Sunday 1 February 2015 08:47, UK
Andy Murray says he is "feeling good" ahead of his Australian Open final against Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
The former Wimbledon and US Open champion appeared relaxed in the build-up to the match as he took part in a press conference in Melbourne on Saturday.
"Yeah, I feel good," he said. "I felt good after all of the matches and recovered fairly well from the two fairly long matches.
"I know it's going to be extremely difficult to win the match tomorrow. I know if I want to win, it will probably be very, very tough and challenging physically. So I need to prepare myself mentally for that.
"But he has a fantastic record here. He obviously loves the court and the conditions. And, yeah, it would be a big upset if I manage to win."
History
The 27-year-old has reached the Australian Open final three times before, losing twice to Djokovic in 2011 and 2013 and once to Roger Federer in 2010.
Murray has the theoretical advantage of having played his semi-final on Thursday, 24 hours before Djokovic beat defending champion Stan Wawrinka in five sets, although in four of the past seven years the man playing the second semi-final has won the title.
"A couple of years ago I played Novak in the semi-final and I could barely walk a couple of days later, but he recovered from a five-hour match and then won the final in six hours," Murray said. "I don't know how he did it."
I know it's going to be extremely difficult to win the match tomorrow. I know if I want to win, it will probably be very, very tough and challenging physically. So I need to prepare myself mentally for that.
After falling down the world rankings in 2014 to world No 6, Murray has returned to form this year.
The match against Djokovic will be Murray's eighth grand slam final and as he continues to make British tennis history, and he was asked where he rates himself in the "pantheon of British sport" and who he thinks is the best of all time.
He said: "Well, yeah, I definitely wouldn't say that would be me. I wouldn't say that would be the case at all. But, I mean, in terms of the sports I follow a lot, sports that I have a lot of respect for, I mean, someone like a Joe Calzaghe, what he did in boxing is incredible and extremely rare.
"I don't know, like a Rory McIlroy is an incredible talent and will probably go on to do amazing things for the rest of his career. I don't know how far exactly you want to go back. But Lewis Hamilton, what he's done has also been amazing.
"I just know like for myself that the time I'm competing in just now is extremely challenging. Yeah, anything I achieve, I'm very proud of because of the players that I'm competing against currently. So, yeah, that's how I feel about it."
