Andy Murray: “I sat in here the other day and got asked more questions about Dani than I did about the match I just played. So you wanted there to be tension” - UBITENNIS
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Andy Murray: “I sat in here the other day and got asked more questions about Dani than I did about the match I just played. So you wanted there to be tension”

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TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – 29th of January 2015. A.Murray d. T.Berdych 6-7, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5. An interview with Andy Murray

Q. Tell us what it means to be in your fourth Australian Open final, eighth of your career Grand Slam final?

ANDY MURRAY: It’s great. I played very, very well tonight. Very happy with the way that I played the match. And, yeah, to be in the final four times here, I mean, because I’m surrounded by guys like Roger, Novak and Rafa, doesn’t look like much, but that doesn’t happen that often. So I’m very proud of that.

Q. Talk us through what changed between the first and second sets, so different.

ANDY MURRAY: Well, I thought the beginning of the match he started out well. I was a little bit tentative at the beginning and getting used to his ball. He hits the ball extremely hard and flat. At the start I felt like I was on the back foot a little bit. Towards the end of the first set I started to come into it more, be more aggressive. Then second set I just picked up from how I was playing at the end of the first. I felt like I could have won the first set. Obviously had some chances there. I was extremely aggressive in the second set. Managed to run away with it.

Q. When did you last break a string?

ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, it happens to me occasionally. I mean, sometimes when you don’t hit the ball in the right spot, you know, the string can break up at the top of the racquet. And on that shot it broke actually quite high up on the racquet. And, yeah, it was just bad timing, bad luck for that to happen.

Q. What was the issue with the balls in the first set?

ANDY MURRAY: I don’t know. He was the one that had the issue with the balls. It wasn’t me.

Q. That was one of sort of several incidents. Felt like a very incident-packed first set. What happened at the change after the end of the first set? You said to the umpire that he said something to you as he walked past.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I don’t know what he said, but he said something literally as we were walking right past each other change of ends. I don’t know exactly what he said. I just told the umpire that he said something to me and that was it.

Q. You mentioned in the on-court interview there was a lot of extra tension related to Dani.

ANDY MURRAY: Guys wanted there to be. You wanted there to be tension. It’s completely normal for that to happen. I sat in here the other day and got asked more questions about Dani than I did about the match I just played. So you wanted there to be tension. Yeah, because of everything that’s gone on it’s kind of a natural thing to happen. If you learn how the brain works, it’s completely natural for that. So kind of expected, and, yeah, had planned for that to be the case as well.

Q. In cricket there’s sledging all the time. Comments between players when they change over, is that rare in tennis?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, I think the thing is because there’s cameras and microphones everywhere players don’t say stuff to the opponents. And then, yeah, we have to come in here after every match, and then if we said something you end up speaking about it the whole time. Whereas in cricket, I wouldn’t imagine all the players that say stuff to each other, everything gets picked up. They don’t broadcast everything players say to each other. Obviously players aren’t going to say stuff because it causes them — or they end up having to spend a lot of time explaining themselves. The reality is that when you have two people competing against each other and there’s a bit of tension there, it’s very natural for things to happen.

Q. Kim inadvertently cost you a time violation at one point. She was caught on camera using some Anglo-Saxon adjectives. Is that something you were aware of?

ANDY MURRAY: I was told about that.

Q. What’s your reaction to that?

ANDY MURRAY: Again, when there’s a lot of tension surrounding something, which you created, then it’s completely normal that, yeah, the whole first set everyone was tight. My physical trainer, physio, I’m sure for Dani it was uncomfortable. Even Tomas, who very rarely says anything on the court, there was tension there for him, as well. Yeah, in the heat of the moment you can say stuff that you regret. And, yeah, that’s it.

