TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – 31st of January 2015. An interview with Andy Murray
AO2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
Q. What did you make of last night’s semifinal?
ANDY MURRAY: I didn’t watch any of the match last night. I’ll watch some of it this evening and then chat to Amélie about it tomorrow. But I haven’t watched any of it yet.
Q. How are you feeling having had a lot of the extra things? Enough rest? Practice?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I feel good. I felt good after all of the matches and recovered fairly well from the two fairly long matches that I had against Dimitrov and with Berdych. So, yeah, I pulled up pretty well. But, yeah, it’s slightly different preparation obviously with the extra day. You get the extra day rest, but then also you’re in a rhythm of playing every day or so, so it changes the way you prepare a little bit. But, yeah, I feel good.
Q. Do you have any thoughts on the fairness of that? Do you believe semifinals should be played on the same day?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I do, yeah. You want the players all to have the same opportunity. But, I mean, I was told that the player that’s played the second semifinal I think has won like five or six of the last seven years, so I don’t know exactly who it favors more. Obviously if you have an extremely long match you would think the person that had the extra day’s rest, it would favor them. But a couple years Novak recovered from — I don’t know how he did it, because I played against him in the semifinal and I could barely walk a couple days later. But he recovered from a five-hour match and then won the final in six hours. I don’t really know who it favors, to be honest.
Q. Is there a danger of having too long to think about it?
ANDY MURRAY: I think that comes down to each individual really and how you handle the situation. I’ve tried — like I said, didn’t watch the match yesterday, so I tried not to spend too long thinking about it and try and just do the same sort of routine as I’ve been doing in the other matches and use yesterday as more of a recovery day. Then I practiced slightly harder than I would have normally the day before a slam final today.
Q. Is this the best you’ve felt mentally and physically on the eve of a Grand Slam final?
ANDY MURRAY: I don’t know. To be honest, it’s always very difficult to answer those questions. I don’t know. I know that I played well so far this event. Each time I’ve been in difficult situations I’ve done a good job mentally of finding my way to get out of them. And, yeah, my tennis has been good, as well. So I hope that will be the case again tomorrow.
Q. You played Novak here three times and lost all three. How confident are you that can change tomorrow?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I know it’s going to be extremely difficult to win the match tomorrow. I know if I want to win, it will probably be very, very tough and challenging physically. So I need to prepare myself mentally for that. But he has a fantastic record here. He obviously loves the court and the conditions. And, yeah, it would be a big upset if I manage to win tomorrow.
Q. You talk about a big upset if you were to win tomorrow night. Novak said there was no clear favorite. Do you disagree with that?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I’ve never won against him here before. I’ve lost to him each time that we’ve played. I think I’ve lost to him the last four or five times we played against each other, as well. Maybe only won one set in those matches. Yeah, I mean, it would be a big turnaround. I played him a couple times very close the end of last year and lost pretty comfortably. For me it would be a big turnaround in a few months if I was able to win. I’m not saying it’s not a possibility, but it’s going to be very, very tough.
Q. Was there any sense of curiosity last night about what was going here last night?
ANDY MURRAY: Knew exactly what the score was. I was at dinner checking the result to see what was going on. I spoke to Leon, as well, who was commentating on the match. But I’m going to watch the parts of the match that I want to watch this evening, get all of the stats from the match that I think will be beneficial and go over it, just like I have done every other match since I have been here this event. But I didn’t really want to sit for three, three and a half hours last night worrying about the match. I’d rather save that for this evening and try and conserve a little bit of energy and mental energy, as well, you know, for the match.
Q. Guaranteed back in the world’s top four regardless; No. 3 with a win. Do you feel like you’re back where you belong?
ANDY MURRAY: I feel like I’m playing well again. I think this tournament’s been obviously important for me just because of some of the results I had at the end of last year. Yeah, it’s been an important week for me. Obviously anytime you’re moving up the rankings suggests you’re doing something well. Yeah, it shows as well that last year, although it was a tough year, it wasn’t that bad. With one good tournament here I could move back up the rankings again. Hopefully the beginning part of this year where I maybe didn’t play my best last year, if I can try and have some consistent, solid results, reestablish myself back at the top of the game, and hopefully have another good year.
