|
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Roland Garros Third Round
By Roland Garros Official Site
R. FEDERER/G. Kuerten 4-6, 4-6, 4-6
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
Q. Can you analyze a little bit the match? It wasn't a great match, was it? ROGER FEDERER: You did analyze it (smiling).
Well, you know, obviously I want to know right away myself, too, why I lost, why this match was straight sets, why it was rather comfortable for Guga.
Right now I don't know really because I think -- all I can say is I think he served good today and he was better. That's all I can really say because I tried everything I could, but my game was just not good enough.
Q. Is it possibly a problem that you have no one to turn to right now to consult about why things aren't going well for you, you don't have a coach? ROGER FEDERER: No, that's not the problem.
Q. You seemed to have a bit of trouble with your footwork. You didn't seem very confident in your footing on the court. Can you tell us what problems you're having? ROGER FEDERER: Slippery court. That's really all I can say. I mean, I've been playing most of my time now on rather wet courts where it's I wouldn't say easier, it's more dangerous to move on, you don't slide as long. I already felt against Kiefer that I was just late because conditions are faster when it's hot like this. I tend to slide a little bit too early, so I lose my balance, lose my, you know, coordination. Similar to what happened today.
Then, you know, when I turn around my backhand, hit a forehand, I'm scared I'm going to totally fall down sometimes. Like I experienced it twice, I almost fell. This was the problem. So I lost a little bit confidence in my footwork. That is true that that was a problem for me. Up until then, since Hamburg, I've been moving very well in the clay, but today wasn't the best.
Q. You didn't seem very happy with your racquet either. In fact, you didn't seem very happy at all with your game. Is that the case today? ROGER FEDERER: Well, you know, like I said, it was very hot today, so the balls are flying, you know, very much. Ball bounces high because the court plays faster. You know the conditions are fast. I was just finding the right racquet to be able to control the ball because I was struggling with it and Guga wasn't. And that was my problem today.
Q. To see you not use your best weapons today, not to be able to hit your inside-out forehand, for example, to miss so many volleys today, miss an overhead, can you explain why all those things disappeared in the same match? ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I put it down, you know, on his good performance really. That's all I can do, you know. I'm definitely not happy with the game today, but I tried.
I don't know, he didn't give me too much of a chance. He wasn't missing much. A little feeling I have, too, is the balls are rather slow here. I'm not hitting many forehand winners this week at all. In Hamburg I was giving the ball unbelievable amount of spins. And here it seems like I'm doing the same, but my opponent is just there to smack it really. So this is for me a little bit of a problem this week. I could never really get ahold of the ball.
Like today, I was struggling with my footwork, then I lost confidence. At the net, obviously, I missed a lot of volleys. But, you know, that can happen. So it's not a disaster.
Q. Can you say something about the crowd, thousands of people shouting, "Guga, Guga"? ROGER FEDERER: Well, he deserves it. He's a fair player. He won this tournament many times. So he deserves everything, you know, what the fans give him here. He's a great guy. Yeah, it was nice to play in this crowd because it was very fair from beginning to end, and that was the most important.
Q. You mentioned in your last interview about finding the right tone between being offensive and not making a lot of mistakes. It seemed like right from the beginning you didn't find that right amount of being on the attack or not making mistakes. ROGER FEDERER: Well, I was definitely serving better today, you know. But, like I said, I wasn't getting the winners I normally get on this court. It's got something to do with his game. You know, he hits the ball deep into the court and rather hard, you know. He's got a good backhand, you know, which always keeps me -- he can hold me either on the backhand or go up the line himself and play aggressive.
I think my game today had a lot to do with his game. Obviously, usually, I can control these kind of matches, but today I couldn't. That's a credit to him. That's all I'm going to say. I'm not going to start saying that my backhand or my forehand or my footwork, you know, was bad. We all know it wasn't the best, but that's got something to do with my opponent.
Q. After the second set, you got much more aggressive with the service return. That wasn't the way you wanted to play when you started this match. What was your thinking about the conservative game plan you came out with on his serve today in the opening sets? ROGER FEDERER: Well, the thing was that the conditions were slower in the beginning. You know, obviously they put water on the court. As the match went on really the conditions got really, really fast, and I was just struggling on the return. I was not quite sure if I should stay in and play aggressive on the return or do it a little bit his style and really stand back and just make sure I make the first return.
So, yeah, I was looking a little bit how I should return, because, you know, he was ahead, so I had to change something. That's always a bad position.
