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Sunday, 9 July, 2006
Wimbledon Final
By ASAP Sports
R. FEDERER/R. Nadal 6-0, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3
An interview with: ROGER FEDERER
THE MODERATOR: Roger Federer for you.
Q. Can you walk us through that match and how it felt from the first set onwards. ROGER
FEDERER: Uhm, well, obviously the start was, you know, absolutely
perfect. I played fantastic, didn't miss any shots and everything. Then
it was over in a hurry. That was perfect for me, obviously, because I
had momentum on my side. I tried to make a difference early in the
second set but couldn't do that, you know. Fell back with a break. I
was lucky enough to come back and break back when he served for the
set. That was maybe key to the match, because after that I also played
a very good tiebreaker, and was up then two sets to love. From then on
obviously was hard for him, but I thought, you know, was getting harder
and harder for both players to break serve. That was the case till
early on in the fourth set when I started to when I broke him once and
I sort of took control of the match. Q. Did you have any
purpose in playing your backhand in that first set? You looked like you
were playing more slice, more towards the middle. Was that purposeful
to reduce the amount of errors? ROGER FEDERER: I mean, he
serves, you know, pretty good. All you try to do in the beginning is
just try to get the ball back in a position where maybe he can't hurt
you too much on the first shot, you know. That's what I was really
trying to do. I mean, it worked for the first set. After that,
obviously, the nerves, they loosened up and he started to play better
and also started to serve better. So, you know, no, but the purpose was
to really get the ball back deep and try to make it hard for him. Q. Do you have your sights set on number five already? ROGER
FEDERER: No, not really (smiling). I'm looking forward to next year,
obviously, but this was a very tough match for me. And, you know, to
come through for another year, it's just an incredible feeling. You
don't put your eyes right away on the first round match next year, no. Q.
A lot of people felt there was a tremendous amount of pressure on you
coming into this situation. People were talking about Rafa beating you
on other surfaces. This was your place, your house. In a way, it
couldn't have been easy for you to deal with all that. What was your
feeling on that? Did you feel that pressure? ROGER FEDERER:
I'm very well aware of how important this match was for me. If I lose,
obviously it's a hard blow for me. He wins French, Wimbledon, back to
back. I was twice in the finals. That already hurt alone, but it was
still great tournaments for me. It's important for me to win a finals
against him for a change and beat him for a change. At Wimbledon I knew
it was gonna be the place for me to do it the easiest way. Turned out
to be tough and it shows how much he's improved over maybe an entire
year. But maybe, you know, I had the pressure he had at the French
Open, you know. I was trying to break his clay court streak there. He
tried to break my grass court streak here. I think it was kind of tough
to play each other again. Q. Is a part of you a little disappointed to lose a set in the final? ROGER FEDERER: Not really, no. As long as I don't lose three, it's okay (laughter). Q.
You said on court that you had doubts early on in the tournament. Were
they more than usual? Was there a particular reason why you had doubts
in the earlier rounds? ROGER FEDERER: No, I think, you
know, coming from maybe the loss in Paris and then struggling all the
way through to Halle, even though I thought I played pretty good, then
I looked at the draw. Everybody was talking about the streak from Bjorn
Borg. I equaled and can beat it and all this stuff. I thought, I mean,
this draw looks like this streak might come to an end very soon, you
know, sort of, not because I might play bad, but because I have really
dangerous players. So, you know, these things go through your head. And
I didn't think once, you know, that maybe I hold the trophy again. It
only came once I beat I think Ancic in the quarters. Q.
After two sets, did the plot seem kind of familiar? Very easy set first
set and then he came back second set: French Open final. ROGER
FEDERER: Well, little bit, yeah, obviously. There I won the first set 6
1. I think it was 1 All, 40 15 for me in the second set of the French
Open. And, look, I mean, I thought it was an unfortunate game I played
there. I think I served pretty good and he got back some good balls.
And, uhm, yeah, I mean he covers the court very well. It was a pity I
got the break obviously early on. Again, momentum was on my side. But,
you know, just with such good players, they can sometimes decide on
their own, too, when they want to break. He had a good game there, so... Q.
