29/06/2011 22:10 CEST - INTERVISTE

Andy Murray (29-06-2011)

Q. For a quarterfinal, couldn't have gotten any better, could it?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was good. I got off to a good start in all of the sets. That helps against someone like Feli because he serves well. Normally against the big servers, they like to put pressure on you towards the end of the set.
But because I got ahead early in all of them, I was able to dictate the points from the back of the court and played a good match.

Q. Your injury in the third set, what did you do? Do you know more about it in the last hour?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it's just sort of a change of direction thing. Little bit sore at the top of my hip, my hip flexor. It was a little bit sore after that, but I was still moving okay, you know. Have a better idea of how it is in the morning.

Q. Out of the four semifinalists you were the only one who didn't lose a set. Are you surprised about what happened in the other matches, especially Federer's defeat?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, I was following the match after Federer, so I was sort of following it a little bit on the TV. It's a surprise for him to lose from two sets to love.
I think Tsonga's an excellent player. When he plays well, he's very, very difficult to beat, especially on this surface. Not necessarily surprised that he lost the match. But having watched quite a bit of it, to come back from two sets to love is a very difficult thing to do. Against Roger at Wimbledon, it's even tougher.
But he served really well and took the game away from Roger. He just served great.

Q. When you look at playing Rafa on Friday, what do you think has changed from a year ago that gives you hope that you can improve on what you did last year against him?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I believe I can win against him. I had chances last year. I was up a break in the third set; had breakpoint on my serve in the second set. I think there was only one break in the first set. We both played good tennis.
But, you know, I just have to have a better game plan. Sometimes it comes down to strategy. Sometimes it comes down to having more experience. Yeah, just have to go out there and play well and serve well and believe and I'll have a chance.

Q. You've kept the beard after saying you weren't superstitious on Monday. Do you think we'll see it on Friday?
ANDY MURRAY: I'm not thinking about it at all. It's not something that keeps me up at night, or when I wake up in the morning I'm not really that fussed about it.

Q. Can you describe what it would mean to you as a British man to win Wimbledon if you got to that point?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it would feel like. I don't know how I would feel. I don't know 'cause I haven't been there before, haven't done it.
So, you know, I know that it's something that I've thought a lot about, something that drives me to work hard and keep training hard. I'm glad I'm in a position to have a chance of doing it.
But, yeah, I don't know how it would feel. I can only answer that once it's happened.

Q. Did (indiscernible) enjoy the experience of watching you today?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't know. I didn't see him after the match, so I don't know if he did or not. I don't know.

Q. This is your third consecutive semifinal. Does it get easier to deal with, sort of the hype around it?
ANDY MURRAY: The hype is not something I don't know. That doesn't make a difference. It's more, you know, the task that's in front of you becomes something that you know, I've obviously played Rafa a lot of times at Grand Slams and I've beaten him before at Grand Slams.
I haven't done it at Wimbledon. That's something that I'd like to try to change on Friday. But it's still an incredibly difficult, difficult task. I understand that. I know come Friday I'll have to play great tennis if I want to win.

Q. If you had to pick a surface to play Nadal, which one would you pick? I guess not a clay court. Between grass and hard court. A few minutes ago Nadal said grass is his second favorite surface after clay with the results he's got.
ANDY MURRAY: Probably hard court, I would have said. I played well against him on hard courts in the past. Also indoors, I think. Indoor hard court would be a good surface to play him on.

Q. In that same press conference, Rafa disclosed a growing friendship between you two. You see each other a little bit more off the court. But he said that he consistently beats you at PlayStation. I was wondering what your thoughts on that are.
ANDY MURRAY: He actually isn't very good at PlayStation. His partner is very good. He plays with Juan Monaco, and Juan Monaco is very good. Rafa's not that good at PlayStation, but he plays with Juan Monaco. As a team, they play well (smiling).
But we were actually talking about it before we went out to play our matches today, because I was playing this putting game and I missed the putt. I blamed the putter, and he said, You always have an excuse on the PlayStation.
Because we always play with their rules. Like there's different camera views, and we play with one camera view and they play with a different one. But we always play with their one. They play with Inter Milan, and we're not allowed to play with Inter Milan even though they're the best team in the game. We have to play with a different team.
Once the game starts, you're not allowed to make substitutions. It's just all their rules. So when we lose, we're a little bit like, Yeah, we blame the rules that they have.
I did play them once with our camera view and we won, but that's the only time we got a chance to play them.

Q. Who is your partner?
ANDY MURRAY: I play with Danny, yeah.

Q. Can't you play him at singles?
ANDY MURRAY: At PlayStation?

Q. Yes. Is that not possible?
ANDY MURRAY: It would be very comfortable for me, so they only play on a team. (Laughter.)

Q. You thrash him at PlayStation singles then?
ANDY MURRAY: We've never played. But I think I'm better, yup.

Q. Will you look back at matches against Rafa tomorrow? And if so, which particular matches will you look back to see? Ones where you played particularly well?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I'll watch a little bit of matches I played against him. Also, like Danny will watch matches that Rafa's played here, 'cause obviously everyone makes changes from time to time.
I don't know exactly which ones. Probably make sense to watch some of the ones on grass and also some of the ones on the quicker surfaces 'cause that's, you know, what grass is, one of the fastest surfaces.
But I don't know which ones in particular.

Q. Is there a person, place, or thing that you would queue for three days to see?
ANDY MURRAY: Good question. We were actually talking about this the other week.
Yeah, I mean, I'd probably for a big heavyweight boxing fight I'd probably queue for that. I don't know if I'd manage three days or not.

Q. Obviously a bit of banter between Feli, your mom, and you. I wonder whether your mom was embarrassed by it or whether she thinks it's quite good fun.
ANDY MURRAY: I haven't spoken to her about it, but I was embarrassed by it. If you fancy not putting it in the papers tomorrow, I'd appreciate that (smiling).

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