Q. How many marks out of 10 would you give that one?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, it was very good. I don't want to give myself marks. I thought I played well. Served really good for the whole match. Apart from the very first game where he had a couple of chances on my serve, you know, I didn't give him another breakpoint.

You know, I used my variety very well. Yeah, it was much, much better than the first match.

Q. Anything at all that you came off the court wishing you had done any better? It seemed almost perfect.

ANDY MURRAY: No, I mean, you can always do things better. But, you know, it's tough against a guy like him. He's got a huge serve. You know, and he went through a patch in the second set where he made like nine, ten first serves in a row. It can be tough to break someone like that.

But I stayed focused on my own serve. Didn't give him any opportunities. Yeah, it was very solid.

Q. Have you ever made less than five unforced errors in a three‑set match?

ANDY MURRAY: No idea. I don't really look at the stats that much.

Q. Quite impressive, isn't it? Shows how together you were.

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, well, you know, I didn't make ‑‑ yeah, I didn't make many mistakes from the ground. You know, when I did get myself into a point on his service game I made him work very hard for, you know, the points. You know, hit some good passing shots.

And, uhm, yeah, finished points when I was inside the court. I finished points off really well. Didn't make any basic errors, so it was very good.


Q. How much of a surprise was it to get a letter from the queen?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it's surprising. I mean, you don't get that every day. So, yeah. Yeah, it was surprising. I don't know how surprising it was, but it was surprising.

Q. What did it say?

ANDY MURRAY: Just well done for winning at Queen's and good luck here was the gist of it.

Q. Have you had any other interesting letters from people that you didn't expect?

ANDY MURRAY: No. I mean, I don't read that much of the stuff during Wimbledon. But that one, someone from the All England Club came and gave it to me at the end of one of my practices. So obviously I was going to open it. He told me who it was from, and then I...

Q. I don't know if you heard, but had you a proposal of marriage at some stage during that match. Are you comfortable with receiving that sort of attention?

ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, well, I mean, I guess each time you play on Centre Court, I mean, everyone ‑‑ a lot of people shout out different things to, I guess, I don't know, make the crowd laugh. I don't know what it's for.

But, uhm, just try and block it out when you're playing. I mean, yeah, I don't really know what to say. I mean, it's happened a couple of times at Wimbledon, but haven't accepted any yet.

Q. You said at the end of last year you had two ambitions. One was to win Wimbledon and the other was to pass your driving test. Have you had any time to having any driving lessons, and have you taken your test yet?

ANDY MURRAY: No. I'm going to try to do it after Wimbledon. Obviously I've been very busy this year. You know, it's a relatively stressful thing to do at the end of a long training day, to take driving lessons, especially with the traffic and stuff in London.

So I haven't had time to do it yet, but maybe after Wimbledon.

Q. The day before yesterday you talked about the roof. Did you notice the roof again? Did it trouble you at all?

ANDY MURRAY: I mean, it was better today because of the clouds. You don't see it quite as much. You know, when I came off court, you know, my first match, uhm, the guys that were sitting in my box were saying it was really, really tough for them to see. The sun was ‑‑ I mean, the sun's always bright, but it seemed ‑‑ they said it was really difficult for them to see. There was a glare.

You know, today was better because of the clouds. But it just comes over a different angle, you know, the shadow on the court. But it was better today.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about the forfeits you've been handing down to members of your coaching team?

ANDY MURRAY: No, I don't hand them down to anyone. We play football, and whoever loses the game has to do whatever the forfeit is. But one of the parts of the forfeit is that when you lose, you know ‑‑ my fitness trainer was walking around with a cricket helmet on yesterday.

If someone asked you what it's for, you're not allowed to tell them that you've lost a bet. You just have to say that you like it and whatnot.

Yeah, I mean, we play for different stuff every week. But the locker room attendant has given us some cricket pads and cricket helmet, cricket bat, so it's kind of Ashes‑themed forfeits.

Q. Do you have any thoughts about the next round?

ANDY MURRAY: I've never played Gimeno before, but we ‑‑ I used to see him a lot in the Spanish futures when I was training over in Spain. I think he practiced in Barcelona when I was over there. So I know him relatively well. We never played on the tour before.

And Troicki, you know, both guys play from the baseline. Troicki's got a better serve than Gimeno. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how well either of them play on grass because I haven't seen them the last couple years here or at Queen's.

Q. Just you left now representing us. Poor nation. It was bound to be most possibly you in the end anyway going the farthest. Does that sadden you in a way?

ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I'm a fan of tennis, so I'd obviously love it if, you know, we were better in this country. You know, it's a tough thing to sort of answer to because, you know, we've kind of been in the same situation for quite a long time.

You know, the women are definitely doing better in terms of their ranking and whatnot. But, you know, I think it's important that everyone kind of understands that this is sort of where we're at. You know, we can't sort of just, you know, go along sort of accepting the results that we've had.

It needs to ‑‑ you know, people who are in charge and are running things need to come out and I think say, you know, This isn't acceptable. It's not good enough, and this is what we're trying to do to get better.

But, yeah, like I said, I'd rather there was more British players still left in the tournament.

Q. How important are the forfeits and things like that in a big pressure tournament to have a bit of relief?

ANDY MURRAY: No, the thing that's important at these tournaments is to do what you do every other week of the year, not to just change things because it's Wimbledon. You know, the pressures and whatnot are a little bit different.

So, you know, you just try and act like you do every other week. We do that when I'm playing in Doha or, you know, whenever. That's just something we do. We play football to warm up. Going to do the same thing here. You know, we'll do forfeits, you know, and joke around and have fun like we always do.

'Cause I think when you start changing things is when, you know, you start to worry about everything that's sort of going on around you. If you just act normal, I think you deal with things better.

Q. The third match of the day seems to be your regular slot now. Are you happy with that? It does mean that you can never be quite sure what time you're going on?

ANDY MURRAY: I'm not really bothered. I mean, I quite like playing late in the day. You know, it's always gonna be good crowds the later you play. Yeah, doesn't bother me at all. I don't mind.

Q. What was the atmosphere like out there with the crowd?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it was very good. I mean, I think, you know, when the big points and, you know, the big ‑‑ well, the big stages of the match, like the end of the second set the crowd got right behind me.

When I had breakpoints, you know, they got noisier. A lot of my service games were quite comfortable and a lot of very short points. So, you know, I guess it would have been tough, you know, to get really, really into the match. There wasn't that many long rallies.

But, you know, when I needed the support, it was always there.

Q. There may not be many other British tennis players for you to have a camaraderie with here. Lleyton Hewitt has been talking about how the Australian sportsmen talk to one another. Do you have communication with other British sports players?

ANDY MURRAY: Tennis players or just sport in general?

Q. Sport in general.

ANDY MURRAY: Not really. I mean, the thing that I guess is tough with tennis, you know, for me when I have a lot of my off time, I go over to the States. You know, I follow, you know, British sport a lot.

But we do so much traveling, I find that quite tough to sort of keep in touch, regardless of whether it's sports people or not, but even friends from back home.

You know, when Tim and Greg were around, you know, I'd go out for dinner with Tim a lot when we were at the same tournaments and practice together. But, yeah, that's why I like having a few guys to travel with me each week because, you know, tennis can get a little bit lonely sometimes.

Q. For the consistency of the performance throughout, have you ever played a better match here, do you think?

ANDY MURRAY: Uhm, I mean, you never know. I mean, because there wasn't that many moments in the match where, you know, I was under a lot of pressure. You know, it's easy to see that, you know, I played great and whatnot, which I felt like I did.

But, you know, there's times like when I played Stepanek the first year I played here, I won in three straight sets. You know, that was a great match. You know, last year I played, you know, some tough matches, as well, where I felt like I dealt with the tight situations well.

Uhm, I don't know. It was a different match to a lot of the ones that I played. You know, he had very few chances, so there wasn't that much sort of nerves and huge points.

Q. Just on the forfeits, they're very funny. But who chooses them? Because you never seem to lose. Is it you who sort of says you have to do this or whatever?

ANDY MURRAY: No. Before the start of each game, we decide what the forfeit's gonna be. And then, yeah, I'm better than them, so I don't lose as much (smiling).

Q. They haven't thought about maybe changing the game?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, we played me and Miles get four lives; Miles and Jez get six lives. Me and Miles are better than them. We have less lives to try to even it up.

When we play for small forfeits I lose the games more, because they don't concentrate as much. It doesn't bother me like when we play for push‑ups and you have to kiss the other guy's toes. Like I'll lose them.

But if it's stuff like a cricket bat or you have to get lunch for everyone and stuff, I concentrate a bit harder.


(via www.wimbledon.org, photo/EPA)

Wimbledon 2009: Andy Murray 25. June Interview