TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – R. Nadal d. A. Murray 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. An interview with Andy Murray
Q. Andy, it felt like you brought the best out of your opponent today. Do you agree with that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, he played a great match. He missed hardly any balls. He served very well.
I mean, his forehand especially with the conditions the way they were today, was incredibly hard to control the ball. As soon as he was inside the court, I mean, he was hitting the ball so close to the line.
Yeah, he played great tennis.
Q. You had particular trouble getting into his serve. Was he doing something different? Why was that the case today?
ANDY MURRAY: He served well and I didn’t return well. Simple. He served very close to the lines. Ball was coming through the court quicker today.
Yeah, my returns were timing was off on the returns. You know, also I think it is also easy to just sort of say, Oh, you know, he served well and I missed quite a lot of returns.
But the problem is if you don’t do anything with the return, I mean, he was just battering the next ball into the corner. So you need to try and do something with his return.
And, yeah, maybe I was going for a bit too much. Then when I missed a couple in a row I would get a bit tentative.
Yeah, that was it.
Q. You’re a big competitor. How is it to deal with it on the court feeling that maybe you couldn’t find any way to really compete? How do you switch back to grass after such a loss?
ANDY MURRAY: That’s a good question. It’s difficult, because, yeah, I normally strike the ball fairly cleanly. Today I was mishitting a lot of balls. It was incredibly frustrating. I wanted to play better and better as the match went on.
Yeah, in some ways you start trying too hard, and it doesn’t always appear that way. But you want to do stuff too badly, and you end up making more mistakes and things get worse.
Yeah, I never want to say forget about matches like this, but obviously the grass court season starts in a couple of days and I need to switch my mind to that.
Q. Do you feel the absence of a head coach right now on your team? Has been affecting the game plans, the tactics? Perhaps it was one of the motives because you haven’t hurt that much Rafa today.
ANDY MURRAY: Again, I don’t know exactly. I played a very good match against him in Rome. I played a tactically very good match against him in Rome.
But, again, you can go out there with, you know, all the tactics in the world, but when he’s hitting the ball like that, very difficult to hit the ball where you want to.
You know, his shot was bouncing incredibly high. It was very difficult to do much with the ball. Then when I did have the opportunity, I wanted to make a winner or make him run too much, trying to hit too close to the lines, and end up making a lot of mistakes.
So I don’t really think that’s down to coaching decision. A lot of it comes down to how well he plays.
Q. Physically how much time do you think it will take to get over it, and mentally how tough do you have to be to get back out there again almost immediately next week?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, physically obviously I have played a lot of tennis the last couple of weeks. You know, probably the most time I have spent definitely the most time I have spent on court in a two week span in the last six months since I came back.
So in some ways that’s obviously a good thing, that I managed to get through some long matches. But, yeah, there is still a lot of work for me to do on this surface in particular if I ever want to have a chance at winning this tournament. That’s obvious.
But, yeah, I think going on to the grass, you know, in some ways will help me. I have a lot of good memories from the grass court season over the last couple of years. I hope I can play some good tennis.
Q. On the mental side, do you try and erase this or…
ANDY MURRAY: My view, you need to try and learn from it and realize what exactly went wrong on my side of the net. You know, you can’t always control how well your opponent plays, but on my side of the net obviously I can think about a few things.
You know, then you look at a tournament as a whole. Like I said at the beginning, you know, there was a few too many sets this week in the matches where I was up. I could have finished sets quicker, could have finished matches quicker.
Like I said, I only have myself to blame for that. That’s something during the grass and over the next few months I’ll definitely need to work on, you know, not letting guys back in when, you know, when I’ve got the match won.
That’s something that Rafa has obviously done incredibly well, especially here.
Q. Have you given any thought to what the leadup to Wimbledon will be like for you going back to defend there for the first time and all the excitement for that and Britain, and what sort of also expectations should be for you, fair expectations for this Wimbledon?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I expect to play well there. I’m really looking forward to going back. I think it will give me a lot of positive energy.
You know, I’m glad I’m back playing, you know, to a level that was able to get me through to the last stage of slams. I just need that extra few percent so that I can give myself a chance to try and win them again.
But the grass will obviously help me. It’s a surface I have always enjoyed playing on. I think it’s been my most successful surface over my career.
Yeah, I’m really looking forward to Wimbledon especially, you know. It’s only two and a half weeks away, so I don’t have too long to wait.
