Masters Cup - Murray: No Federer regrets
Eurosport - Sun, 16 Nov 15:46:00 2008
Britain's Andy Murray has said he has no regrets about his draining win over Roger Federer after he slumped to a straight-sets defeat to Nikolay Davydenko in the Masters Cup semi-finals.
An exhausted Murray went down 7-5 6-2 to the Russian less than 24 hours after the classic Federer group match, which came after the British player had already qualified for the last four.
"No. No. I beat probably the best player of all time. I have no regrets about doing that," Murray said of Federer, the former world number one and 13-times Grand Slam champion.
"Like I said yesterday, to beat him means a similar amount to winning a tournament like this.
"Ideally I would have liked to have beaten him easier, and given myself a slightly better chance to prepare for this match, but I'm proud that I gave 110 per cent in the match.
"I think other players might not have taken that option. But I'm happy that I did."
The defeat cost Murray, 21, the biggest pay day of his career. He had been in line to receive $1.34 million as an unbeaten winner of the glittering end-of-year showpiece.
"It looked like he was so tired, he was about to die on the court," Davydenko commented.
However, Murray believes beating Federer gives him a psychological boost for next season, when he is hoping to end Britain's 76-year Grand Slam title drought.
The Scot has raised expectations after winning his first Masters series titles back-to-back and also reaching the US Open final as he climbed to world number four.
He won a career-high five titles this season, second only to top-ranked Rafael Nadal, and became just the third player after Nadal and David Nalbandian to beat Federer three times in one year.
"The year as a whole has been awesome. I would have signed up for this year," Murray said.
"At the end of last year, if someone would have told me I was going to be four in the world, won the matches I had done, be in my first Slam final and beat Federer three times, I would have taken that.
"I hope I can build on it next year. I'll take a little bit of time off now, work as hard as possible to get ready for the beginning of next season, try and put on a little bit more weight, try and get physically stronger and see what happens."
Related Stories
This site is Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! and Eurosport. All rights reserved.
- Terms of Service
- Updated Privacy Policy
- Copyright/IP Policy
- Remarks and Suggestions
- Corporate info
- Jobs at Eurosport
Notice: We collect personal information on this site. To learn more about how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy.
Comment 1 - 13 of 33
shabeb bade wasta la saudi oger, yil3an abou hal sherke kila, anywayz guys sally is now 1000000 rank in the world, she will become 2000000 coz she loves me more than tennis, tafo
sally said 7atekhdole my ip?:( haram ana, hehe sally we love uuu, more than murray and federer, guys sally is a tennis player with a stick, betheba mre than balls :P hehehe
lak ro7 ayre fek , ma3am masare, ad hariri sayer w ana ma2bor bala acceptane? anywayz thats fair enough, its sports w ana engineer, kiss 2ekhto hal shaghle, yaraytne le3eb tennis, ayre fek murray w federer
Very entertaining post Manuel. There's a lot to be said for cheap translation software when it comes to a having a good laugh.
Andy did the right thing. Afterall they play for the spectators, that is the fundamental thing of the sport. Giving 100% is simply respecting the people that watch your game. You've earned more fans.
Excellent, Andy,
Only British can do this. Morale above all.
Great successes next year.
Simo Simov
Even as regards this tournament, and irrespective of the significant psychological value of the victory wrt head-to-heads with Fed, Murray had sound professional reasons for wanting to win his final group match.
1. To avoid the apparently tougher semi-final match against Djokovic
2. To avoid the possibility of having to face Fed again in the final.
Had he not given his all against Fed and gone on to lose against Djoko, people would say that he had made a wrong (perhaps even morally wrong, given Simon's position) decision and with some justification. I suspect that many who criticise his decision to try to win the match would be amongst the first to have done likewise had he thrown it.
Just an opinion. Cheers
Brilliant year Andy. Well done. Next year the Big Ones! The best Brit ever??
Excuses, excuses… Being tired and playing tuff matches is what’s winning big tournaments all about… Djokovic had very exhausting match with great defender like Simon, it took him almost 3 hours to finally beat that guy, but I don’t see that he had any kind of problems to handle Nikolay today, also just one day after… So, when you lose, you should lose like a gentleman, not like Murray did yesterday.
he deserved it in the absence of world one and two..but am very happy though am not his fans..tleast we silence the boasts of the trying hard and victory hunger scots and britons...a loser will always stay a loser...like what had happened to their pale TIM...RETIRED WITH HIS LOSSING FEELING::: a lesson to them... reminding them that they must be humble all the time...not undermining other players ---and you will find yourself frustrated at the corner...but I will not celebrate knowing that you losers are suffering sobbing in despair...!!!!lite a candle and sing allelujah!!!
YOU CAN DO IT ANDY - you are just a whisker away now from the top --- xxxDxxx
Well done Andy for getting so far and doing so well - Roll on Wimbledon and the carrying of the Winners Title and the not so far off N0.1 in the world. God Bless
murray even though i am roger's fan and i cried when u send him out but all i want to say to u:
u and federer really made us enjoy the great game
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account