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After his 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2 third-round victory over Florian Mayer on Sunday, Andy Murray, the defending United States Open champion, discussed his thoughts on women’s tennis, a topic he has talked about more than most of his peers. In previous conversations with The Times, Murray has discussed his return to New York, his time away from the court, and the intensity of rivalries in modern tennis.

Q.

You’ve been, over the course of your career, one of the men’s players who is the least dismissive when asked about women’s tennis. You’ve been willing to talk about it and engage on the topic. Why is that?

A.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s that my mum’s been involved with women’s tennis for a long time. I mean, I just like tennis, so I follow it. We have a few good young British girls, so I watch some of their matches as well, and try to follow it when I can.

Q.

How much influence has your mother’s teachings had on your game?

A.

I mean it’s hard to say, because I can’t really remember all of the things that we used to do. I just remember it used to be fun when we used to be on the court together with my brother. But I mean she’s just so enthusiastic about kids playing tennis, and she was a really good influence on me and my brother. She’s still around tennis now, so if I ever need to I can speak to her about the game, because she understands it.

Yeah, it’s just tough to know. The one thing I would say is that she was always into — like a lot of players now concentrate on the baseline, and ground strokes and stuff — but she was always into drop shots, and slice, and lobs, and variety, and that sort of thing. She always enjoyed that, and she always encouraged me to practice it.

Q.

How much women’s tennis would you say you watch now? When tennis is on, does it matter if it’s men or women?

A.

Yeah, I like watching the big matches when the top players play against each other. I like watching the British girls play, when I can. I don’t watch it as much men’s tennis, because when I’m watching it, I’m kind of watching it just to enjoy it, whereas with men’s tennis I sometimes watch to enjoy, but a lot of times I’m either scouting guys or watching my opponent.

Q.

Who are some of your favorite women’s players to watch?

A.

I really like watching [Agnieszka] Radwańska.

Q.

Do you know her nickname in Poland? They call her “Andy Murray in a skirt” because of all of her drop shots.

A.

I didn’t know that. But no, I like watching her play just because a lot of the girls that she’s competing with are a lot bigger and stronger than her, and she just plays with variety. Which is again, like I said, the stuff that my mum used to encourage me to use. She comes to the net, she has drop shots, lobs, and she doesn’t have the power. I do like watching [Serena] Williams as well, when she’s playing well. I mean, I enjoy watching her just because as an athlete, as a female athlete, she’s pretty, pretty impressive.

Q.

When you were playing mixed at the Olympics with Laura Robson, winning a silver there, how was it for you scouting women, and coming up with game plans against female players?

A.

Yeah, I think most of the stuff in the mixed doubles — when I’m serving to the woman, I’m just trying to focus on a spot, and trying to hit it. I wasn’t really doing too much of the scouting going into those matches. But I was trying to help Laura with her return against some of the men, because that’s a huge part of mixed doubles, how the man serves to the woman, and if the woman can return the man’s serve well, that’s a huge benefit. That’s a huge part of mixed doubles, if you can get some points on the man’s serve when the woman’s returning, that helps a lot. And then you need to take care of your own serve, basically. When Laura was serving, I let her dictate where she wanted to serve and stuff, and then you’re basically just trying to do what you can up at the net to help out.

Q.

What do you make of it when some of the male players — whether privately in the locker room or to the news media — complain about equal prize money still, or say that the women’s game is inferior?

A.

It isn’t about it being inferior. As I see them, they’re two different sports. Not like at the 100 meters at the Olympics, not because they’re not running the same speed as the men. It’s just because we play five sets. I’m not saying the men work harder than the women, but if you have to train to play five sets, it’s a longer distance. It’s like someone training to be a 400-meter runner and someone training to be a 600-meter runner. I think the women should play best-of-five sets. I don’t see why they couldn’t do it. It would mean the days in the Slams are a little bit longer. And maybe it doesn’t have to be from the first rounds. I think either the men go three sets or the women go five sets. I think that’s more what the guys tend to complain about, rather than the equal prize money itself.

Q.

Would you be open to the men playing best-of-three at the Slams?

A.

Hmm. To be honest, I mean, I’ve always played five sets at the Slams. It’s what makes them different. I would rather want the five-set rule for the men and the women. They did it before. They used to do it in finals, and stuff, I think in the tour finals, and some of the big finals on the WTA Tour. So it’s not like women cannot play five sets. Steffi Graf and [Martina] Navratilova and those players were unbelievable over five sets, and in great shape. So it’s not that, that isn’t the issue.