Andy Murray of Britain celebrates winning a point after he played a return to David Ferrer of Spain during their singles tennis match at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. AP
LONDON — Andy Murray plays tennis for a living, and he doesn’t plan on being afraid of doing his job.
Murray was asked about the Paris attacks on Monday, and whether he was scared to go to Belgium at the end of the month to play in the Davis Cup final.
“I think everybody right now is concerned about things,” said Murray, who beat David Ferrer 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match at the season-ending ATP finals. “But I do think the best thing that we can do is to live our normal lives, not change too much, because then the terrorists are the ones that are winning.”
Among the sites targeted in Friday’s attacks was the Stade de France, where France’s national team was playing Germany in a soccer friendly. And many of the attackers have been linked to Belgium, where the Davis Cup final will be played from Nov. 27-29 in Gent.
“We need to go out there and do what we always do and try not to change too much. That’s all we can do,” Murray said. “I don’t want to live my life in fear each time I step on a tennis court. So that’s what I’ll do.”
Against Ferrer at the O2 Arena in London, Murray was able to win with plenty of help from the Spaniard’s serve. The seventh-seeded Ferrer had eight double-faults and landed only 49 percent of his first serves.
“I serve bad @ the end of the first set and also in the second set,” Ferrer said. “Anyway, in important moments he was better than me. He played more aggressive than me.”
Murray broke Ferrer to win the first set, getting his final point on the Spaniard’s second double-fault of the game.
Although Ferrer broke to open the second set in the following game, Murray slowly fought back as Ferrer continued to struggle to get the ball in play. Murray ended up winning 19 of the 32 points off Ferrer’s second serve.
Unfortunately for Murray, the ATP finals is being played on an indoor hard court while the Davis Cup final will be played on indoor clay.
Murray has been splitting his preparation time for the two tournaments on both surfaces, and it showed.
“First couple of games my timing was a little bit off,” Murray said. “But I got it back pretty quickly, which was pleasing.”
Britain has not won the Davis Cup title since 1936, when Fred Perry was the team’s star player. Perry was also the last British man to win the men’s title at Wimbledon that same year, until Murray came along.
In the late match at the ATP finals, nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal beat current French Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 6-2.
Although Nadal served and lost the opening game at love, he quickly recovered and put pressure on Wawrinka the rest of the way.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard ended up with 15 break points, but converted only four — two in each set.
Nadal will face Murray on Wednesday, while Wawrinka takes on Ferrer. TVJ