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Saturday, July 3, 2004
Wimbledon Semifinal
By Wimbledon Official Site
R. FEDERER/S. Grosjean 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
Roger Federer Interview
THE MODERATOR: First question for Roger. Q.
How important was it to get your temper under control, as a kid, to
your successes now? When you were younger, you had a bad temper. Now
you've cooled down. I'm wondering how important that was? ROGER
FEDERER: It was very important for me to realise, you know, that I have
to focus more on the game instead of, you know, losing energy, throwing
the rackets, screaming, getting angry at mistakes, you know. Took
me a while, but finally I figured it out, and now I feel very good on
the court. I feel very relaxed. Makes me play better tennis. Q.
There's a lot of interesting points in the short finish of this match.
One of them was at 6‑6 in the tiebreak where you had to hit a reflex
volley. Had you missed that, he would have been serving for the set.
Was that a difficult shot for you to make or not? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, after not really. But if you miss it, yes (smiling). It
is always one of those points where you don't have much time. You just
hope, you know, you put the racket in the right angle, so it just drops
over to the other net. Really, that's the way I felt. After I
hit it, I said, "That wasn't too difficult," even though I was hoping
he would miss the passing shot. After I made it, it was not that
difficult. Q. Do you consider yourself sometimes unbeatable on the court? ROGER
FEDERER: No, I always feel like, you know, my opponent has a chance. Of
course, this year has been fantastic for me. You know, it's still very
difficult for me to understand, you know, why and how come that I'm so
dominant this year. But, you know, every match I go with the same
attitude out on the court. I know my opponent will try everything to
beat me. If there are days where I'm not going to play well, you know,
I might lose. I know that this can happen any day. Q. Second Wimbledon finals. How does that hit you? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, it's very nice. You know, I don't know if everybody
realizes actually that this is only my third, you know, Grand Slam
final. And I'm very thrilled. You know, I have to say I'm very happy,
even though my matches have been rather easy, so I couldn't make
summersaults because of, you know, the matches. But, you know, I'm very
happy to be again in the finals and to actually do have the chance now,
finally, to defend my title. I'm really looking forward to this, this
next match. Q. Can you size up a match against Mario or Andy? ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah, finally Mario's doing well, because he beat me here
two years ago. He lost in the next round in straight sets against
Vacek. Yeah, and I was very surprised. And it took him, a while
to maybe get his game together a little bit. But I'm happy to see he's
doing well. Against Andy I've played many more times. It
will be as difficult. They have different games. Mario follows his
serve; Andy doesn't. But I don't have a favorite player I would like to
play in the finals. Q. Does Centre Court feel like your home now? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, I'm still very young and I still need some time to
call it "home." But I feel welcome, very welcome in this place ‑ as a
member now. The chairman always says hello, we always speak a little
bit. We always like to chat. You know, I feel very warm here. Q.
Does everybody consider you so much better than every other player in
the world. Don't you think you're in a risky situation, that if you
win, you're just doing your job, and you have just something to lose? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, this is maybe ‑‑ I felt this way before. But now
that I'm always in contention of winning big tournaments, it changes
because once you won the tournament, then you're such a happy
person. The people realise actually what a great job you did. I
know also for sometimes the second and third round, it's not made to
become famous. I am already famous enough in tennis. These
matches, I look at them like, these are the matches I have to win and
this is also where I push myself almost the hardest. Because once the
tournament gets under way, everything comes very natural for me. Now
that I'm again, you know, have this opportunity to win this tournament
or any big tournament, is a very special feeling. And I also get very
nervous before finals. And these are the moments I work hard and live
for. This is going to be a great match, I hope. Q. There was
some speculation on the television the other night that you might be
doing some damage to your wrist with that amazing action you have on
your forehand. Is that a problem at all? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I haven't had too many wrist problems so far. But I don't know. Who said that? Q. I think they had a viewer contacting them saying you might need an operation (laughter). ROGER FEDERER: It's not flexible enough (smiling)? Q. I thought it was very weird, but that's what they said. ROGER
FEDERER: Well, I feel also I can give the ball an unbelievable amount
of racquet speed. That saves me a lot of points. When the
ball comes very fast to me, I still have enough time, you know, to get
the racket around the ball, to actually be able to control it and play
back with spin. I don't know where that comes from. I love hitting half volleys. Maybe it was because I was lazy before, I had to hit too many, but now I enjoy playing them. Q.
You spoke about your calm on court, how that helps you. Could you
detail that? Does it just give you less pressure at big moments? Does
it let you focus on execution? How does that calm inter‑play with your
success? ROGER FEDERER: Oh, to me it just feels, also in between
matches and on the court, I feel like I'm not losing too much energy.
