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Friday, January 14, 2005
Kooyong Classic Semifinal
By Kooyong Classic Official Site
R. FEDERER/T. Henman 6-4, 6-2
ROGER FEDERER Transcript of press conference
Q: You are having a good time out there. You've got a good relationship which extends both on and off the court.
A: Yeah, we had a good match today, I thought, a lot of winners and a lot of attacking play, like we could expect, and I thought the conditions were nice, thought they were quite quick actually today. Of course, always ... playing Tim but anyway I thought it was hard to control and that's the reason I'm very happy with today's performance because he is always a tricky opponent, has been in the past and still is, and whenever I can beat him I'm always a very happy man.
Q: To play the number two seed two days out from a grand Slam, how do you approach a match like that?
A: I was supposed to play him last year as well, he pulled out because of blisters, so I hope tomorrow we will play the match like we were supposed to play last year, even though tomorrow is the final and last year was I think third or fourth but I'm looking forward to this prospect because it's always nice when the number one and number two play each other and it's going to be interesting to see two days just before a Slam.
Q: You have both been working on stuff over the break. Is there a part of you that might not show him some of your best stuff that you have got, things that you have been working on that you might save for the tournament?
A: I think it's more in a defensive situation, just going to make sure you are not going to pull a muscle. I might just hold back on a couple of stretch balls, which maybe you are going to lose a point anyway, the chances are so small. Other than that, I think everyone wants to play his own game because looking ahead to the Open I don't think you should change your game too much because then you might enter the tournament a little bit confused.
Q: You've seen who you are playing at least in the first round of the Australian Open, how do you see that match-up?
A: It's a tricky match. I always prefer to play such opponents maybe later on in the draw, like I played him at the US open, I think it was the third or fourth round, I think it was the third round, and beat him quite comfortably over there but you never know; if the rhythm is a little bit off you are guessing many of the shots and you have to be confident to move into the net, in the past I've coped well with that so I expect myself again to go into the match and play aggressive and put him into a defensive position.
Q: You've got Andre Agassi in your quarter as well, presuming he is fit. Do you look at quarter finals this early?
A: You see he's around, who's around, but I believe that draws are tough, it's the best of five, you don't play best of fives every day, so first you've got to get used to them and win them before you can start thinking about quarters and semis. The same with the Grand Slams, you know the draw but you don't really talk about it.
Q: Roger, as things stand at the moment is there anything at all that's giving you any cause for concern going into this Slam?
A: No, everything is pretty good and I'm very happy with my second match here at Kooyong, it's much better than the first and this is already a very good sign. Also if I don't play well tomorrow, which could happen very quickly because the rhythm against Andy is not the easiest one to get, but with today's match I had the feeling I'm really heading in the right direction and that's exactly the feeling you've got to have just a few days before the Open.
Q: Correct me if I'm wrong, you don't actually have your conditioning guy with you?
A: No.
Q: Is that a concern at all? Talk us through that decision to not bring him to Australia where the conditions can be quite harsh?
A: I've got my physio here, not my condition trainer so I'm not going to start doing fitness on my off days during a slam; everything is very carefully planned, my schedule has been discussed and we thought this was the right way to do it. He was in Australia with me in Sydney so I've been doing my work on and off court.
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