Q. Tomas called it a battle from the baseline. Given that you’ve won that, how well are you positioned going into Sunday?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, obviously feel good because I thought I played well tonight. And, yeah, the most important thing in tennis matches, you need to be able to make adjustments and change when things aren’t going well. That’s one of the things that we didn’t really speak about the other day. Everyone can go into a match with game plans and ideas of how they want to play. I was trying to explain that if someone thinks that I’m going to come out and look at the court and do something, if I do something completely different, if I start serving and volleying, then you have to change and adjust your tactics based on what your opponent’s doing. I felt like tonight I made some big adjustments in the match from how things were going at the start. I’ll need to do the same thing again on the Sunday against Novak or Stan, because things that you think will work doesn’t always work out that way. You need to be able to make adjustments in the middle of the match. That’s where it doesn’t necessarily always come down to the coach. It has to come down to the individual as well, because we can’t get coaching during the match. We have to be able to make adjustments ourselves, and that’s one of the things I was most pleased about tonight, because I thought after that first set I changed the way I was playing and turned the match in my favor.

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Alcaraz Halts Sinner’s Winning Streak To Reach The Final In Indian Wells

Carlos Alcaraz earns the right to defend his title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells fending off Jannik Sinner’s assault to his ATP no. 2 spot

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Jannik Sinner (left) and Carlos Alcaraz (right) - Indian Wells 2024 (photo Twitter X @BNPPARIBASOPEN)

All good things come to an end. Jannik Sinner was on a 19-match winning streak since his loss to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Nitto ATP Finals that included his first Grand Slam win in Australia last January, and appeared as the most in-form player at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 tournament of the season. But as he faced Carlos Alcaraz in an eagerly-awaited semifinal, he was unable to continue his quest for the third consecutive title of the season, succumbing to the Spaniard 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The match was a face-off for the no. 2 spot in the ATP ranking that Alcaraz will still occupy next Monday regardless of the result of Sunday’s final, and this is a much-needed confidence boost for him after a disappointing start of the season where he was handily beaten in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open by Zverev and did not win any tournament during the South American clay court swing where he was ousted by Nicolas Jarry in Buenos Aires and had to retire for an ankle injury at the Rio Open.

The match, originally scheduled for 1.30 pm Pacific Time, had to be suspended for over three hours after only three games because of an unusual downpour. As the match resumed, Sinner appeared once again the perfectly-tuned machine that had been crushing opponents with metronomic regularity for the past weeks while Alcaraz was struggling to keep up with his opponent’s pace from the baseline.

The first set was smooth sailing for the Italian who cruised to a comprehensive 6-1 in 27 minutes: Alcaraz was tentative from the baseline and could not find the right position to fire his screamers and change the tactical discourse of the match. “Then at the beginning of the second set, as I saw he was making a lot of mistakes, I tried to be as solid as possible when I should have kept pushing instead – Sinner said during his press conference – and that’s what cost me the match in the end”.

While serving at 1-2 in the second set, a few uncharacteristic forehand mistakes started to dot his thus far spotless game, and that cost him the break that sent Alcaraz flying to a 4-1 advantage. The Spaniard then found the confidence to change his return position and make Sinner work a lot more on his service games, as the Italian struggled to find a countermeasure to the tactical shift in the match: “I kept doing the same thing over and over again”, Sinner stressed, and forehand unforced errors started to pile up to reach the burdensome number of 27 at the end of the match.

Sinner had the chance to find his way back into the second set while Alcaraz was serving at 3-5, but Carlos cancelled his break point with a laser backhand down the line that had the 15,000-strong crowd cheering on their feet.

The third set ran away very quickly from the Italian, who started touching repeatedly the back of his left leg around his knee. Sinner got broken again during the third game, and while going for a last-ditch attempt to recover a short volley by Alcaraz he tumbled to the ground slightly injuring his right elbow and arm. From there onwards it was just more mistakes by Sinner and a clinical execution by Alcaraz on how to take home a match.

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“It Feels Great’ – Novak Djokovic Marks Indian Wells Return With Milestone Win

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Novak Djokovic - Indian Wells 2024 (foto Ubitennis)

Novak Djokovic says he still has a ‘great feeling’ in Indian Wells after playing his first match at the event for five years. 

The world No.1 battled to a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, win over Aleksandar Vukic in what was his first taste of competitive tennis since losing in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. It was a far from smooth encounter for Djokovic, who hit 23 winners and won 83% of his first service points. In the second set, he was broken twice with the second of those occurring when he was serving at 5-6. Nevertheless, he battled back in the decider to win. 

