could possibly be something that would be embraced by the players and be helpful?
ANDY MURRAY: I think it’s the only way to go, to be honest, because how are you supposed to know as a player how long 20 seconds is or 25 seconds between a point?
When I’m playing, it’s not something I’m ever thinking about, how long I’m taking between the point. Then sometimes if you’re playing too slow, the umpire tells you at the change of ends. You ask him, How slow am I going? He said, Two or three seconds.
Obviously we’ve been playing a lot of tennis matches, so we have an understanding of, you know, when we’re kind of going over the limits or not. But you don’t know when it’s 4-All in the fifth set of a match, you played a 30-shot rally, you’re not counting in your head 20 seconds. You’re thinking about tactics or what you’re going to do on the next point.
When you get a warning or a player gets a warning, at that stage you can understand when they’re frustrated because they don’t know how long they’ve taken. If it’s right there for everyone to see, then there’s no arguing from the player’s side.
