Andy Murray: “My goal isn't to beat Dani; my goal is to beat Berdych” - UBITENNIS

Andy Murray: “My goal isn’t to beat Dani; my goal is to beat Berdych”

By Staff
7 Min Read

TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – 27th of January 2015. A.Murray d. N.Kyrgios 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. An interview with Andy Murray

Q. As a man who likes his football, was that the perfect away performance?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, I didn’t go into it obviously thinking like that. I was, yeah, just trying to win against Nick, which was tough ’cause he has an exceptional serve and makes it very difficult for you when he’s serving. And, like I said on the court afterwards, it was very tricky conditions, as well. So I was quite happy with the way I handled everything tonight.

Q. What was the wind doing out there? Was it swirling?

ANDY MURRAY: No. The end where we walk out onto the court was a really strong breeze. When you were at that end you were playing with the wind, so it was tricky ’cause it was very strong breeze. When you’re down the far end of the court you had to do a lot more defending. If you tried to play with any sort of height the ball was dropping short. It was very easy for me or him to attack. So, yeah, I tried to just keep the ball low from that end, used a lot of slice, and played pretty flat. So it was tough for him and it worked.

Q. Through to the semifinal dropping one set. How pleasing is that?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think, you know, for me tonight it was a tricky one to judge, to say how well I played, because I found the conditions difficult tonight. So I tried to use the conditions to my advantage and played a slightly different style than what I had been in the other matches. I would say the match against Dimitrov was a very high level. It was a clean match. Both of us were striking the ball well. And, yeah, I made improvements with each of the matches. But then tonight, you know, I just tried to play the best with what the conditions were allowing you to do, and I think I did that quite well.

Q. Do you think he should have gotten a point penalty in the tiebreak there when he broke his racquet?

ANDY MURRAY: I don’t know if there’s a rule that I — I haven’t, in the last three, four years, seen someone break a racquet and not get a warning. Any time it’s happened to me, if I’ve broken a racquet, I’ve always gotten a warning. I just asked the umpire, and he said, no, it doesn’t always have to be automatic. But I asked the question because I haven’t seen that happen for a long time.

Q. We were all 19 once. What do you make of his on-court demeanor, showboating, that kind of stuff?

ANDY MURRAY: I actually think he’s quite respectful on the court in many ways. He does applaud good shots. He does say, Good shot, good serve. Yeah, he gets frustrated with himself and sometimes says things he shouldn’t, but everyone, I would think, has done that in some way when they’re 19. It just happens that when he’s doing it he’s playing in front of a large audience and it gets picked up on. I’ve spent a little bit of time with him and I think he’s a good person. I don’t think he’s a bad guy. He’s nice. He’s always been polite and respectful. Yeah, maybe he does the odd thing on the court that might annoy some people, but I don’t think he does anything with bad intent. He’s only going to continue to mature and improve in that respect as he gets older. He just needs to be allowed to grow up. Like everyone makes mistakes when they’re that age.

Q. What will it be like having Dani in the opposite box in the semifinal for the first time?

ANDY MURRAY: I don’t know. When I finished working with Miles MacLagan he started working with Baghdatis. I played against Baghdatis a few times. I played him at the Olympics. I played him in Tokyo with Miles there. Yeah, with Miles there I didn’t really have an issue with it. But, again, I don’t know, maybe I’ll find it weird on the day. But, yeah, it’s just something that you deal with as a player. My goal isn’t to beat Dani; my goal is to beat Berdych. So I don’t think about that in the next days.

Q. Does it change your preparation having someone who knows your game extremely well on your opponent’s side now?

ANDY MURRAY: I’ve always said to people that, you know, watching is one thing and seeing someone’s game, but when you actually get on the court with them things are actually a lot different. It seems like you might be able to attack certain areas of someone’s game or something that they do might look really good, but what matters is when you’re on the court can you exploit those things, that weakness. That weakness, is it as weak as you think? It’s completely different when you’re out there on the court, in my opinion. Yeah, we’ll see how the match plays out and what the tactics are and stuff. But, you know, I also know what Dani thinks of Berdych’s game because he’s told me, so it works both ways.

Leave a comment