TENNIS ATP TORONTO – 3rd of August 2014. An interview with Andy Murray
Q. Your back issues are resolved. You’ve got Amélie on board. Does this feel like a new start, a new chapter almost in your career?
ANDY MURRAY: I don’t know. I mean, obviously every time you start with a new coach, you bring something different, a different perspective. You know, there is a different sort of tennis language, if you like, a different way of speaking about things. That’s obviously different.
But, you know, I feel good. I train hard. In a period after Wimbledon I didn’t take too much time off. I feel like I’m ready to play some good tennis.
Q. The Daily Mail this morning had a piece about you going firm with Amélie for the rest of the season. You must be happy with how it’s going if that’s the case, and I wonder if you have been surprised during these last couple of months at how the media focused on her being a woman rather than her credentials as a coach and a player.
ANDY MURRAY: I haven’t read anything after Wimbledon. I haven’t really seen anything that’s been said, because often it’s wrong and incorrect information so I don’t read much of it.
But I have really enjoyed working with her. I feel like she’s helped me a lot. Yeah, it started off well, in my opinion. We had a good training block in Miami, worked well. She integrated well with the rest of the team and the physical trainers, you know, listened a lot to what they had to say.
Yeah, it’s been a good start. You know, now it’s about me producing the results on the court. I feel like I put myself in a good position to do that. I had a good few weeks over in Miami.
Q. You have had some success here in Canada. How do you compare playing in Canada versus tournaments and Grand Slams overseas? Any difference in terms of the atmosphere, the environment?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, every tournament is different. You know, the atmosphere at the tournaments I played in Canada has been very good. I think also right now with the way things are going with Canadian tennis I would expect they would have some really, really good crowds here. I was hearing on the TV today they were expecting record crowds. So, you know, that’s great.
Yeah, it’s always a good atmosphere. The night matches, as well, they get fantastic crowds. And even today, there is no main draw matches being played and it’s packed. You don’t see that at many tournaments.
Q. What’s Amélie’s exact role with you? Can you be more specific as to which aspect of your tennis she’s working on with you?
ANDY MURRAY: She will be my coach, so she will do the same role that every coach does for every player, you know, which is to work on all aspects of the game tactically, psychologically, a little bit technically but not so much, to be honest, and then, yeah, scheduling.
Yeah, everything. She will be involved in all of my training blocks and, yeah, pretty much what every coach does for each player.
Q. You talked about getting plenty of matches in before the US Open. Last year you had a really good run here in the doubles. Were you tempted to use that again to sort of build up your match sharpness or did it just not work logically?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I wasn’t originally going to have a bye in the tournament because I would have been before Rafa pulled out, I was told I was going to be playing on Monday evening a little while ago.
So I planned all of my training and everything around playing my first match on Monday evening and, you know, arranged to come here on Thursday to get here a little bit earlier to get used to the conditions.
Yeah, I had been asked by a couple of the guys Colin had asked me to play doubles, and I said to him, Sorry, but I’m not going to have a bye so I don’t want to play.
Then, yeah, obviously I found out Wednesday afternoon/evening when Rafa pulled out, so I had thought about it, but not this year.