Was there anything about Nadal's play today that made you come up with
shots or do certain things that kind of surprised you or forced you to
be much better than you thought you could, or was it kind of easy all
the way through? ROGER FEDERER: No, no, it wasn't easy. But,
yeah, I was sort of surprised how hard he started to hit the ball in
the end. He started to really go flat out, sort of end of the third.
And then in the fourth set, you know, he sort of decided to, you know,
stop with the spin balls and more just swing his backhand especially
more freely. Makes it more difficult, too, because all of a sudden he's
more dangerous, too. But, look, I had to I could have maybe won in
three, but I also could have been down two sets to one at the same
time. So very, very pleased, actually, the way I played today because I
thought I made it hard for him to really get a rhythm from the
baseline. I served well. Those were important things I really wanted to
do before the match. Q. What was running through your mind actually as you won the match? ROGER
FEDERER: Oh, it's just, you know, sort of disbelief. You can't believe
you did it again. You know, I came into this final with a lot of
confidence, playing so well. Came in very relaxed, too, you know,
because I wasn't physically tired. It's just, I don't know, great
feeling once again. Just really anxious to go and hold that trophy once
again. Q. Do you think Nadal put up a tougher fight at Wimbledon than you did at the French in the final? ROGER
FEDERER: Similar, I would think. Yeah, I mean, he had his chances
today, I had my chances at the French, you know. Maybe both times you
could see that maybe the other players were just a bit more confident
or just got a bit of better feeling on that surface, on his surface
let's say. I think that's what came out today, too. Q. With
this degree of success, this degree of fame and money, everything else,
what is it now in the next couple of days that would really make you
happy? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I know a vacation will make me
happy (smiling). I plan those, so...I mean, I would have had vacation
no matter if I would have lost first round or won the tournament. So
obviously I'm looking forward to that. I mean, I'm so happy that,
again, many, many friends and family came to watch me here. So we're
gonna enjoy obviously tonight, the champion's dinner. That's, I think,
always very enjoyable. And then, yeah, I'm looking forward to go for a
vacation. Q. As the best player in the world, how important
is it for you to have a rivalry or challenge from somebody like Nadal
who's burst on to the scene now? ROGER FEDERER: Well, for
me, you know, I look at the big picture, you know, trying to stay
healthy and trying to play well, you know, every tournament. And he's
not always playing the same tournaments, you know, so obviously that's
why I don't really look at the rivalry too much. But I think when we
play so often in finals, I think it adds something to the game, you
know, because people sometimes miss it and sometimes they don't have it
and they want it, and when they have it, they don't want it. It's kind
of very strange how that goes. I think now it's great. He's up and
coming. I used to be the youngster. Now I'm, you know, sort of getting
older. But, you know, he's so young that it's actually great rivalry I
think we're having at the moment. Sometimes they absolutely can help
tennis. Q. From the fashion police, will you be wearing that jacket tonight and what will be your fashion statement next year? ROGER
FEDERER: Yeah, we have to figure it out, what we do next year with
Nike. But for tonight, uhm, I got to be chic, so I guess I have no
choice. Q. Do you think you might donate the jacket to the Wimbledon museum? ROGER FEDERER: It will definitely make it there, yes. Q.
Did you sense that you were giving him more trouble with your sliced
backhand? You were doing great in the first set, then just used it to
break him by the second set. Were you waiting for that moment? ROGER
FEDERER: I mean, I was struggling to really get into his service games,
you know, midway through the second and third, fourth set, was getting
way more difficult. I knew that's actually what I expected from the
start, you know. But I had such a great start, so you always hope that
you're gonna break him one more, and another one. It's all going very
smoothly. But, uhm, the slice definitely worked well today, and I think
that is obviously why I play so well on grass, you know. Other
surfaces, obviously it's hard especially on clay, you know. A good
defense slice can help you out, but an offensive slice sometimes
doesn't really give you everything, you know, on clay. On hard court it
pays off more. That's maybe why my results are even better on grass and
hard court.
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