This year is the first time Djokovic has been able to play in the Masters 1000 event since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2020 tournament was cancelled, he was unable to play the next three editions due to restrictions placed on unvaccinated foreign visitors to America. Despite the absence, the five-time champion states that his love for the event is as strong as ever.

“It feels great to come back with the win. It’s been five years and the great feeling is still there. I enjoyed myself very much. Beautiful stadium. Great atmosphere.” Djokovic said during his press conference. 
“I was a bit nervous at the beginning. I haven’t played a match in more than five weeks. I thought the start was good. Then I think he upped his game.
“I probably lost a little bit of the momentum. We got into the third set, I thought the level of the tennis was pretty good in the third. Great points. He made me produce some really important points in games in order to prevail in this match. I’m glad that I was pushed, as well, which is important.”

Djokovic’s latest victory is his 400th in a Masters 1000 tournament. He is only the second player in history to have reached this milestone since the tournament category was introduced in 1990. The first to do so was Rafael Nadal who currently has 406 wins to his name. 

He could create more history in Indian Wells should the Serbian go on to claim the title this year. If he does, he would become the first man to have won it for a sixth time. Although Djokovic is refusing to get too far ahead of himself. 

“I would love to,” he said of trying to claim a sixth title. “Obviously there is still a long way to get to the title match, but it’s a good start.’
“I know I can always produce better tennis. Obviously very self-critical, and I think some extent it’s also important because then it puts you in the right mindset of wanting to work more and being engaged in the process of improving on a daily basis, or trying to perfect your game and right the wrongs that you’ve done in a previous match or previous practice session.
“So that’s what I’m going to keep doing and hopefully building my game as this tournament is played over 10 to 14 days, so it allows you to have the practice days also between matches, which then allows you to work on certain specifics in the game.”

Djokovic will play Italy’s Luca Nardi in the next round. 

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Carlos Alcaraz Brushes Aside Injury Doubts To Reach Indian Wells Third Round

Carlos Alcaraz is into the third round at Indian Wells after a three set win over Matteo Arnaldi.

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(@BNPPARIBASOPEN - Twitter)

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz overcame injury doubts to edge past Matteo Arnaldi 6-7(5) 6-0 6-1 at Indian Wells.

The world number two had to endure an aggressive opening set from the in-form Italian to reach the third round.

After a tight opening set, Alcaraz raced through the last two sets as he set up a third round showdown with Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The Spaniard had entered this match with injury doubts after retiring from his match with Thiago Monteiro in Rio De Janeiro.

However Alcaraz was very pleased with how his ankle held up as he moved on in California, “Honestly it surprised me. I felt great, moving normally without thinking about it,” Alcaraz told the ATP website.

“It was a really good match to realise that I am better than I thought. I think I played great tennis because of that. I had to change just a few things. I made a few mistakes in the first set… I had to put in more first serves in the second and third set, and I think that was a big key to improving my level a little bit, to be in the rallies — long rallies as well, to get the rhythm, and I’m really happy to get it at the end.

“But right now I’m getting better and feeling really, really well. But I think I have to get a good rhythm step by step. I think that’s the big difference between last year and this one. This [is a] really special tournament for me. I want to do it well. This is the first match playing high intensity and I didn’t know how it’s going respond, the ankle.

“I have to deal with it, but I didn’t deal with the nerves very well in the first set, moving differently, hitting the ball differently. My game is playing aggressive all the time. And try to stay calm and wait for my chances.

“When you get nervous, you don’t think about it. You don’t hit the ball as good as you want. You don’t move as good as you want. I think that’s the big difference.”

Alcaraz will hope for a good week this week as he defends the Indian Wells title as he aims to win a first title since Wimbledon this week.

Next for the Spaniard will be Felix Auger-Aliassime, who defeated Constant Lestienne in straight sets.

Auger-Aliassime currently leads the head-to-head 3-1 but Alcaraz won their last meeting in Indian Wells last year.

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