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Tuesday, 8 June, 2004
Halle First Round
By Gerry Weber Open Official Site
R. FEDERER/T. Johansson 6-3, 6-2
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
At the beginning you had some problems to start the engine, afterwards full speed? I
started the match serving from the sunny side of the court. I would
have had the chance to get used to it in the warm-up but it didn’t
fold. Then I came a little bit under pressure and lost confidence for
some moments. For sure, that was not an ideal beginning of the grass
court season. Of course, that worried me a little bit. The first game
was over too fast, I was afraid he wouldn’t let me into the set again.
But the start was quite unimportant, my reaction was important. And I
was able to rebreak him immediately and to serve the match out in the
end. I’m really happy with this start and feel very good, already in
practice I enjoyed playing on grass again. The grass court season can
be over so fast in a few moments. I’m happy that this didn’t happen.
There were also some great shots in the match, great for the people and
fortunately in most cases for me, too.
Which shots were your best today? Well, my
service and my volleys were really ok, but nevertheless I have to
improve them. Especially my return was not ideal today. All in all I
should serve and volley more often. Johansson played very defensive, he
put all the pressure on me. Ok, I can do it from baseline, but it would
be much easier to serve and volley in these matches.
You got applause and ovations by the spectators after several rallies. Does it motivate you? Of
course, it does. Yes, there were very nice points. The crowd was
perfect, but this is easy to say, because all these nice points were
won by myself. Naturally you enjoy the crowd’s ovations. Besides, I got
the tennis-magazine-award afterwards for something like the most
pleasant player. That makes my day completely wonderful.
Let’s talk about the conditions. Is the court different compared to last year? Not
really, perhaps it is a bit harder. At the beginning of the week the
Centre Court is always more slippery than the outside courts because it
gets less sunlight. But nevertheless it’s a good court. There were not
so many bad bounces today.
Your next opponent Mikhail Youzhny. How good do you know him? Quite
good. Last year I beat him in the semis, it was a tough match. I have
to take care. But it’s good, to play against him next round. For sure,
that will be an interesting match.
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