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November 15, 2002
Masters Cup Shanghai Round Rubin
By Masters Cup Official Site
R. FEDERER/T. Johansson 6-3, 7-5
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
QUESTION: There are many things that come together to win matches.
Apparently you have played very well in Shanghai. What's so nice
about Shanghai? What happens in Shanghai? Do you like Shanghai
because really you are the star here right now. ROGER FEDERER: Well, I don't think really the city has much to
do with my performance, but it's true that the city is nice. I
enjoy this time here in China. It's my first time, as I mentioned
a few times before, and my performance has followed the city and
so I'm very pleased. I don't know if I am the star here, but this
is more your territory, but I feel good on the court and that's
the most important thing right now.
QUESTION: Next up against Lleyton. How confident are you against
him? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I think he has more, because he's beaten
me more times than I've beaten him, but last match for me is not
so important. I lost in Paris against him two weeks ago and just
the night before, I was qualified for Shanghai to actually come
here, so I was very pleased and happy, you know, and my body,
I was on the road for five weeks and I was very tired. So I just
couldn't play the way I wanted to. I had to take a lot of risks,
I couldn't go into long rallies with him and like this, I just
couldn't win that day against him, so I think tomorrow is a new
day and I'm ?? I was confident there, but I think this surface
suits me better than the one in Paris because it's just less sticky
and I can work the ball more here on this surface and he's been
struggling in his matches and I've won all my three, so I have
a lot of confidence for tomorrow.
QUESTION: I think the Shanghai fans, the Chinese fans like you
because of your smile and your big nose and I think your style
is very distinguished among the nine Masters. Someone said you
are Sampras junior because after your service, you often go to
the net. I think nowadays, in future, the tennis players are more
willing to deal from the baseline. Do you think that the technology
of tennis is going backwards? ROGER FEDERER: No, really what I think about today's game is that
why do we have more baseline? It's quite simple in my eyes because
we have more double?handed backhands. Before we had a lot of one?handed
backhands, so the people have to slice the ball, the rackets were
maybe smaller and so now two?handed players, they feel much more
comfortable from the baseline, they like to go into rallies. So
now we have players like myself left, Pete, Henman and other guys
around which need to play angles and just play with more feel
to win points and I think for anywhere for double?handed player,
it's tough to volley on the backhand side just because they don't
play the slice very often from the baseline and I think that has
changed the game.
QUESTION: Which will be the key for tomorrow's game, do you think?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I have to be really ready to run a lot, but
I mean, that's all right, I just have to be mentally well prepared,
I think, and I have to use my forehand a lot like Carlos did.
He's beaten me the last few times and I think we have quite a
similar game, maybe I come to the net more and I just have to
make sure also that I'm very focused at the net, I don't miss
too many easy ones. I think today was just a little bit ?? how
do you say, the intensity was down today a little bit, so that's
why I missed maybe a few easy ones, but tomorrow I have to be
sharp and I'm not allowed to miss a lot of easy shots because
otherwise I lose.
QUESTION: Many people say that you are just another Sampras.
What's your comment about this? ROGER FEDERER: Who said that?
QUESTION: Many people say that. We've seen on the internet. ROGER FEDERER: You know, even though ?? okay, maybe we have similar
technique, we're quite relaxed, but I still feel like we have
quite a different game. I like to work much more from the baseline
than coming to the net because the last few years, I mean, he's
really been only serve and volley first and second serve and I
basically never serve and volley on the second serve, so we have
to be careful about comparing me to him anyway. His result, I
mean, we cannot even mention what I have done in the past, they're
two different worlds, you know. So I mean, I just hope one day
I have ?? going to have, it's a dream for me to have similar success
than he had, but obviously it's nice to be compared to him, but
I still think we're quite different on and off the court.
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