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Saturday, 12 June, 2004
Halle Semifinal
By Gerry Weber Open Official Site
R. FEDERER/J. Novak 6-3, 6-4
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
It seemed that you played with more confidence today. Is this right? Yes,
that’s true, I was more confident after the solid performances in the
last matches. It was a very strange match, everything went very
quickly. Against Youzhny I won 6:1, 6:2 and the match lasted 1:12h,
today 55 minutes, that’s curious. But there weren’t any tough games,
when I broke him it was easy, when we both held it was easy, too. But
nevertheless he is always a dangerous man. And are you worried about Mardy Fish in the final? Ok,
he’s the only player against whom I lost a set in Wimbledon last year.
He’s a very good player and his service can be very effective. It’ll be
a tough match, I’ll have to take my chances, but perhaps there won’t be
any. Probably it will be my turn to react, because with his very risky
game he is normally the actor on the court.
What was different compared with the matches before? It
was more difficult to play from the baseline, there were a few bad
bounces. But this is normal for the second match, the court is not as
nice as in the morning when you play at first. Nevertheless I was
worrying a bit about my baseline game, I made some easy errors.
Hopefully I´m able to improve this for tomorrow.
Is it different for you to come back to Halle as a two-times Grand Slam champion? Does this push you in a special way? No,
not that much. It was more important to have an easy start in the grass
court season and that succeeds completely well. Because of this I’m
more confident and I’m feeling much better than last year. More
important than the final are the days before. I had the luck to come
very early, and I owe that to the French Open. If I win or lose
tomorrow that doesn’t change anything in my preparation for Wimbledon.
I’m not here preparing for Wimbledon, but to collect titles. I have the
chance to win my fifth title this year and to prove successful my
number one state. That’s important, This is why I’m here. Of course you
are always more confident when you see what you´ve already achieved.
On grass you are unbeaten for 16 matches. Is this natural for you? Of
course not. I’ll have to think about every match and every opponent
again and again. I cannot concentrate only on my game, it’s necessary
to analyse your opponent’s game, too. I was´nt thinking about anything
last year, that was my advantage at that time. Fortunately and
nevertheless my start in the grass court season was also great this
year, although I have these triumphs in my head.
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