|
August 17, 2004
Athens Olympics Second Round
By ASAP Sports
R. FEDERER/T. Berdych 6-4, 5-7, 5-7
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
THE MODERATOR: Question, please.
Q. Can you talk about the singles defeat and how you feel about going out of the Olympics?
ROGER FEDERER: Terrible, you know. What can I say? It's a
terrible day for me, you know, losing singles and doubles. Obviously I
was aiming for a better result than this, but that's what I got. So I
have to live with it.
Q. Do you know what went wrong in the match against Berdych?
ROGER FEDERER: Many things.
Q. Can you pinpoint?
ROGER FEDERER: All of them? Is that okay? I wasn't real happy
with my serve, my forehand, my backhand, my movement. So that about
sums it up. It's a pity.
Q. Did you get the sense early that things weren't quite working?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I had my chances, you know, basically up
until the end, you know. Match was close. Had the feeling actually in
the beginning, you know, serving all right. You know, took my chance
there. Then in the second, you know, I started to feel like it was
getting really tough to play in the sun, you know. Sun was very low and
that was annoying. But he came up with some good shots. You know, he's
young. He takes chances on big points. That's usually what happens. You
know, he came up with them at the right moment, and that's what made
the difference in the end.
Q. Roger, no one is, for a minute, suggesting that you're in a slump or anything like that. But it's uncharacteristic for yourself
since you moved up to the top of the game to lose a couple of matches
so quickly one after another. What do you put it down to? Is it a case
of you're just feeling a little bit tired at the moment, that things
have caught up to you for a bit?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, Toronto, you know, that was very
close. I was also two points from the match; same as today. So I could
have won both. But, you know, that's how it goes. I've been winning
very many close matches which nobody talks about now. But I ended up
winning them. You know, I had very little time to get ready, actually,
for Cincinnati. I felt it there, I was playing also horrible. You know,
Dominik obviously got the rhythm once he saved all those break points.
And similar here. I never found the rhythm even though I got here
early. That is a bit surprising to me, even though I felt right away
that the conditions are quite tough to play in. But I thought it was
going to go better in the match, but it didn't unfortunately. I
probably would have needed a few more matches to get the confidence up.
But too late.
Q. You said when you got to Toronto that you felt that you would
like another week off. After Wimbledon and Gstaad and Toronto, have you
had too many matches? Is it mental tiredness?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, obviously. I've been playing nonstop, you
know. But I had like a week off after Gstaad, you know. So that was
very important. And it's obvious it's going to catch up with me,
eventually. And so unfortunately it's during the Olympics, but I
thought anyhow that the preparation was good. I came here early, had
some days off back in Switzerland after Cincinnati. So I thought the
preparation was perfect for the Olympics. Unfortunately, didn't work
out. But after the US Open, I will have another week off, you know. And
after the US Open it will be easier. So I'm looking forward to that.
Q. What do you do now before the US Open?
ROGER FEDERER: Don't have much plans yet, you know. I'm
probably going to leave Monday or Tuesday next week and go early to US
Open. So I get over the jetlag and have the best preparation that I can
have.
|
