Transcript of Murray's post-match interview:
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. That must have been pretty tough to get through. Can you remember a harder night on court than that?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was a tough night. I mean, yeah, I've lost slam finals and stuff, which has been very tough. But in terms of the way the match went, yeah, it was not ideal from my side of the court - far from it.
Q. How much of it tonight was down to your own performance and how much was it down to Roger's?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, he played exceptionally well. That's for sure. I mean, I can say I'm disappointed with my level tonight. But if I played well, he probably still would have won anyway.
He was playing very well. He was striking the ball very, very clean. After the first few games of the match, yeah, he played exceptionally well. Made very few mistakes. Was hitting the ball off the middle of the racquet on serve, returns. He maybe didn't hit his first serve as well as he can, but apart from that everything else was very clean.
Q. At the end of the match he was two points from winning 6 0, 6 0. Did you care about him not doing that? Did you sense he wanted to do that? Was it bothering you he was continuing to hit dropshots, running around second serve returns all the way to the end?
ANDY MURRAY: Obviously, 6 Love, 6 Love, I mean, that's never happened to me in my career. I don't think 6 Love, 6 1 has maybe happened once to me before, obviously not often. So, yeah, it's very disappointing, especially in a match like that.
I would have obviously hoped to have done a lot better than that. It wasn't what I was looking for when I went on the court.
In terms of the nature of the match, when he's extremely loose like he was tonight, he was obviously through in the group, he was able to, yeah, maybe try some shots that he might not try in other situations.
But everything he tried tonight came off. He has the ability to do that.
Q. When the games are going so quickly, what sort of things do you try and do to get a foothold in the match?
ANDY MURRAY: Just try and win the point, try and set a target of, you know, winning points. Try and win two points in a row rather than trying to focus on, Okay, I want to get this game. You just try and, yeah, set smaller goals than that. That's basically it.
Q. Does a defeat like that do any damage to your confidence, especially as it's the last match of the year? Do you put it aside as I've lost a match and move on?
ANDY MURRAY: I won't be able to tell you that until I start the next year. I'm obviously not going to play again until then.
But it's not a nice way to finish the year. But, I mean, I know there's obviously a lot for me to work on now. I didn't feel like I was playing that badly going into the match. I'd had some good wins the last few weeks. You know, had played decent against Milos.
So obviously in that respect I know I'm going to have to put in a lot of work on the tennis court, a lot of work in on my game. If I want to start the season, you know, with an opportunity to win in Australia, I'm going to have to put in a lot of work, that's for sure.
Q. Is there any sense in looking back at this game and trying to analyze it or is it such a freakish match that you're better off trying to forget it as quickly as possible?
ANDY MURRAY: I'm not going to try and forget it, no. When I think about what happened, I'll try to use it I'm not saying I'm not ever going to look at that match positively, but I need to use it as whatever. If it's motivation for the off season, you know, to make some changes to things.
Whatever it is, clearly I need to make some adjustments to my game. Yeah, that's the one positive is that I now have six, seven weeks before the next tournament. I have time to work on some stuff.
Q. Obviously you haven't been in a lot of matches that have gone that way on the scoreboard. What does it feel like when that's happening? Is it surreal, confusing, frustrating, embarrassing?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I would say it's frustrating. Yeah, that would be the one word that I would use, yeah, to describe it. I mean, there's some matches you can maybe look on where you might have behaved badly, you know, felt like you hadn't given your best effort or whatever, maybe be embarrassed about that.
But I was trying tonight. You know, I tried from the first point through until the last. So it's very frustrating when that's happening to you, obviously, when you're trying to give your best effort.
Q. I went through your heavy defeats in the past. You lost 11 times 6 0, but you were not matching in the following match after those defeats. You lost 6 1, 6 0 to Djokovic in Miami in 2007, semifinal. Since then, in 2008, you always played well. You shouldn't be too worried about tonight.
ANDY MURRAY: Thank you.
Q. How do you feel it now?
ANDY MURRAY: Thank you.
I mean, the match against Novak was a bit different. I was a bit injured, that match. There was nothing wrong with me at all this evening. Slightly different in that respect. And also in these conditions, too, indoors, normally you would be hoping to hold serve more than once.
Yeah, I hope the beginning of next year doesn't start off like that. I'll do everything I can the next seven weeks to make sure that I'm better prepared, you know, to compete with the best players.
Q. I appreciate it's only just finished, but how do you sum up your season?
ANDY MURRAY: The first three, four months were tough. You know, it was hard. Going through surgery isn't easy. Maybe I didn't appreciate that so much at the time. I found it quite frustrating at the beginning of the year. But then once I accepted that it's a hard thing to go through, and obviously in the middle of that period I switched obviously stopped working with Ivan. The first three, four months were difficult.
But then, you know, after that, I've had a couple tough losses this year. The French Open and Wimbledon, I played well, but when I got to the semis of the French and the quarters of Wimbledon, I didn't feel like I played well.
Obviously tonight is another example where, you know, I'm disappointed with those matches. I don't want to play matches like that obviously.
But mixed in with those matches was some good tennis. The last six weeks were good. Obviously some good wins.
Yeah, it's been a hard year. But, you know, it's something that I've had to go through. You know, I'll look back on it, and I've definitely learnt a lot this year about my body, you know, what it's like to come back from a tough, tough surgery. It's not easy. It gives you more I don't know. I'll spend more time, I always spend a lot of time, but more time taking care of my body, making sure I don't have to go through that again, because that's tough.
Q. Andy, you're 0 9 against Roger, Novak and Rafa. How far off their level do you feel you are at this point?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, after tonight that's quite clear. Quite a long way from that level.
But a lot can change in a matter of weeks and months in tennis. You know, Roger is a good example of that. Obviously last year he was having some struggles and some tough times with his body and whatnot. You know, a lot of questions were asked about him. He's responded and gone into the last tournament of the year with an opportunity to get to No. 1.
There's guys that have, I don't know, Raonic, Nishikori, I was hearing some figures and stats of their results against top 10 players before this year, and then you get a bit of confidence, things can change very quickly in sport.
I'm not happy to finish the year with that record, obviously. But hopefully next year, if I get the right work done now, I can get myself off to a good start next year. Yeah, over five sets, you know, I tend to play I would say better tennis in my career. I hope that come Australia I'll be a much better player.
Q. Between now and the International Tennis League, what is your plan? Davis Cup next week. Will you switch off completely?
ANDY MURRAY: Ross' wedding the next weekend. I'm the best man at his wedding. I have that next weekend. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do. But I would normally take a break just now. But I also need time to work on some things in my game and make improvements. So if I was to take a two week break just now, that's 14 days where I can't work on my game, make any changes in that period.
I'll try to get back on the practice court probably sooner than I would have done.
uzzled :dodgy:
