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May 4, 2004
Rome AMS First Round
By ASAP Sports
R. FEDERER/J. Bjorkman 7-6, 6-3
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. What has been your schedule since the Davis Cup tie? ROGER FEDERER: Since Davis Cup, well, been in Switzerland for
three weeks. Had to take time off, that's why I missed Monte-Carlo.
Just didn't have enough time at all to prepare for Monte-Carlo, so that
was the reason for pulling out there. Then I started in the middle of
the week of Monte-Carlo to practice again.
Q. What is your feeling on clay now at the beginning of the season? ROGER FEDERER: So-so. I played well in Romania on clay, but
that was indoors so it's different. Haven't felt great yet on the
practice courts, and today also wasn't so good. I thought, you know,
obviously the conditions were very difficult, and, you know, I got to
improve very much for the next round. Otherwise, it will be very
difficult.
Q. In recent seasons, people were always saying, "Why
don't you take a break? Why don't you take a break," when you were
playing and playing. You obviously needed the break that you just had.
But at the same time, we had people like Roddick and Agassi and Fish
that didn't come to Monte-Carlo and it wasn't a case of injuries; they
just didn't come. ROGER FEDERER: Hmm.
Q. So one of the top ATP tournaments was without big stars. Is
that inevitable nowadays with so many tournaments and so many
commitments? ROGER FEDERER: No, also here, this tournament also is missing
some guys, you know. But anyway, you know, you have to understand the
American players, too, that Monte-Carlo is very early in the season so,
you know... I think it was maybe little bit of just bad luck also for
Monte-Carlo that at the same time so many guys pulled out and for --
especially maybe with less of a reason than injury. But I think, you
know -- because I think the schedule is a little tighter this year than
it was the last past years because of Olympics, people maybe, you know,
want to save that energy for the American hard court season with the
Olympics involved. Everybody will have to do that trip back and forth,
so I guess that's maybe an explanation; I don't know.
Q. As you were saying, very windy conditions today, very tight
first set. I mean, you're up against an opponent who always fights
anyway. It was a difficult first round for you. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good, actually,
draw for me, not to play a clay courter in the first round. But you
never know what's gonna happen in the first round anyway, so it doesn't
really matter who you play. You know, I had the chance early to break
and I didn't. That kind of just made me play more defensive. I didn't
believe too much in my shots. You could see I was shanking a lot of
balls and getting worried and upset. You know, that's what happens -
especially on clay. You can get very quickly frustrated, and that's
what happened. I'm very happy I won the first set, because the second
set at least I could take some chances because in the beginning I was
just playing safe.
Q. Now you've got very much a clay court player next in Albert Costa. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah. So we'll see what happens. No, looking
forward to this match. I'm really going to try to get a revenge on him
- the match he beat me last year in Miami where I had few matchpoints.
That's definitely one of the players I'm happy to play against. I
haven't seen him around too much lately, so I guess he still plays
pretty much the same when he won the French Open. So I've got to be
ready and hopefully play better.
Q. You've not played him on clay before? ROGER FEDERER: No, I don't think so. Only indoors and hard courts.
Q. Because of the kind of player you are, the way you play your
strokes, you move and etc., when you have to take a break, do you find
it quite hard to come back and get into a rhythm straightaway? ROGER FEDERER: Not really. Actually, I find the rhythm very
quickly, but it's more, you know, the danger of the first round. You
know, you can hit freely during maybe two weeks in practice, then you
get to the match and this is actually what it's all about, this is what
you been working for. Suddenly, maybe you think twice if you should
really go for that shot or not. That's maybe what happened today. I
always play more safe in the early rounds of a tournament, and I hope I
get through them and then I can start to hit harder and, you know, go
for the lines a little bit more. Automatically, the serve also follows.
So these are all the things where you don't quite know where they at.
Now that I've won my first round, I know what I want to improve for
next match. So in a way, it's good.
Q. Is it right that you use natural gut on the main string and synthetic on the... ROGER FEDERER: Since two years.
Q. Because in talking with some stringer, they said it's not so logic to play on this way. ROGER FEDERER: Actually, you know, I played the first time with
this kind of string here two years ago against Gaudenzi. I wasn't happy
(smiling). And then I won Hamburg the week after, so it was a big
surprise for me. But I tested all kinds of different strings and
weights of string. I thought that was what was best for my game.
Q. It was someone suggest to you or your own feel? ROGER FEDERER: No, my own feel. Peter Carter, actually, also
gave me the advice to test it the other way because usually the players
use the synthetic on the main.
Q. Do you know the last time you threw your racquet on the tennis court? ROGER FEDERER: Against Henman in Rotterdam. It was hard in Rotterdam so... Not so far, not so long ago (smiling).
Q. Roger, can you explain technically what it does for you, the stringing? What does it do for your game? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I think it's important that you know what
you're going to do with the strings, how you use it, and how hard you
will string it on different conditions and opponents. It's kind of very
complex, everything, because it can get to your mental game very
quickly. So even though at one point also today I thought the strings
were too loose, but you kind of got to block it out and say that,
"Well, I have nothing else in the bag, and these racquets, I've got to
be able to win with this." Yeah, it's complicated, you know. Yeah, some
weeks they string better, some they don't, so...
Q. You're asked this every time you appear, but you've had the three weeks' break. Have you thought any more about a new coach? ROGER FEDERER: Not really, no. Still the same. I'm happy really
in the way it is now. I'm not actually even thinking about it too much
because I like it the way it is and, yeah... So I don't see a reason
why to change.
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