Andy Murray Interview - French Open, May 24

Andy Murray Interview
French Open, May 24
A. MURRAY/J. Ignacio Chela

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You're obviously pleased with that?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, no, it was a very good win. Like I said before, he's a tough player, andknew I needed to play well. I didn'tmake too many mistakes, and I think I hit over 60 winners, which is a lot,considering it wasn't the longest match.

Q. What do you think about the reception you got both at the start and theend? Seemed like the locals were reallywarming to you?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, a lot of times I've doneinterviews with French journalists that said they enjoy my game style. You know, I fancy they like it when guys playwith a little bit of flare. I got agreat ovation when I got on to the court and played really well, and theyshowed their appreciation afterwards. That was nice.

Q. Very contrasting experience, Andy, to this time same day 12 months agowhen that was a struggle, wasn't it?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was. But different player now than I was then. Physically much better, way more focused. You know, I understood, you know, what I hadto do today. I didn't take Chela lightlyat all, and I had to play very well.

And I did that prettymuch right from the start, although I lost my first service game, but afterthat, I was very happy with the way I played.

Q. Were you surprised how comfortable it was, seeing as Chela was a claycourt specialist?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, but, I mean, I guess, but I wasn'texpecting to play that well on the first match.

You know, I got, like Isay, hit a lot of winners, you know. Idictated most of the points and when the rallies went long which he normallylikes. I was coming up on top of a lotof the rallies, and if I played that well in all my matches, I've got a goodchance of winning comfortably, but I wasn't expecting to play that well, and itwas a bit surprising.

Q. You talked a year and a bit ago about tanking and match fixing, and howeverybody knows that it goes on.

ANDY MURRAY: I didn't say that.

Q. I just listened to the interview an BBC podcast. That's pretty much exactly what yousaid. What do you feel about it now? Do you feel that's still the case? Do you think the sport's efforts have had aneffect?

ANDY MURRAY: What I was saying at the time was basically Iwas asked whether, you know, whether or not there's, you know, people tankmatches and match fixing goes on, and I was saying, you know, after ‑‑there was four, maybe four or five times that week people, players had come outand said they had been offered money to lose matches and whatnot, and I wassaying, you know, whatever.

Maybe I used one wrongword. I was saying, everyone knowswhat's going on just now, because everybody, every day there was a new playerthat had been coming out and been offered money to lose matches. I don't necessarily believe players areaccepting money, but there is people out there that are, yeah, probably goingto try to make players do it, but I don't necessarily think that there has beena huge, huge problem in tennis. I don'tthink it ever will be.

Q. I'll just explain why I asked you. Today we had a French lucky loser in here, Mathieu Montcourt, who isabout to start a five‑week ban for placing small online bets. This was in 2005, but the ban is just aboutto start. He feels he's been hard doneby it, he's being made an example of. But he's also said that betting by players is fairly common, especiallyonline betting, making a few bets here and there. I guess all of that is ‑‑ the fine for himand the five‑week ban for him is part of trying to keep tennis integrity.

ANDY MURRAY: I mean, the one thing I will say about that,I'm not saying betting in tennis should be tolerated. I don't think it should be. But there is a difference between a guyactually doing it to make money, you know, placing, you know, £100,000 on himto lose a match and going out and tanking and putting a £10 bet on a match,which is not really making a whole lot of difference to his bank account.

It's more to have morefun watching the matches, I guess, but I don't think that it's right. I would never do it, but all of the guys thathave been fined and suspended, hasn't been, you know, for making huge bets onthe game. It's been, you know, makinglike, you know, 5 Euro bets, 10 Euro bets. It's not like ‑‑ I think tennis is one of the few sports where you'renot allowed to bet on your own sport.

Q. Could you just say a few words about your potential second roundopponents, Starace and Zverev?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I haven't played either of them on thetour before. Zverev, I've known himsince we're very young. We're the sameage and played a lot as juniors. They'reboth very different players. Zverev islefty, plays a lot of serve and volley. Likes to come to the net.

Starace is a righty andplays a long way behind the baseline, but both are top players. They're probably more of a clay court specialist,but should be an interesting match.

Q. There was one game today when I think you hit three of those forehandcross‑court passes in the same game, and you obviously liked that shot alot. Have you always played that pass inthat particular way?

ANDY MURRAY: Ah, yeah, well, I had my racquet strungvery ‑‑ my racquet's weighed very heavy in the head, so it's much easierto control that shot cross‑court, and if I'm a long way behind the baseline,you can kind of swing as hard as you like and provided you time it well, goodchance it's going to go in.

In doubles, I used toplay all the time on the deuce court, and all the time it was my second shot,was like a forehand angle. So, yeah, Iplayed it a lot since I was young. I haven'tused it as much in the seniors, but it worked well today.

Q. Looking at the draw in general, do you think you've had a kind draw whenyou look at it overall?

ANDY MURRAY: Ah, I mean, I don't really focus that much onthe draw. I mean, you know, you look atsomewhere like Australia or in, you know ‑‑ well, the last two years inAustralia, you know, guys can play great matches they haven't expected to. It's happened to me a couple of times inSlams.

Zverev is 22 years oldand he could come out and play great and take off this week. I don't know. So I just focus on each match, and especially on this surface. It's not like I can take anybody for granted,because my results don't really merit me doing that.