Because I love you and I don’t want you to have to read all of the Mandy USO build-up nonsense …
On playing in the era of Fedal:
Considering that Novak Djokovic, at the Australian Open in 2008, is the only man other than Federer and Nadal to win a grand-slam title in 4½ years, Murray could be forgiven if he feels a little unfortunate to be playing at the same time as the latter pair. But the Scot has never felt sorry for himself and the thought of beating them both – as he may have to do to win the title in New York – is an inspiration, not a burden. “I obviously want to win a grand slam – everyone wants to do it, it’s no different with me. But I understand and I know tennis well because I follow it a lot – I’ve said this so many times – that you’ve got the two best players maybe of all time playing just now and it’s not that easy a thing to do when you’re in an era like this.
“I’m sure by the time they finish you’ll have the most slams between any two rivals, so they’re obviously two of the best ever. So if I was to win it, it would make my achievement a lot greater. If I don’t I can still have a very good tournament and not win it. I’ll be very disappointed because I’d love to win this grand slam, maybe more than any, but if I don’t, it’s not a failure.”
On the scheduling:
Fred Perry was the last Briton to win the US Open in 1936. Like Perry, who became a US citizen in 1938, Murray is very popular with fans here and what would help him is if he does not have to play all his matches in the heat of the day to appease the demands of Sky TV, which would like Murray to play all his matches during its peak viewing hours, 4pm-6pm. “I am sure the viewers would also like to see Nadal or Federer playing,” he says. “It’s not like there are not other players they can show around that time. In a two-week tournament it would be a lot more helpful for me to play the odd night match.”
On the atmosphere in New York:
“It was a great atmosphere for that match [vs. Wawrinka at Wimbledon],” Murray says. “Obviously in tennis there can be a tendency to hold back. It’s the etiquette, like in golf when they don’t get that fired up and excited when they hit a great shot. It is just not the done thing.
“But that was probably the best atmosphere I’ve played tennis in and I’d like it to be like that as much as possible.
“I don’t think there’s a problem in sport with fans giving the opposition stick. They are paying the money. I don’t have a problem with that. It should be part of the sport. Sometimes it boils over if there’s alcohol available. At the cricket people are drinking for eight, nine hours. At Wimbledon they just have to be careful it doesn’t get out of hand but there are rarely problems in tennis.”
The passivity debate:
Larry Stefanki, who coaches Roddick, thought Murray’s passivity during that semifinal at Wimbledon turned the match.
“He is stuck playing defensive tennis only,” Stefanki said afterward. “That was the big difference. He needs to recognize when to play offense. I don’t think he sees it while he is playing right now and that’s the next step for him.
“He is going to have a great future if he gets to the point of recognizing balls to attack and to come into the forecourt and plays there rather than 15 feet behind the baseline. He will win a lot of Slams; he is that good a mover.”
Annacone, Pete Sampras’ longtime coach, agrees.
“He must balance things and be really offensive at times in the big matches,” Annacone said. “If you’ve watched all of the Grand Slam finals of recent years, in 90 percent of those finals, the guy who was the winner was more offense.
“It’s tough when you win 95 percent of your matches, but Andy has to be more comfortable in letting those talents flow, and not worry about missing.”
Andy’s response regarding his Slam record this year:
Fernando Verdasco, Fernando Gonzalez and Andy Roddick, the latter at Wimbledon, all played out of their skin to beat him in the first three grand-slam events of the year, but Murray says he could easily have won all three of those matches.
“The Roddick match and the Verdasco match were a couple of points here and there that could have changed it,” he says. “Against Verdasco, I had a break point in the fifth set to go up 4-2 and I didn’t take it, and, against Roddick, I had set points in the third set and, at the beginning of the third set I was up 40-0 to break and keep the momentum on my side. Sometimes that just happens. Seems like you’re very close and you’re much further away.
“The Gonzalez match, I don’t think I was really expected to win on clay, so I don’t think that was a terrible loss. The other two I might have been expected to win, but I played well in the grand slams this year. I could have done a couple of things a bit better, but it comes down to a few points sometimes and I came up against guys who played great, so there’s not a whole lot you can do about that.”
And on tennis as serious business:
“I’m never going to smile on the court,” he says. “I don’t see the other top guys smiling and joking when they are playing. It is a serious business. It’s the same in other sports. Before or after you might joke around — I spend most of my time joking around. But when you step on the court it is business. I’ve got three hours to concentrate so that’s what I do.
“I don’t think I do anything to offend people. Sometimes with the way I am on the court, people might not like it — I don’t like it sometimes — but when you are competing you get frustrated. I am sure sometimes you have a bad day at work and are in a bad mood for whatever reason. The difference is that when I show my emotions it is on TV.
“It is all dependent on whether you are winning or not. Look at someone like Federer — he obviously loves the sport and has been right at the top of the game for the last eight years. He always looked like he was really enjoying himself on court. But at the start of this year, when he was struggling a bit and wasn’t winning as much, he broke a racket and was getting angry.
“When the tournaments come, that is when you earn your living and respect from the other players so I don’t feel it is the time to be messing around on court. We love winning.”
If I haven’t said it before, let me say it now: C’MON ANDY!
