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Andy Murray interview transcript, Wimbledon 2009 on July 3, 2009 following his semifinal loss to sixth seed Andy Roddick of United States 4-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7.
Q. You seem to have run into the Roddick of 2003. Were you expecting that?
ANDY MURRAY: You always expect your opponents to play well, especially at this stage of the tournament. And he served great. Served really, really well in the tiebreaks. I think he maybe missed two first serves.
The second one wasn’t until 6?4 in the tiebreak. He was serving really well at the start. And I had a few chances, you know, in the first tiebreak. I had chances early in the third set. I didn’t take them.
Q. How do you rate your own performance?
ANDY MURRAY: I thought I played well. I mean, you know, if you look at the stats, I hit more winners, less unforced errors, more aces. I’m sure the points that we won were very, very similar. It just came down to a few points here or there on his serve.
And he served really, really well. You know, very close to the lines. Hitting at that pace, at such a high percentage, I think he was high 70s for a lot of the match. You know, sometimes there’s not a whole lot you can do with that. But definitely didn’t play a bad match.
Q. Do you think you were playing too passive or he was playing too great?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I don’t think I played that passive. I think I hit a lot of winners. You know, my game style against him is not always to sort of go on the court and try and blast winners, you know, all the time. Because he has such a big serve that you need to try and, you know, get into points and make returns.
I used my slice well. I didn’t passes as well as I normally do. But he came up with some good volleys and big serves, and that is what happened. Like I say, it wasn’t through being too passive or me playing a poor match.
Q. Were you surprised with the sheer quality of his play at the net?
ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, he came up with some good volleys. You know, the one when I had the set point in the third set, well, he apologized. He completely miss?hit the volley. He was trying to hit it to the other side and it dropped very short and I couldn’t get it.
I mean, he makes volleys. He doesn’t normally miss a lot. You just have to make the passes, and I didn’t make as many as I needed to. But I wasn’t surprised by anything that he did. I expected him to play very well.
Q. Did you have a knee problem during the match?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it had nothing to do with the outcome of the match. I think you’re always going to be a little bit stiff and sore when you get to the end of these sort of tournaments.
But it wasn’t anything that sort of hampered my movement or anything.
Q. Could you talk about Andy’s return? And secondly give us an assessment about the final. Does he have a good chance against Roger?
ANDY MURRAY: His return of serve?
Q. Yes.
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I think a lot of people think that necessarily he doesn’t return that well. But he has a decent return. It’s not the best and it’s definitely not the worst. But, you know, he makes quite a lot. He doesn’t miss that many returns on second serves.
Because he serves so well, it makes it even more important for you to serve well. If you don’t do that, then he’s going to create chances. Because he came to the net a lot today.
I think if he serves like that he’s got a chance against anyone, ’cause it comes down to, like I say, a few points in each set. So regardless of whether it’s Roger or, you know, me or anybody else, if he serves high 70s with the pace he’s got on his serve, he’s got a good chance.
Q. Despite his record against Roger?
ANDY MURRAY: I had a pretty good record against him as well going into today. Like I say, if someone serves 130 miles an hour consistently throughout the match, and above, you know, in the high like 75s to 80%, it’s very tough to break them, especially on a court like this that’s quick.
Q. Overall, how would you assess this tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: I think it’s been very good. I did better than I ever had before. I had some very good matches. And, you know, I thought I played good tennis.
I thought I dealt with everything that was sort of put in front of me well. You know, I’ll come back next year and try and do better.
But it was a good tournament. Wasn’t bad at all.
Q. On that point, you went a round further than last year; you’re 22 years old. You’ll leave here more convinced that you can win Wimbledon now?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I think I have a chance. And I think the way that I played this year, you know, it was very, very close to getting to the final. If I give myself those sort of opportunities and keep playing well, and my consistency in the Grand Slams the last year or so has been much, much better, you know, a final, a semi and a quarter, I’m going to give myself opportunities to do it.
I believe I can win a Grand Slam, whether it’s Wimbledon or US Open or Australia or whatever, I’m going to give myself chances.
Q. Did you say something to the crowd at the end? What would you say to the fans about coming back stronger next year?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I wasn’t saying anything to them. I was just trying to get ?? you know, obviously when it gets to the big points, the important sort of moments in the match, it’s great to have the support.
