TENNIS ATP FINALS – Andy Murray d. Milos Raonic 6-3, 7-5. Group B
Q. How much happier are you feeling with that performance than you were on Sunday?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I obviously played better tonight. I hit the ball a lot cleaner than I did on Sunday from the beginning of the match. So that was pleasing.
Yeah, normally you feel happier when you win than when you lose. So I feel better than I did on Sunday.
Q. Late in the second set especially, he was being a lot more aggressive with his return of serve. What was your strategy at that point?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, started to try and use as much variation as possible on my second serve. So served more serves into his forehand. I wouldn’t serve like two or three serves to the same spot in a row. I would just try and use as much variation as I could so that he couldn’t be in as much of a rhythm.
Yeah, that helped.
Q. It’s always difficult for us to assess the importance of a coach in moments like that. How important were the discussions you had with Amélie after your loss?
ANDY MURRAY: I discussed the match with Amélie and Danny. I work with both of them. And, yeah, it is important. You know, Amélie was saying one of the times she made I’m pretty sure it was one of the times she made the final of the year end championships. She lost her first match 6 2, 6 2 against Petrova. Obviously wasn’t feeling great. Then went on to reach the final. It’s nice to have those sort of discussions, having someone that’s experienced having been in a tough situation after the first match.
Then, yeah, obviously for me today, you know, I was going in knowing that if I lost the match, I was out. Kind of didn’t really feel like a round robin anymore. It was more like a knock out.
Obviously, yeah, we had good discussions after the first match. Hopefully they made a difference.
Q. You have been already through this tournament in a difficult mathematical situation with del Potro, making a lot of calculations. How do you expect to play against Federer? How much could it be a problem to know if he wins one set, he’s number one, if he makes more than nine games…
There are a lot of different situations. Do you know anything about it?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, for him I think there’s a very good chance that he’s going to go through regardless of the results.
Yeah, for me it depends on the winner of the Nishikori/Raonic match. If Kei wins, then I need to beat Roger, it depends on the scoreline of that match with Kei and Raonic.
If Raonic wins, then I know that all I need to do is win the match against Roger and I’ll be through.
I’m not going to know that until I get ready for the match because I can’t predict the future.
Q. You’re 11 all with Roger at the moment in terms of head to head records. I was just wondering if you’d thought about finishing your career with a winning head to head record against possibly one of the greatest tennis players of all time, if that was an aim at all with you?
ANDY MURRAY: Obviously, it would be nice. But, yeah, it’s not something I thought about too much, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, it’s nice to have won against him a number of times. It gives me good confidence and belief every time I go on the court against him.
But, yeah, it would be nice to finish with a winning head to head record. If not, not the end of the world.
Q. Can you believe it’s 10 years that you’ve been playing Roger? That’s split evenly, 11 wins each man. Quite something, isn’t it? Something you’d be proud of, I imagine?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I played him in my first ever final in Bangkok. Yeah, it was a great experience then. Every time I played against him, it’s a very good learning experience. Matches I’ll look back on when I finish playing. You know, they’re the matches that I really remember, playing against the top guys in the big events.
Yeah, it’s been a good, successful 10 years. Hope I can keep going for a few more.
Q. Following your win, you received the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award. How does it make you feel and does it inspire you to do any more in that area?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was very nice to receive that award. I found out about it last week. Yeah, it’s a nice reward for doing the charity work. I’ve enjoyed doing it a lot over the last few years.
Then also when someone close to you is affected by various diseases or whatever it is, you tend to feel closer to the charity work, as well.
Yeah, the last two years have been, from a personal point of view, tough to see two people I know pretty well, one being my best friend, and obviously with Elena, it was very difficult to watch.
Yeah, I hope that I can keep doing as much as possible for the various charities over the next five, six years of my career. And beyond that, when I finish playing, I’ll obviously have more time, you know, to do that. I look forward to it.
