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Saturday, August 9, 2003
Montreal TMS Semifinal
By Tennis Masters Canada Official Site
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
R. FEDERER/A. Roddick 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7)
Tour Official: Okay. Questions, please.
Reporter: Roger, is it more disappointing to lose the match, or lose the chance to be number one?
Roger
Federer: Well, you know, I don't know the calculations, so I
don't know. Obviously, you know, if you tell me that I seriously
lost number one spot, of course, yeah, it's a pity. I've never
been number one, but I've never been number two, either, and I'm number
two now, so let's take the positive part of the story. It's never
nice to lose a match. So the last time I won, this time it's his
turn.
Reporter: Did you feel it was bad about your play today or did you feel that Andy played that much better?
Roger
Federer: We had a 7-6 in the third in the past so, you know, it's
difficult to say, because his serve is so big and, you know, it's tough
to say if you played well or not. It's not really in your
hands. It's about his service game. It's got a lot to do
with his game. I thought, you know, he played one of the better
matches against me, but I feel like maybe this may have been the worst
match of all that I played against him. Because every time I
played him I always felt very good from the baseline. I thought I
was really reading his serve well and today was maybe just not the
case. I still was up a break in the third.
Reporter:
Roger, you were up a break, you were up 3-1, and then he hits that shot
between his leg and the crowd gets into it and stuff. Do you
think that was him trying to get some emotion going for himself to get
back in it?
Roger
Federer: No, you know, why not do something like that if you're
already losing? And, you know, if he makes that shot which it
wasn't so difficult for insiders, anyway. I'm in a non-winning
position; if I hit the winner it's a great point, if I lose he's the
hero. Why not try something else? But I don't think that
changed the round. The crowd was already into the match
enough. That was just a point.
Reporter: He comes in more against you than he did before, doesn't he?
Roger Federer: No, I don't think so. I was passing him all the time at Wimbledon.
Reporter: You don't think he tends to come to the net more than he used to?
Roger
Federer: Well, when I play, he can come in. I'm chipping
all the time, so it's easy to come in on. But I rather go for
safety returns and try to make him hit a ball underneath the net.
It's very often a temptation to come in after. So I think he's
coming in against me more often because he knows, if he doesn't, I'll
come, so.
Reporter:
Roger, was it a surprise to you how hard he came out hitting?
Right from the forehand he seemed to be going everything for broke.
Roger
Federer: We all know he has a big forehand; it was no
surprise. I was more surprised by Robredo's forehand the other
day, than his forehand. You always have to expect the
worst. So that was a bad start from my side. You know, I
didn't play a good game there when he broke me, and right away the set
was gone and I was really unlucky there a few times, tight calls.
Reporter: How uncharacteristic was your play in the tie break?
Roger Federer: Uncharacteristic?
Reporter: Uncharacteristic how you normally play, you had a double fault, hit a couple of balls long?
Roger
Federer: What do you want me to tell you? You know, I took
some chances and early on it didn't work, so right away I was down
4-0. It's not the best start, is it, but nothing you can do about
it later, you know. Usually I'm a good tie break player; today
was his day. So I try to many back but it was just not good
enough.
Reporter:
Excuse me, Roger, you missed the chance to be number one today, but how
do you feel about your chances in the next few weeks of getting that
spot and how important is it to you?
Roger
Federer: Well, first I'm going to relax from this week.
These Masters Series are tough, almost too tough from my point of view,
you know. Because if you want to win both weeks, you've got to
play 12 out of 14 days, or 12 out of 13 if you start like me on the
Tuesday, which I think is insane, you know. So -- but I'll go to
since I and try my best there, again. Hopefully, I'll get through
the first round, you know, at least so I just get into a tournament
there and then I'll have a week off before the U.S. Open and I'll be
perfectly ready for the Open, because I've played well here and looking
forward for the rest of the hard court season.
Reporter:
Roger, are you saying that having the back-to-back Tennis Masters
events, Montreal and -- or Canada and Cincinnati, is a scheduling that
doesn't make any sense?
Roger
Federer: Same as Rome, Hamburg. Yeah, I think it's too
much. You see too many guys pulling out. That's what the
people -- tournaments don't want. So, you know, it's just -- but
we've argued about scheduling enough in the past, so.
Reporter: Not suggesting you were in any way at all unprofessional, but did you have a good evening out the night before?
Roger
Federer: Yeah, it was a good night, relaxing dinner. And
obviously stay professional. Didn't lose my mind, you know.
[LAUGHTER]
Reporter: Who paid the bill?
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