They were excellent the whole tournament with me. You know, hopefully I’ll have the same support again next year.
Q. Will you be able to move on from this, or do you think, you know, I lost to a better guy on the day?
ANDY MURRAY: No, I’ll move on very, very quickly and go and work on my game and improve and come back stronger. That’s a pathetic attitude to have, if you lose one match and you go away and, you know, let it ruin your year.
You know, I’ve had a very good year so far. I’m very close to, you know, the top of the game. The US Open I’ve always said is my best surface, my best chance to win a slam, and I’ll give it my best shot there.
Q. Will you have a break before you go back to the court?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I’ve got five weeks before the next tournament. I’m not a hundred percent sure what I’ll do next. But, yeah, I’ll take a little bit of time off and then go over to train in America before the stretch over there.
Q. Are you aware of the level of support you’ve had back in Scotland? How much do you appreciate that?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, obviously I don’t get a chance to go back there as much as I would like. But, you know, my friends and my family tell me the support’s been great. So, you know, that’s awesome.
Regardless of who’s supporting you, it’s always nice when you’ve got people behind you. I’m sure Scotland were rooting for me.
Q. You’ve talked for years about your feeling for the US Open. Has to be more than just the surface. What do you like about that tournament?
ANDY MURRAY: I’ve liked it ever since I went there as a junior. I played there the first time I think when I was 15 or 16. I love New York. It’s one of my favorite cities to go to. The atmosphere on the courts is great. I love the center court there. You know, it’s pretty incredible to play there when the crowd’s full.
That’s it. I really, really like the atmosphere there.
Q. I’m sure you’d like to clear up the code violation warning.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, that stuff just annoys me when you’re totally rushed into it. You know, you can ask ?? the amount of times that you get given a code violation when the line judge goes up to the umpire if you said something at the back of the court quietly, and the line judge goes up to the umpire and tells him, in a situation like that, if he gives me a code violation and I argue it, he could also just ask one of the line judges what I said.
And, you know, when you say like, Hit the pass, and you get a code violation for that, it’s a bit disappointing. So I hope I get an apology.
Q. What is the overriding memory or lesson that you take from this slam to put into future matches?
ANDY MURRAY: I’m not sure. I mean, I need a bit more time to think about that. But, like I said, it’s been a very good, productive tournament for me. I think, like I said, I played well. You know, unfortunately the last few slams that I’ve lost I’ve come up against some guys that have played great, great tennis.
You know, mentally for me, I’ve got much better at it, understanding that guys can do that against you. That’s happened to me a few times now in slams. I need to keep making sure I bring my best game to the court in every match.
Q. Roddick said because all the pressure was on you he could swing more freely than you. Do you agree?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I don’t think ?? I mean, I put obviously pressure on myself to play well. I don’t think there was any sort of moments where I felt too tight to sort of go for shots.
I maybe made a couple of mistakes that I shouldn’t have in the first tiebreak. But if you look at the amount of winners I hit compared to him, I don’t think that I could say I wasn’t swinging freely. I think I hit twice the number of winners as him.
Q. Which part of your game do you want to improve the most?
ANDY MURRAY: Maybe coming to the net is something that, you know, I have worked on a lot, but I haven’t used it that much in the matches. The thing that is quite tough now, because of the way the rankings and stuff work, all of the tournaments become very, very important.
So it’s tough to sort of go on the court and just work on things in matches. But that’s something that I practice a lot and I’ll try and get better at.
Q. Talk about the matchup and shots between Andy’s serve and Federer’s incredible return of serve. How do you think that might work out?
ANDY MURRAY: I think Federer has a good return. I don’t think that it’s incredible. He doesn’t break serve as much as a lot of the guys. But he’ll make Andy play. And Andy gives him enough chances, Roger’s gonna take them. That’s the one thing he needs to serve very well, especially at the start of all of the games to try and get ahead, not give Roger that chance to sort of swing freely at balls. If he can always sort of stay 15?up, 15?Love, 30?Love up in games, it’s gonna be tough.
But obviously Roger is the favorite. If he plays his best and passes well, then there’s no reason why he can’t win.
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