- Title: Murray hopes to finally land Australian Open
- Date: 28th December 2016
- Summary: ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (DECEMBER 28, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF MEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE TENNIS PLAYER ANDY MURRAY ENTERING MALL WITH TENNIS RACKET MURRAY TAKING PLACE FOR MEDIA INTERVIEWS CLOSE OF LOGO FOR "MUBADALA WORLD TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP - ABU DHABI" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE TENNIS PLAYER, ANDY MURRAY, SAYING: "I think the thing I would be most proud of is the Olympics, the second Olympics (gold) that was special. The hardest thing was getting to number one, because the Olympics is an eight-day event, but getting to number one it took me basically the whole year, right down to the last tournament, the last match of the year to finish number one, so that was really, really hard and it took a lot out of me physically and mentally at the end of the year, I was really really tired, more tired than I've been at the end of any season that I'd finished before, so it took a lot out of me." TENNIS BALLS ON CHAIRS (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE TENNIS PLAYER, ANDY MURRAY, SAYING: "I tend to set more short-term goals and that's worked better for me in the past. Sometimes when I've looked like five, six months ahead, that hasn't been good for me, so I tend to look just one or two months ahead and that's why I said the Australian Open was not that difficult for me to set goals at the beginning of the year, but I think once the Australian Open is done, it's four or five months until the next (Grand) Slam and that's where I need to make sure that I stay focused and that's a period of the year where I have struggled at times in the past, post-Australian Open sometimes, and Indian Wells and Miami, haven't played so well and through February, so I'll try to do a better job of that next year." CAMERAMAN FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE TENNIS PLAYER, ANDY MURRAY, SAYING: "Maybe it goes the Australian Open, you know it starts in a couple of weeks and I want to try and, I've lost in the final there a number of times, so I'd like to try and get the Australian Open title next month if possible." TENNIS BALLS IN BOWL (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEN'S WORLD NUMBER ONE TENNIS PLAYER, ANDY MURRAY, SAYING: "I mean, there's no guarantees obviously, like I said I've played really well there in the past and it hasn't happened for me so I'll need to do something a little bit different this year but I love the conditions there and I enjoy the tournament a lot, and I'll be going in hopefully playing well and with a lot of confidence because of the way I finished 2016, so I'll give it a good go this year but there's no guarantees that it'll happen for me." TWO TENNIS BALLS ON GROUND PEOPLE AT MALL
- Embargoed: 12th January 2017 13:42
- Keywords: Tennis Andy Murray Abu Dhabi Australian Open Mubadala
- Location: ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- City: ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- Country: United Arab Emirates
- Topics: Sport,Tennis
- Reuters ID: LVA0015ESRCJJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: World number one Andy Murray voiced his optimism on Wednesday (December 28) for the Australian Open tournament that takes places from mid-to-late January.
Murray, speaking in Abu Dhabi before the start of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, said 2016 was an exhausting year.
"Getting to number one it took me basically the whole year, right down to the last tournament, the last match of the year to finish number one, so that was really, really hard and it took a lot out of me physically and mentally at the end of the year, I was really really tired, more tired than I've been at the end of any season that I'd finished before, so it took a lot out of me," Murray told Reuters.
Murray then looked ahead to the Australian Open where he has only managed five runners-up finishes, four of which came against current world number two Novak Djokovic.
"It starts in a couple of weeks and I want to try and, I've lost in the final there a number of times, so I'd like to try and get the Australian Open title next month if possible," Murray said.
"I mean, there's no guarantees obviously, like I said I've played really well there in the past and it hasn't happened for me so I'll need to do something a little bit different this year but I love the conditions there and I enjoy the tournament a lot, and I'll be going in hopefully playing well and with a lot of confidence because of the way I finished 2016, so I'll give it a good go this year but there's no guarantees that it'll happen for me," he added.
Murray has a bye into the semi-final of the Abu Dhabi Mubadala tournament where on Friday (December 30), he will face the winner of Thursday's (December 29) quarter-final tie between David Goffin and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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