Q. Which would you say is the toughest Grand Slam for you and which is the easiest one of the four? ROGER FEDERER: There is no easy one, first of all. You know, the toughest one for me obviously seems the French Open because the last three years haven't been the best for me here. You know, like matches today where I never get the grip of the match really, of the sensations. This is what's a little bit worrying for me, you know, that I didn't -- I just didn't play like I can really, and I lost.
This is for me a little bit of a disappointment. I know I can play much better or do better. Just doesn't work. This is for me a disappointment, this week. For me, this one obviously seems the most difficult.
Q. What in the future do you think you have to do to unlock the mystery to get that feel on a clay court? ROGER FEDERER: The problem is not the clay court. The problem is, you know, rather something to do with the conditions on center court. Because I've played well on Suzanne Lenglen, on the other courts. But the Chatrier court is really, really big, and I just haven't had enough play on it. Maybe I come here next year and play a week on this court, if I can, if the French Federation lets me. We'll see.
I've been playing well in other tournaments, in Davis Cup on clay. So for me it's not the surface, it's rather maybe the court.
Q. Very often you try to hit your backhand looking for down the line or cross-court looking for winner. You also hit slice. Do you think maybe that was more wise to try to keep the ball in, play tactical shots? ROGER FEDERER: I'm not going to start analyzing with you guys my match. I don't want to tell you I should have played more slice or more topspin or kick or more slice serve. I don't really care what I did.
Now it's over. The tournament is over. I will come back next year and try to do better and prepare for grass. What can I do now? Start analyzing the match with the media people? I don't think it's the right thing to do right now.
Q. You met Guga two times before this and beat him on the clay. Will you be able to compare something about this match today and the past against him? Was he today better than ever against you? ROGER FEDERER: What can I say? The match, you know, in Hamburg, I won the first set 6-Love. I played unbelievable tennis, and I was serving well, I was hitting my forehand incredible. You know, he got back in the match. I got a little nervous.
In the third set, I got the better start. I was really playing well. I think he was coming back from injury there, too. I ran away with the lead.
Two times I lost, you know, he played good matches. You know, he didn't miss much. I was really strong with his serve. I remember also in Indian Wells he was hitting a lot of service winners and aces. It was similar again today because I thought he has a great serve, especially his first serve, and he's very consistent. I cannot really read it, where it's coming. I think that's his big weapon against me.
Q. Your friend comes from Slovakia, her parents. Her mother told me you can speak some Slovak words. ROGER FEDERER: I don't, and I won't if I can't (laughter).
Q. You can try. ROGER FEDERER: No.
THE MODERATOR: National language questions, please.
Q. Concerning this debate on the fact that you're a clay court specialist or not, the fact that Kuerten is on his best court, his best surface, did you ever think at some point in the match that you weren't going to make it? ROGER FEDERER: During the match?
Q. Do you feel like you didn't belong on that court? ROGER FEDERER: No. I've done worse against Henman in Rotterdam where I had the feeling everything was going against me. This is not the feeling I had today. I felt I had a chance to win this match. Even at 6-4, 6-4, 5-4, I still felt I could win this match.
You've got to believe it in such a situation, particularly in a Grand Slam. I don't think it's an illusion. I know that if I could have gone back into that match at that point and played better, I still knew I had an opportunity to win this match, and now it's too late.
Q. The clay season is relatively short. Haven't you missed out on a few matches to reach the level of Kuerten today? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I do play a lot. I win a lot, I play a lot. I mean, you've got to take a bit of rest once in a while. So maybe if I played Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, every single tournament, I would have got here exhausted. That's not the best idea either.
I prepared as I have prepared in the past two years. It's always gone well for me. I played well. I came here with a degree of confidence. But my opponent played better than me. He played very well. This doesn't mean that I have to change my preparation for next year. Clearly, I'm going to have to think about it because there's always room for improvement. That's what I'm going to do over the coming months, to figure out how I'm going to get prepared for next year.
I mean, there's always a difference. In the Davis Cup after Miami next year it will be a different question.
Q. When you saw Guga in the third round would be your opponent, did you think it would be a difficult match or did you think that he had been injured, he wasn't going to play very well? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I think anyone like Guga or Ferrero have come here to play good tennis. They're not just here for fun. They're thinking about their career. If they're injured, that's not good for their future, that's not good for their career. So when you see that they're playing, obviously I was expecting a difficult match. But I had to concentrate on my first and second round because they have created difficulties for me in the past.
It's true that when I saw he had so many difficulties getting in the first round, I thought that at least he was having problems, and that gave me a bit more confidence because I was even more afraid of Guga to begin with. But he was stronger than I thought today.
|
