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–>TENNIS 2014 ROLAND GARROS – 1st of May 2014. A. Murray d. P. Kohlschreiber 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10. An interview with Andy Murray
Q. You seemed to be unhappy last night that it had gone into five sets, but how proud are you with how you came through that test?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, I mean, obviously I was up in every set, and, yeah, to not finish at the end of the fourth set when I was up 4 2 serving 30 Love was obviously tough.
But, you know, physically in the fifth set I was struggling. You know, I was cramping. So I was disappointed obviously that I wasn’t able to finish in four sets.
But at the same time, you know, stopping the match probably helped me a little bit, because if I had played seven or eight more games, probably wouldn’t have been great.
But today was a pretty high standard, I thought, for probably the best standard of the match I think from both of us. You know, he came up with some great shots when he was behind in games today. I thought both of us served a little bit better. It was a good finish to the match.
Q. Did you go into the match with any physical issues, or was it something that came on during the match? What did you do last night?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I was cramping. That was what it was. It wasn’t something I went into the match with.
And, yeah, it was the first five set match I played since my surgery. Yeah, it was, you know, obviously playing late, heavy conditions, so it is tough on the legs in the evening.
He makes you do a lot of running, as well. He uses the angles extremely well. Yeah, once he’s in control of the point, it’s tough to, you know, tough to get him out of that.
So, yeah, I did quite a lot of running last night. I was glad I managed to come through.
Q. You said a bit on court about having trouble sleeping. Were you sort of dreaming about the match, or what was going on?
ANDY MURRAY: No, no, not dreaming. Just waking up. When you finish that late and you have to come back and play, you know, early ish the next day, obviously the adrenaline the way the match finished yesterday, it wasn’t like we stopped at, you know, a comfortable stage in the match.
When you know you have to come back and it’s 7 All the next day and every single point counts, basically you need to get off to a big start. You’re obviously going to be a bit anxious and a bit nervous when you go to sleep and then also when you wake up in the night, same thing is going to happen.
Yeah, not the best night’s sleep.
Q. Verdasco next. He probably gave you your toughest match at Wimbledon last year. Would you say that playing on clay gives him an advantage?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, not many people think I play particularly well on clay, so I would say that would give him an edge there. He’s obviously had some good results on clay.
But he plays well on every surface, indoors, he’s had good results on grass. Also, yeah, obviously the clay, as well.
Yeah, it will be a tough match, for sure. When he plays, he plays well. He’s incredibly talented, very, very tough player. I need to play a good match and do everything I can to be fresh for tomorrow.
Q. With reference to that last question, do you feel you’re playing as well as you have ever done on clay at the moment? If so, what kind of little adjustments do you put that down to?
ANDY MURRAY: I played well on clay the last few weeks, that’s for sure. You know, this last match against Philipp was, it could have been one of my best wins if I managed to close out the fourth set, because he’s a very, very tough player. He’s playing well just now. Obviously ended up becoming an extremely tough match.
But, yeah, today is a very good win for me to beat a player like him on this surface. And, yeah, hopefully I can keep improving, keep learning.
You know, there are certain things I can learn from today’s match that, you know, if I do sort of take on board the things that I didn’t do so well at times and hopefully I can make some adjustments for the next match and play better.
Q. Your record in five set matches is one of the best around. Is that one of the statistics that you’re most proud of?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, obviously I didn’t feel great physically last night, whereas in a lot of the other five set matches I have played I have felt very good. So this was a very tough one for me to come through.
But, yeah, that’s really the point of doing the training. You know, I think I lost my first few five set matches. I was like 1 4 or something at the start, so I have won quite a few of my last 15, 16 five setters. That’s what the training is for.
