Murray Gets What He Wanted From Cup
10/01/2010
By Chris Pike
ANDY Murray was in unstoppable form the first seven sets of singles tennis he played inside the Burswood Dome and he’s still delighted what he got out of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXII even though Great Britain lost Saturday’s Final to Spain.
Murray, the world No. 4, was in blistering form in his singles matches on his first trip to Perth beating Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-2, 6-2, Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-1 and Russia’s Igor Andreev 6-1, 6-0.
He then also dominated the first set of the Final against Spain’s Tommy Robredo to win it 6-1 after his 15-year-old partner Laura Robson won the women’s singles.
Britain was in the box seat to win the Hopman Cup for the first time, but then Robredo took the last two sets off Murray and then the Spaniards won the mixed doubles to take out the title.
Murray changed his Australian Open preparations this year to play in Perth instead of Doha and he couldn’t be happier with how it’s gone.
“I was just really happy with the way that I played the whole of the matches. You know I could have won today, won all three and still felt the same. Obviously I would have liked to have won but winning isn’t always the most important thing, especially when you’re going into a Slam,” Murray said.
“I’m sure if you asked (Roger) Federer how he was feeling this week going into Australia after losing to (Nikolay) Davydenko I’m pretty sure it’s not going to put a whole lot of doubts in his mind. I feel like I’ve prepared well and I’m ready to play there. Whether I won or lost the match I’d still feel the same about it.”
Murray always knew that world. No. 16 Robredo would take it right up to him, but he was happy to dominate him for almost two full sets.
“I played great. You know it was up 6-1 and I didn’t for pretty much two sets give him any chance at all. He’s obviously played really well this whole week,” he said.
“I’m really, really happy with the way I was playing and I’m sure with another week of training and practising I’ll be playing better and if I can do that there’s a good chance I can win.”
Aside from not being outdoors, Murray says the Hopman Cup is perfect preparation for him ahead of his assault on the Australian Open.
“Ideally it would be outdoors but you can obviously practice on all of the off days and train hard this week on the off days as well outdoors to get acclimatized,” he said.
“You feel like you get into a rhythm quicker when you play indoors because obviously without the wind and the sun outdoors. It’s good to get matches where you feel comfortable on the ball. I’ll practice a lot next week outdoors and I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Murray trained hard right throughout December in Miami to prepare for the Australian summer and he’s feeling pretty good now still.
“Physically I feel good. It’s good to play back to back games as well. The back is a little bit stiff because obviously I haven’t played much in the last six or seven weeks and to get the body used to playing spending a lot of time on the court, I feel really well prepared,” he said.
“I feel good. I think I’m ready to win it (Australian Open). I just need to play well, if I do that then there’s no reason why I can’t. I feel like I’m serving well, moving well and playing the ball better than I have done for a long time in the back of the court and volleyed well this week. So there’s not a whole lot to complain about.”
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