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Friday, 21 January, 2005
Australian Open Third Round
By ASAP Sports
R. FEDERER/J. Nieminen 6-3, 5-2 (Retired)
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
THE MODERATOR: First question, please.
Q. You made a slightly hesitant start. Was that a little bit the conditions? A bit breezy down there. ROGER FEDERER: Actually, I had the wind on my side so there you go (smiling). Q. It was unusual. Silence in the crowd. ROGER
FEDERER: It was a little unusual, you know. At least when you get
broken in the first game, you know ‑‑ in a way you have a little bit of
time to get back into the match. But I wasn't happy. That's
clear. I was a little irritated after that, and just worried, you know,
because I had the feeling this could be a tough match, and I knew that
from the start. Then I ended up losing my first service game. That was
bad. But I bounced back and slowly really started to feel that
there was a chance on his serve and this is when I really started to
play better. Q. Because of your record over the last six months
or so, do you get the impression that people don't expect you to make
any mistakes and are kind of shocked when you miss the kind of volley
you missed in the first game? ROGER FEDERER: Well, now I start to
feel, you know, at times in matches, you know, when I get broken,
people are surprised. So I don't want to know how it is when I lose a
set, you know. Well, I saw it in Kooyong, actually, when I lost a set to Gaudio in exhibition. They couldn't believe it. We'll
see what happens next match. But I think they so used to that I'm
winning, you know, so people don't understand when I'm losing. It's not
that simple. Q. What about you? How do you react when you miss shots now? ROGER
FEDERER: Well, you know, it's something very normal. In practice I miss
sometimes shots you cannot believe. But in a match, the concentration
is higher and there's something ‑‑ you're really playing for something,
you know, for everything. I don't know, it's okay. I can handle
it. As long as I'm not really losing the match, losing sets, you know,
that's fine. But I always want to play better than I am. But today I
thought it was pretty okay. Q. Did you have an inkling before
the match, whatever you did this morning, in your warm‑up or anything,
that you were feeling a little bit flat, that it just wasn't quite
there at the start for you? ROGER FEDERER: No, no. I had the
usual warm‑up. Everything was going according to plan. But, again, it's
a left‑hander. You know, totally different match to the match I played
before. And sometimes that just takes a little bit of ‑‑ a couple of
games to get used to it. You know, I had a bad start. But I always say important is the reaction after that. I showed it also today again, as against Suzuki,
when I was down a break, that you can recover from that and end up
winning the set. That's what I did. I started to play better, like I
said. But didn't feel nervous this morning or anything, no. Q.
Do you see any reason why a few years ago there were even five
left‑handers in the Top 10, and now there are not almost any any more?
Do you think there is a reason for that, tactically? ROGER FEDERER: I think the parents usually teach you to write and do stuff right‑handed, I guess. Q. That was years ago. ROGER
FEDERER: Still now, I think. It's just a normal way to be, I would
guess. And it's becoming more dominant than it used to be. For me, I
cannot explain. I'm not a ‑‑ some specialist, so... Q. Have you
had a chance to look at the matches of some of your main contenders? If
you have, have you noticed any variation in their play that might be
different to what you might have seen previously? ROGER FEDERER:
No. You know, the bottom half is very relaxing to watch because you
know you're not going to play them before the finals, if you actually
ever get there. So that is always nice to see the matches. The
one in your half of the draw, you know, you're more concerned about
those. But I haven't seen anything new they have added to their games
over the off‑season. I think, you know, everybody knows how short the
off‑season is. For some who play Davis Cup finals, it's even more difficult. I think throughout the year you will maybe see some changes, but not now in the early stages. Q. You appeared to be content to get to the net perhaps quicker in rallies than has been the norm. Is that something that Tony has said, "Get in, vary it a little"? ROGER
FEDERER: No. He didn't tell me to get in, no. I think he's happy when I
vary my game. But he didn't tell me, "Come in extra against this guy,"
or anything. I just had the feeling, you know, if I can play a
couple of good volleys and make him feel the pressure, you know, that
he really has to hit great passing shots, after a while, I just had the
feeling he probably couldn't come up with all those shots on a regular
basis. You know, sometimes, you know, of course I got surprised,
sometimes I missed a volley. But all in all, I still had the feeling
that when I was at the net, he had a lot of pressure because he was
struggling to get my slice up at times. It frustrates him. I can break
his rhythm like this. That was the reason why I did it. Q. Do
you think the fact ‑‑ I know you were hurt in the fall, but the fact
you didn't play too much in the fall is helping you be mentally fresh
down here this time of year? ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. I don't have that feeling. I would have preferred to play Basel
and those tournaments. But I think it would have been the same no
matter what. It's only two or three tournaments I would have played
more. Q. Did you ever figure out why you had that injury, what caused it or anything? Was there any explanation? ROGER
FEDERER: I was a little unlucky, I thought. You know, I had ‑‑ yeah, I
was unlucky. I had a look at it with my physio, with my condition
trainer, what I might have done wrong. But it was a bad movement, you
know. Maybe like Jarkko today, you know, there are just things
sometimes you cannot control. I could play tennis like this. You know,
I was practicing till the morning itself. But then I just realized or
the doctors told me this thing won't go away if you keep on playing. So
I knew there was no chance for me to win the tournament. Who knows, I
might have won the first round and then had to give a walkover then.
But that's not what I was there for. So I'd rather take it easy and
make sure I could play the Masters, actually, so that's what I did. Q. It just happened in one quick motion in a practice session; it wasn't over time? ROGER
FEDERER: Could have been also. But I felt muscle pain in my legs, and
actually it was probably more than muscle pain, because I don't have
muscle pain every day. But, yeah, I think it was just pretty unfortunate. I didn't realize it quick enough, actually, how serious it was.
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