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June 25, 2002
Wimbledon First Round
By ASAP Sports
R. FEDERER/M. Ancic 3-6, 6-7 (2-7), 3-6
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
MODERATOR: Questions for Roger.
Q. How devastating is this loss today? Was there a reason?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, still looking for reasons why, yes, why I
played so bad. I'm terribly down right now. I mean, it's quite normal
after such a loss. And I expected much more than coming in here and
losing in straight sets. So I'm very disappointing. For the moment, I
haven't got any words.
Q. Did you know him? I think on the tour, everybody knew he was
a little bit of a threat, was considered a big talent. Did you know
about his game?
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I don't know. I knew he was young, but I
didn't know much more. I tried to get some information from other
players. I mean, a lot of guys hit with him. I never did. But I got my
information, and I just couldn't really figure out his game today. My
game let him play well today. So didn't really matter actually the way
he played. I'm just really down about my game today. That was quite
bad.
Q. How surprised were you that he was able to maintain his level over those three sets?
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, I just had my chances, you know.
In the second set, I missed them. Okay, maybe in the first one I have
the break. I couldn't take my chances today. I had Love-40 in the
second. This was really my only big chance throughout the whole match,
and I didn't take it. He deserves to be through because I just couldn't
come up with the right shots at the right moment. And that hurts
especially in a Grand Slam over five sets where I really think I'm the
better player. But today it was just too bad.
Q. What caused you most problems against him?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I couldn't quite figure out his serve. I
was struggling to read his toss. Other than that, I mean, he returns
pretty good. But I just felt like from the beginning on, I was not
serving well. Tried to get more serves in. But as soon as I wanted to
go for an ace, I will never make it. I still think the conditions are
much slower than last year somehow. I mean, just I haven't looked at
the stats, but I maybe made one ace, I think. I mean, it's a joke if I
think I made 25 against Pete last year or something. I don't know what
was wrong today. My serving was, for sure, not very good.
Q. You mentioned Pete. Obviously you scored one of the biggest upsets in recent years. Now to suffer this upset.
ROGER FEDERER: It hurts. I mean, I was looking forward a lot to
this tournament again just because I was so happy that I heard I was
playing on Centre Court. It's a special place out here. I think it's
the best centre court in the world and I love playing on it. After nice
experiences, even against Henman, I thought it was a nice match. To
come out today and play such tennis I played today, it's just a
shocker. So I'm very disappointed. It's going to take some time until I
get over it, but I will have to work hard and come back strong for the
American hard courts.
Q. Roland Garros and now Wimbledon. Is there a problem with you
being the favorite? Do you have a problem in Grand Slam tournaments?
ROGER FEDERER: No. Usually I prefer to be in the favored role.
But I still think Arazi was a very tough opponent at the French Open.
Here, I mean, usually I should win this match. I'm high favorite over
Ancic. He played well today. Yeah, this is very disappointing to lose
back to back first round in Grand Slams. I'm looking for reasons why,
but I have time to figure that out, so we'll see.
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