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Andy Murray held his nerve to give himself the perfect birthday present – a win at the Rome Masters.
The Wimbledon champion celebrated his 27th birthday today with a thrird-round victory over Jurgen Melzer.
Despite starting slowly Murray went on to progress 7-6 6-4 and will play Rafa Nadal in the quarter-finals.
And before sharing his birthday cake in his press conference the British no.1 sat down to share his thoughts.
Happy birthday Andy, have you had many presents?
I’ve had two cards and two cakes, but no presents or anything.
I’m hoping when I go home there will be some. If there isn’t a couple I will be pretty disappointed.
The only two times I have had to retire on tour were strangely on my birthday. It’s nice to have more of a pleasant experience on the court this time. I felt I dictated quite a lot of the points and played a decent match.
You’re facing Rafa Nadal next – is that a good thing?
It won’t be a bad thing to play against Nadal. I haven’t played him for maybe three years.
With the French Open and Wimbledon coming up I haven’t practiced with him hardly at all either, so I would be quite interested to play against him before to see how his game has changed.
I could also see the things I could do to make it difficult and things that won’t work against him that I would need to change.
It might be better to play against him now instead of the French or Wimbledon.
Nadal has had a few tough games here and recently elsewhere on the clay this season, what do you think of his form?
I think you will have to wait and see after the French Open.
If you look over the years, the consistency he has had on the clay, you can’t do that for your whole career and there will be a few tournaments where you don’t play your best tennis.
I’m sure over the years as well there have been tournaments he has won when guys should have beaten him. He has always found a way to come back and he has won so many matches on this surface.
I’m sure when the French Open comes round he will be fine.
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