20/05/2011 15:05 CEST - interviste

Andy Murray 20-05-2011

Q. First of all, how are you feeling? What was the problem yesterday?
ANDY MURRAY: Just a bit stiff and sore. I have been training hard in London. Like three or four days after Rome, I trained most of the day on Wednesday and then came over on the Eurostar, and then I practiced first thing Thursday morning to warm up for the exhibition.
Didn't feel great. I think it was maybe my body just saying to take it easy for a day or so because I have been working very hard.
I made a decision not to play the exhibition and practice at 4:00 today. Should be fine.

Q. Just a precaution then?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah.

Q. How do you feel then generally going into this now off the back of some good performances?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I feel good. I have been playing well on the clay, better than previous years. I feel like I've been training well. Physically I feel like I'm in good shape. I have been moving well, too.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the start of the tournament. You've got to be very focused during the French especially, because, you know, one bad set or a couple of bad sets, and you can get yourself fatigued or tired early in the tournament. So you need to be switched on right from the start.

Q. How was your hair cut?
ANDY MURRAY: Good spot, huh? I did.

Q. (Off microphone.)
ANDY MURRAY: Well, it was pretty big, wasn't it? It was pretty big. But, yeah, cut it a couple days ago. Yesterday maybe.

Q. A comment about the draw. Do you feel relieved to be on Rafa's side, or maybe you don't see as far?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it's I think it's quite tough to say you're relieved to be on a guy's side who has won the tournament five times. Yeah, I mean, you don't really look that far in front.
I mean, I always know sort of what's going on in the draw, but you just can't get ahead of yourself in these tournaments. The depth of the men's game is so strong right now. I need to just focus on my first match.

Q. I think they're using a different ball here this year. Have you hit with it yet? If so, come up with any conclusions about it?
ANDY MURRAY: I practiced with it in London before well, before I came over here. I don't mind the ball, but I would just rather we played with the same ball throughout the clay court stretch and the same like throughout the hard court stretch.
Because in the States as well they play with Wilsons, and then when they go to US Open they sorry, the US Open they play with Wilson, and then in the hard court events in the buildup they use Penn. I think just for the players like wrists, joints, like your elbow and shoulder, you know, it makes sense to just stick with the same ball.
It's not the problem with the ball. The ball probably helps me. The ball is quite fast. But I would just rather we played with the same ball throughout like each part of the season. Like during the grass, I'd rather all the tournaments were with Slazenger. That's what I would prefer.
Well, I think that's what most of the tour would prefer, to be honest. But I don't really mind because the ball's probably better for me.

Q. How do these courts compare with the other clay courts that you play on on the tour?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, they're normally pretty quick, but it does change a lot depending on the conditions here. When I played some matches, like last year when I played Berdych, it was so slow. I remember playing Cilic a few years ago and it felt so quick.
It really just depends what time of day you play and what the conditions are like, but the balls definitely speed it up a bit.

Q. I don't know how closely you follow the women's game, but Heather Watson qualified today. Quite a feat really for a young player to get into a Grand Slam, qualify for this particular slam?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's good for British tennis. I think she's done very well this year. I don't know her that well, but from what I've seen of her I saw her playing one match actually when she was playing the Orange Bowl a few years ago and I thought she was good.
She has good balance on the court, very solid. Yeah, she's obviously doing well now in the seniors, and it won't be very long before she's in the top 100 and hopefully higher.
Yeah, that's great that she's managed to qualify here on probably a surface that she hasn't played too much on.

Q. I just want to know if you've been doing anything different on clay in terms of getting a better result and really pushing Nadal and Djokovic?
ANDY MURRAY: I have been more patient in the rallies. Like when I played Djokovic, well, and Rafa, you know, there's a lot of long rallies. I think a lot of people think when you play against them on clay you need to hit through them and shorten the points.
It really doesn't work on clay. You need to stay with them, take your chances to go for the shots at the right time, and not sort of bail out of rallies early. And make them do some running, too, which I think I managed to do in both of the matches. That's the key.

Q. Knowing Novak quite well and having played him in Rome recently, do you see any changes in his game?
ANDY MURRAY: There's definitely no big technical changes. I don't think his game has changed loads. I think he's always been capable of playing great tennis. He's just doing it all the time now.
I think he's got the right mentality on the court. He's been very solid throughout the whole year. He's starting tournaments very well, and when he's played against the top guys, he's raised his level, which maybe in the past he hadn't done. He's found a way of winning against them, and now obviously he's got a lot of confidence.
If you look at his game compared he's definitely serving better this year, but the bread and butter of his game is still the same.

Q. Can you take inspiration from what he's done? And in terms of you moving up to that next level, what do you think you need to do?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think, you know, obviously Novak was sort of No. 3 for a long time. You know, Rafa was also No. 2 for a very long time before he managed to get through to No. 1.
Novak's been 3 for a long time, and now he's making his push. I have been No. 4 for, you know, a long time now, and, you know, I want to push myself up the rankings. I want to push myself up the rankings, as well, and be competing for all the big tournaments.
The only way to do that is to be consistent and I think to be smart with your schedule, pick the right tournaments to play and not which ones not to. I think I can do it.

Q. Milos Raonic is a player you can possibly play in the third round. He's someone who has really come up a lot this season. Have you seen him? What do you think of his game?
ANDY MURRAY: I have seen him play. He's a big player, big serve, improving all the time, because he's obviously very young. He's getting experience, you know, gaining experience every week.
Yeah, I'm not really worried about him right now. I'm focusing on whoever I play in the first round.

Q. There was a new application on the Website for Roland Garros. It's a point stream, so you have every statistics on the match. Do you use statistics to analyze your games or before your match to see who will play your next opponent?
ANDY MURRAY: Not really. I don't look at stats in huge depth. I know a lot of the basic stats. I think you can go into too much detail sometimes with statistics, but I know a lot of the basic ones.
But I'll definitely check it out and see how useful it is. 

Redazione