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Monday, June 28, 2004
Wimbledon Fourth Round
By Wimbledon Official Site
R. FEDERER/I. Karlovic 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5)
Roger Federer Interview
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Roger. Q. How does it feel to be in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon? ROGER
FEDERER: I'm very pleased again to be back in the quarters. It's the
third time for me. You know, really tough match today. So big
satisfaction. Q. Now you know what it's like to return a serve from someone 6' 10". What is it like? ROGER
FEDERER: It is definitely, you know, different. You know, I faced the
pace of the serve, but it's a different angle it's coming from. So it
makes it ‑‑ the thing is, you're not used to it, you know. He serves
very consistent. I had the feeling he was serving a lot of first serves
today. I thought he was going to maybe double‑fault much more in the
second and give me maybe more chances. But I had a great first
set, I thought. From then on, I didn't have really too much of a chance
on his serve, except maybe at the beginning of the third. So, you know,
it's a nice experience, I have to say. Q. Speaking of big
servers, when you do play Andy Roddick at any tournament, not saying
it's necessarily going to happen here, but what is the biggest
challenge of facing him? ROGER FEDERER: Just his serve or just him? Q. His game. ROGER
FEDERER: Well, first you got to be able to read his serve a little bit,
be able to, you know, control the returns. Especially second serve, you
have to try to do as much as you can. You know, first of all, you've
always got to focus on your own serve to make life more comfortable,
you know. Because if you get down or if you always have to face
breakpoints all the time, you can't really focus on the opponent's
serve anymore. So this is what I usually do against big servers. Q.
There are people in this room that say you have the perfect game.
You're the player they most like to watch. What goes through your mind
when you hear that? ROGER FEDERER: It's nice to hear, you
know. I've gotten many, many compliments throughout my career, so it's
not really something new. But I enjoy, you know, obviously the way I'm
playing right now because I'm winning many matches. That was not always
the case. So I'm enjoying this. Q. Was there more
concentration required against this guy because you never know if
you're ever going to break his serve, and you have to hold yours? ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah. I think it's more of a ‑ how do you say ‑ the pulse is
higher when you're ‑ how do you say ‑ not doing anything. Usually the
pulse goes up when you run. You know, but against him, it's more, "I
hope he's not going to have a huge swing at my ball and, you know, I'll
be down. Suddenly if I get broken, I will never see that set again."
And that's really the scary thing about playing guys like this. You
know if you get broken that there's a very big chance to ‑‑ well, that
you're going to lose the set. That makes the pulse go up a little bit. Q. When was the last time you were broken? ROGER FEDERER: What do you mean? Q. Your serve was broken. ROGER FEDERER: This year? Q. Yes. ROGER FEDERER: French, no (smiling)? It was in Halle against ‑ I don't know ‑ maybe second, third round. I don't know. Q.
Not that the serve was ever easy to return, but did you finally get to
a point in this match where you thought, "I'm getting a little more
comfortable with what he's hitting, and if he just gives me half a
chance, I think I'm going to be able to do something with it"? ROGER
FEDERER: I felt more like I was reading his serve really well in the
beginning, you know, the first set. I got chances right away in the
first game. After that I thought, you know, I always had a good look at
it. Didn't give many aces. After that I had the feeling like he
started, you know, to change tactics a little bit, would go a little
bit more to my backhand on the ad court. I couldn't figure it out, you
know, that I would never catch it. That was putting me under pressure. He
gave me a chance then again in the end of the third when he started
really to miss many first serves. But at that point I was so out of
rhythm on the return that I couldn't even take advantage of that
anymore. So I needed the tiebreaker to win. Q. Was there any way you could prepare for this, like having someone stand up on a chair and hit you serves? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, you can have friends standing up to the service line and
serve it from there. It's maybe similar, I don't know. Q. Did you do that yesterday? ROGER FEDERER: I didn't, no. It's all about reaction and trying to read his serve. I knew it's going to come down to that. Q. Do you almost sort of start feeling invincible on grass when you have a run like this, not even dropping sets? ROGER FEDERER: Say again. Q. Do you almost start feeling invincible on grass when you've had this sort of run when you're not even dropping sets? ROGER
FEDERER: I don't try to think too much of it, you know. I have to say
every match so far on grass has been, you know, quite unbelievable.
I've always played great tennis. There's not a match where I remember
I've played bad tennis and came through. I always played very good. And
I think this is good looking ahead to the tournament because, you know,
from here on only tough opponents will come my way. But I don't, I don't know, check too much how many matches I won in a row now. I couldn't even tell you. Q. Having said that, do you feel there's anyone that can beat you if you're playing on top of your game on grass? ROGER FEDERER: Right now? Q. Yes. ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah, for sure. There's many guys around who have a chance,
you know, always. I try to prepare the best I can. So far preparation
was good. Also, every time I step on the court, you know, I'm playing
at a very high level. You really need somebody who can play in the very
high level, also very consistently. So far nobody's been able to do
that on grass this year, but it can change very quickly. Q.
Does it give you more confidence to have faced a different kind of test
today? You've played two baseliners up till now, and this guy is
banging in big serves, coming in behind them. To win convincingly
again, does that give you more confidence going into? ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah, definitely, because beating different players with
different styles is always, you know, a challenge. You know, some have
their strengths in the return, some have them in the serve. Some with
the movement, some with the volley. So it's always a nice challenge. That's
why I was really looking forward to this match with Karlovic because
there's been so much talk about his serve, and I've seen it, you know,
against players. You always have a to smile. But when you face
it, you just try to ignore really what's coming my way because I try to
win against him. That's really what I tried to do, and it was a nice
match, you know, fair. I really enjoyed it. Q. Was it sometimes annoying to be in a match like that where there's no rhythm? ROGER FEDERER: No, it's nice for a change really. Q. Why? ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah, it is, because, I mean, I knew that I might just, you
know, walk from side to side for games. That's no problem because, I
mean, as long as I'm holding my serve easily, too, that's okay. So that
was the case. Q. How would you sum up your performance today overall? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, good. Very consistent performance. I'm very happy
really. Came up with, you know, good shots at the right time. You know,
two tiebreaks, it's always good to win tiebreakers. Hadn't played one
yet, so it's good. Q. What is it about your game that makes this surface so comfortable and so successful for you? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, I think my strength is, you know, that my serve is
better on grass. You know, I can ‑‑ especially because I think I have a
very good second serve, as well, that is even more effective here on
the grass. The ball doesn't bounce as high on the returns for me, so it
always stays low where I can hit it harder. Especially the movement
comes very natural for me on the grass. So I think that has its
strengths. Q. We don't know who you'll be facing yet in the
quarterfinals, Hewitt or Moya. Can you just talk us through how you
feel about playing each of those? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, well,
for sure a very tough match. I'm going to play a player who's got a lot
of experience. You know, against Lleyton would be extremely tough
because he won here in the past. Everybody knows what great matches we
had. Moya, you know, on grass, he doesn't play too often, so
it's tough to say how strong he is. But if he can beat a player like
Hewitt in the fourth round, I think that will be also a very difficult
test, even though I've got a much better record against him. Yeah, no matter what, I have to play, again, very good to go through.
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