Q. What are your thoughts about that?
ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, I thought it was fine. I mean, there's a few too many sort of dips in concentration. I thought when I got my feet moving, you know, sort of had my mind on the point, I thought I hit the ball well. Got better as the match went on.
Apart from the game where I got broken from 40‑Love up, I didn't give him too many chances on my serve. Happy I won in three sets.

Q. Was your concentration always there? You seemed to be so comfortable that you just lost it a little bit sometimes.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah. I wasn't concentrating on every point. It was tough. I mean, his sort of body language, the way he sort of walks around the court, looks likes he's not that interested. He's been like that since we were young. You know, it's tough to sort of stay with the match all the time.
But, like I said, each time I got behind in a game, down Love‑30 on my serve a few times, you know, I slowed myself down and focused. I felt like I hit the ball much better today.


Q. Do you think that's because you didn't get a full match in the first round?
ANDY MURRAY: Very different conditions today than the first match. Obviously, I was on first up, you know. Obviously couldn't be really more different conditions. There wasn't really much wind on the court, whereas the first day I played it was windy. It was 30, 35 degrees.
Tonight, you know, it wasn't cold, but it was ‑‑ it obviously wasn't too warm. It slows the court down a lot, as well, when it's like that playing in the evening. Just took a little while to get used to it.
But, like I say, once I did get used to the court, I thought I played well.

Q. How do the night matches here compare to, for example, the US Open?
ANDY MURRAY: They're different. I mean, the US Open, there's always stuff going on at change of ends, music, flashing into the crowds and stuff. I mean, it's tough to compare. I mean, here, obviously the atmosphere is very good. You know, there's a lot of people sort of shouting out rather than, you know, people sort of chanting.
At the US Open it's more people sort of getting excited about which famous people are in the crowd, which songs come on, who's on the big screen and stuff.

Q. More sort of an educated tennis crowd maybe?
ANDY MURRAY: I wouldn't like to say that. If you want to write it, it's fine. I'm not going to say that the crowd at the US Open is not educated.

Q. How much of a step in class will be in the next round against Melzer?
ANDY MURRAY: Melzer is very tough if he plays well. You know, the US Open was, I think, mentally quite a tough one for him. You know, he told me after the match he played one of his best matches. Obviously, I still came through that one. Physically, he was struggling a bit, you know.
I know that I'm going to have to play well to win the match. But I just think mentally going in I'm going to feel better this time than I was going in playing against him at the US Open.

Q. Have you been intrigued that Roger and Novak are a bit irritated that you're getting a bit more attention and people are suggesting you might even win this thing?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, quite big contradictions. You know, they don't ‑‑ you know, they say there's a lot of pressure on them, but then people aren't saying they're the favorites, but they want to be the favorites. Therefore, by saying they're the favorites, they're putting more pressure back on themselves.
I don't really understand the whole thing. I mean, I think I played well enough in the last six or seven months to be in that sort of group. Whether I'm the favorite or not, I don't know.
Like I said at the start of the tournament, Federer, Nadal have got the most experience, you know, and probably merit being favorites. But there's a reason why people think I have a chance to win here, because I played very well the last few months and won against them.

Q. After two rounds of this tournament, it does look like sort of the top four players are all in pretty decent nick? None of the four of you have lost a set or looked at any trouble.
ANDY MURRAY: No, I saw Nadal play the most out of everyone. I thought he looked like he was playing very well. You know, Novak, I haven't seen any of his matches at all. I saw a little bit of Federer against Korolev. Quite a tough one to judge because Korolev was hitting every ball as hard as he could. There wasn't a whole lot of rhythm.
Obviously we've all started reasonably well. No one has lost a set. Obviously, the matches get tougher now. Roger's got a tough match against Safin. Rafa against Haas should be good. Obviously, I had a good match against Melzer, as well.

Q. Was that the sort of match you were looking for tonight? It offered a complete range of shots out there.
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, he's tough. Because of his game style, he has a very flat backhand, stays very low on the court. His forehand is pretty much completely the opposite. His forehand doesn't really go through the court at all. It sits up quite a lot.
You know, he uses his slice a little bit and whatnot. So it was good to, yeah, try a few shots here and there. You know, like I said, I would have liked to have concentrated a bit better, but it was a good test.

Q. Do you prefer playing at night than during the day?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, the atmosphere in the night matches, I think, is when the crowd's at its best. But I played well during the day in quick conditions before. But, I mean, I watched some of the matches on TV this morning, especially on the outside court, it looked unbelievably windy, really, really tough to play. So the conditions were much kinder this evening.

Q. How is your brain training going?
ANDY MURRAY: It got worse actually overnight, unfortunately.

Q. "Overnight" as in you were playing it through the night?
ANDY MURRAY: Like once a day you're meant to check your brain age. The first time I did it, it was 38 or 36. And then today I got 44, which is not good.

Q. Is it supposed to be the same time every day?
ANDY MURRAY: I don't really know. I haven't really read it that much. But, yeah, I just know you're meant to do it every day. And I'm getting worse (smiling).

Q. How does it feel to be aging rapidly?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's not great. I'm hoping it's not gonna take its toll on the court.


(via AO Tennis Championship, photo/Mark Baker/AP Photo)

Andy Murray - Australian Open 22. January Interview