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Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Halle First Round
By Gerry Weber Open Official Site
Interview with Roger Federer
Press-Conference with Roger Federer (SUI) after his win against Robin Soderling (SWE) 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (8-6), 6-4
? Roger, compared with last year this was a more difficult start on grass, wasn't it?
! Yes, you're right, of course. There was obviously much less time this year than the last two or even three years, when I lost early at the French Open. I remember I was arriving here on Wednesday before the tournament started, then having five or six days to get ready for the season. Now I was coming from a tough French Open-weekend and I was not as fresh that I was like to be. This year it was basically one and a half day. It was tough, but I'm really happy to have come through today. It was, as expected, a tough match.
? Did you expect such a tough match?
! Well, you expect a tough match, but this one was obviously a bit scary, because he was two points away from beating me. Anyway, I made it, and these kind of matches are very important. I had a couple of matches like this and won the tournament in the end, so these can be crucial matches. Of course during the match you hope it's gonna be easier. If I had lost, I would have sit here and had no more matches to play almost before Wimbledon, except the doubles tomorrow, things would be very different. But now I can look ahead, I'm confident, because every match I play here this week, I'm the favourite. I've to try to use that und try to get prepared well for Wimbledon. Not all things today were totally bad today, it was a great performance, but I think he played also really good tennis. I think, he did a good job returning my serve, keeping me on the back, playing aggressive - today's tough match had a lot to do with him.
? What happenend when you sat down in the third and the supervisor came on the court? A problem with the linesman?
! No, there was no problem with the linesman. Well, when the ball bounced Söderling had already asked me for the call but continued playing afterwords, which I don't think is very fair from his side. Well, he continued the point after he hit the ball and was obviously also in disbelieve that they call it in. That again I think is not very fair. He played a stop, crowd got involved, I got to the net and he hit the winner. Too much things were going on just before around that one bounce. These are the reasons why I wanted to see the supervisor to see, what he had to say, because I didn't like the arguments the chair-umpire gave me. It's a tough call to make for the umpire, but I really thought he clearly stopped the point. But he gave me some weird arguments like "We're not on clay". Besides I asked the umpire if he saw that the other had stopped playing and the umpire said "Yes". For me that didn't make any sense. Anyway, I found this was a strange explanation they gave and wanted to replay the point. All in all it was an unfortunate situation.
? What do you expect from your next opponent Florian Mayer?
! He plays a completely different game than most other players, a very different technique. It'll be interesting to see how he'll finally play in a serious match because so far I just practiced with him last year in Wimbledon. He plays much better than he seems to be. I know how dangerous he is, because I saw him playing pretty good matches. After his fabulous last year he wasn't able to hold his level constantly now, but nevertheless he remains quite dangerous, especially in Germany.
? Do you think the duel Federer-Nadal will become the big competition in the following years?
! Yes, it could be, but there are some other players who have an other opinion. I think we should not forget Hewitt, Safin or Roddick. I don't see only Nadal, therefore it will be interesting in the future.
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