http://sport.independent.co.uk/tennis/article2112596.ece

Excerpts:

* Where did you watch the World Cup final? At a tournament at Newport, Rhode Island. I was a bit disappointed that Zidane didn't headbutt Materazzi on the nose. What Materazzi said was out of order. It was going to be Zidane's last match anyway, so why just headbutt him in the chest?

* Which event outside of your own sport did you most enjoy watching? The event I enjoyed most over the last 18 months or so was Floyd Mayweather Jnr beating Arturo Gatti inside six rounds. Mayweather was brilliant. Gatti was constantly getting hit but Mayweather was almost untouched.

* What was the funniest thing that happened to you this year? In Washington Brad [Gilbert] asked me the name of one of the ATP Tour managers, Stephen Duckitt. For a laugh I told him it was Paul. For the rest of the week whenever Brad saw Stephen he'd say: 'Hi, Paul!' On the night before the final I said to Brad: 'I think I'd better tell you his name is actually Stephen.' Brad was distraught and said: 'I must apologise to him.' He rushed over to see Stephen but just missed him as he'd got into a lift. The next day Brad was so confused he saw one of the trainers, whose name is Paul, and said: 'I'm so sorry, Stephen, I've been calling you Paul all week.' Paul looked very confused and replied: 'But I am Paul.' Brad was just totally bewildered.

* What is your main aim for 2007? I have a world ranking in mind but I'm not going to make that public because if I had to take a couple of months off with injury it could be tough getting my ranking up, especially at the level I'm at now. One opponent I'd love to play next year is Rafael Nadal. I've played against a lot of the top 10 guys but not him. I'd rather not play him on clay, but if we met on an American hard court it would be a good chance to see where I'm at.


It was not what you might have expected in a job interview, especially if you were the one doing the recruiting. Andy Murray was thinking of hiring Brad Gilbert as his new coach and was in the middle of their first meeting, at this year's French Open in Paris, when the American asked him to take off his shirt, so that he could get a better idea of his physique.

"For most people I wouldn't have done that, but because it was him I took it off," Murray said. "That was what I liked. He has very strong opinions. And when you get two people together like me and him with very strong opinions, you either get on or it blows up.

"He didn't really listen much, but that was another of the things I quite liked. I felt I needed someone who could tell me what to do. If I was going to go and run for 10 miles, I'd go and run for 10 miles." Gilbert has been doing most of the talking ever since, but Murray - who decided at that first meeting that the American was the coach he wanted - has no complaints.