TENNIS ATP FINALS – Kei Nishikori d. Andy Murray 6-4, 6-4, Group B.
Q. After all the hard work of getting here, were you surprised to lose that one in straight sets?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I don’t necessarily go into every match against all the top players expecting to win. You want to win the match. That’s obviously the goal all the time.
But you’re competing against the best players in the world. And Kei is obviously playing well just now, so I knew that that was a possibility.
But, yeah, it’s still obviously disappointing to lose the first match. And, yeah, I would have liked to have done better.
Q. You seemed to play with more attacking intent when you came back to 4 All in the second set. Was it his game that prevented you from being aggressive throughout?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I guess you could say that. Obviously, I haven’t watched the match. You know, you guys were watching it.
You know, I didn’t serve well enough today. I would say that was the biggest difference in the match. And when you’re not serving well, obviously on your own service games you want to be looking to dictate the points. When you’re returning, you kind of dictate when you have the opportunity. You don’t always have the chance if someone’s serving well.
And, yeah, I didn’t serve well enough. He was able to dictate a lot of points, especially behind my second serve. That was, yeah, statistically the part of the match yeah, I mean, that was the part of the match where he had the upper hand. That was the difference.
Q. You called the trainer in the second set. Were you feeling fatigued?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I just felt a slight tightness in my calf, so I asked him to come and have a look. It was fine. I moved fine after that.
But, yeah, just precaution. No issue.
Q. After your six week run, nobody could have been more match tough than you. I’m wondering, in the break between you losing at Bercy and starting here, how many complete days off did you take, just not touch a racquet?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, finished in Bercy on Friday night, then I flew Saturday morning back to London, then I took Saturday and Sunday off. I started hitting balls again on Monday. So I played Monday through to Saturday, then obviously played today.
Q. Did you feel any nerves out there? Early on particularly, both you and Kei seemed to make quite a lot of mistakes.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, both of us struggled at the beginning of the match. The conditions, when you play with no one in there, it seemed like it was pretty full today. It’s obviously warmer, which then makes it quicker, the ball becomes a bit more lively.
Yeah, at the beginning of the match, there were a lot of mistakes. Then he definitely started playing better at the end of the first set and started feeling a bit more comfortable with those conditions.
But, yeah, at the beginning, both of us struggled a little bit.
Q. Do you feel like this puts you very up against it in terms of trying to make the last four?
ANDY MURRAY: Obviously, yeah. I mean, it’s harder to qualify when you lose your first match. That’s pretty obvious.
But, yeah, unlike the other events, you still have a chance to go through. If this were anywhere else, I would be out of the tournament.
Yeah, you need to try to forget about today, work on some things tomorrow, and hopefully play better on Tuesday.
Q. Given the nature of the way you got to the Finals in the first place, is there enough in the tank to do things the hard way again this week?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I felt okay on the court today. I don’t think that was the reason why I lost the match. I guess if I was to play a three hour match which was extremely physical, then maybe I would feel fatigued in the latter stages of a match like that.
But, yeah, obviously now I need to win my next two matches more than likely, and win them well if I want to go through. That’s going to be tricky because Milos obviously played fantastic last week in Paris, and Roger always plays well at this event.
So I’m definitely going to have to play better if I want to get through.
Q. I saw a comment from you saying you still need to find an extra 4% or 5% to get back to your top level. Has it surprised you how long the process has taken and how frustrating has that been?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, the beginning of the year was hard because I didn’t feel like I was playing particularly well at the beginning of the year. I feel like I’ve played well for most of the events since the French Open really. I’ve had fairly consistent, decent results.
But, yeah, to beat the top players consistently, you need to be playing at your top level all the time or close to it.
Yeah, at the beginning of the year it was hard, because before I had my surgery, I was consistently there. When you come back and you aren’t quite there, that’s obviously frustrating.
Over time you get used to that, and mentally you start to understand why that might happen. Yeah, you deal with it.
So, no, I think it’s been a fairly normal process. It’s not been anything out of the ordinary, but something that I’ve had to learn a lot this year about what that’s like.
Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be good next year.