Before maybe there also was more of an unsecure (sic) feeling I had on
the court, which made me become maybe more nervous, not sure of what
I'm actually going to do. You know, if I would panic a few years ago, I
would just start to serve and volley because I would feel like, well,
my backhand's not working, so how does it work that I don't have to a
backhand? Well, I come to net, so I have to hit volleys. So then I
would get upset. This also wouldn't work. So I had to just ‑‑ it's got a lot also to do with self‑confidence for me, just be able to understand the game itself. Q. Did that happen during your Ancic loss? ROGER
FEDERER: What happened there? I lost first round French, Wimbledon back
to back. I think that was in the year 2002. It made me wonder, yeah,
what's going on. But I have to say the big step, I did it actually in
2001. Before the French Open, I played quarter-finals of French Open,
quarter-finals Wimbledon. These were the tournaments where I realised
actually I'm playing better when I'm more calm. But then I had
the problems where I was too calm for about a year or so. And that was
a problem, too. So I had to get the fire, you know, back in my game,
and I could work it out step by step. But, you know, it took a while. Q.
Your improvement on backhand, are you still working on something
technically or do you consider yourself almost perfect technically? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, I still feel, you know, room for improvement on my
backhand side. I would like to hit the backhand, you know, which comes
higher to my backhand better. But I think a lot had to do with my
backhand was my footwork. Now I'm in better position. Before I would be
really lazy. I would be happy just to play a slice. But now if I
can hit a drive backhand, it's better for my game. This has been
the big improvement for me. Q. How do you consider your
open‑mindedness to change? You split with Peter after winning
Wimbledon. Early in your career you had a psychologist. How important
is that to your success? ROGER FEDERER: What is important, excuse me? Q. The fact that you're open‑minded. ROGER
FEDERER: Well, I think it's important to listen to people you trust.
But, I mean, listen to everybody is not the right thing
either, because a lot of people have different opinions. For me at
the moment, it's definitely the situation where a lot of people
would like to tell me, "Well, shouldn't you do this or that," because
they don't think I have a coach. But I have to say people start
to understand. Because in the beginning of the year, a lot of people
came up to me and said, "You know, you need help. Can I do this for
you?" A lot of people were writing me e‑mails that they think I'm doing
this wrong and that wrong. I don't listen to everybody; I just listen
to the people, you know, I really trust and believe in. This is
why also I'm taking my time with a coach, because I just don't want to
take a coach to travel with me. If I want to start working again with a
coach, it's to improve my game. Anything else would be wrong, I think. Q. What do you like about Ancic's game? Do you think he's got the makeup to be a Top 5, Top 10 type player? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, difficult to say. But, I mean, he's beaten Henman here
which is a very good effort. I think he needs a little bit more to
prove to the top guys at the big events that he belongs in the Top 10.
Top 5 is a big step. Again, I know how hard it was for me to
actually get there. I don't know what his ranking is now. But I still
think he won't jump from right away into the Top 5, unless of course he
wins this tournament, then he's not too far away. The way he's playing now, for grass it's very suited. I've always thought he's a great player. Finally he's making his moves. But we'll see how long it will take him to really go to the top. Q.
How do you feel about this incredible winning streak on grass? I think
you're level with Sampras now, 23 successive victories. ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah, I don't even think about it sometimes. People told me
that he had 23. I knew I was at 22. But I don't know, it's funny. Now I
have a chance actually to win my second Wimbledon, and that would also
pass that winning streak from Sampras. I mean, last year's
grass season was just incredible. I thought, "Well, I've got so many
points to defend, I hope I can just at least play well at Wimbledon.
Hopefully Halle will work okay for me." I started. Hardly lost a serve,
hardly lost a set. For me it's very difficult to explain why and how it
comes. Because, like I've said before, I just try to focus for
every match. And it seems like it's really working out for me. The
grass suits my game. So these are the reasons. Q. Do you have specific targets? Obviously you want to win Wimbledon. Do you have long‑term goals? ROGER
FEDERER: I mean, the goals for this year are clearly to stay at the No.
1 position, to defend this title, and to play well at the Olympics.
These are for me the three main goals. You know, after tomorrow, one
goal is gone, either positive or negative. But long‑term, I
don't say I have a big plan or so to win I don't know how many Grand
Slams or win so many tournaments. I will rethink my goals for the next
year at the end of the year. Q. Are you a better player this year than you were going into last year's final? ROGER FEDERER: I didn't hear the beginning. Q. Are you a better player going into this final than you were a year ago? ROGER FEDERER: Am I a better player? Q. This year than you were last year. ROGER
FEDERER: Oh, difficult to say because last year's semifinal was so
incredible. You know, I thought it was one of the most exciting matches
for me last year to play. This year's semis was different ‑ a lot
of rain delays, a lot of very hard conditions to play in, with
the wind. But what counts I think is to be, again, in the same
position, to be able to win the tournament. I think I'm a more complete
player, you know, more, like I said, secure. I know what I have
to do that maybe last year wasn't quite there because I never won a
Grand Slam. So these are the main changes. Q. What will you do this evening to pass the time? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, not much. I will just have treatment again and
relax really because, I mean, luckily for me the match went very
quickly today. Luckily I didn't have to play four or five sets. That is
an advantage. I have a little bit more time than the other guys. I
don't know how long they will keep waiting if it rains. But I hope we
can play tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that match. But tonight will be similar night to all the other nights.
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