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ROGERS CUP MENAugust 10, 2014Roger FedererTORONTO, ONTARIO J. TSONGA/R. Federer THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. What was it about Tsonga's serve today that gave you so much problem? ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. I think it was the overall day conditions that were tough for me. It was faster than in the night, all my previous matches, so I think the turnaround was tough. I definitely think Jo served well, and when he does serve well it's always going to be hard. But not to win more points on his first serve‑‑ I don't know the second serve stat, but I need to have a better impact on that normally. Today was just difficult in terms of rhythm from the baseline, so it was like a new tournament for me today. No excuses. I think he played really solid and well when he had to, and like you mentioned, I think he served well overall, which was key for him. Q. How do you assess the week, even though you didn't take the title, obviously, but in looking ahead. ROGER FEDERER: Look, I mean, I'm overall pretty happy that I made the finals in my first tournament back on hard courts. Had a few tough matches which clearly gave me a lot of information. I know what I need to work on the next few days and next few weeks, which is good to know what I need to do other than feeling lost, you know. I don't feel that way. I wish I could have played a bit better in the finals today, but I think, like I mentioned, the facts were that it was tough for me. Jo did come with all the day session into the finals. I didn't. So there were things I could have done better, but, you know, overall it was a positive week. You know, I go away from this feeling good about my chances next week and also at the US Open and for the rest of the season. It's another good tournament for me, which I'm happy about. Q. Despite the loss, you seem happy for Jo. Do you think that this is his time? He might be able to carry this over to the upcoming tournaments? ROGER FEDERER: I hope for him, yeah. I hope he can back it up even though he doesn't really necessarily need to do it right away next week. But I hope he can keep it up, you know, just for the remainder of the season. You know, now I guess he can also make a bit of a run for the World Tour Finals again. He's back in the top 10. It's going to be interesting just to see the dynamics of him playing well, not being in the top 8, you know, what that's going to create for next week ‑ I don't know where he is in the draw ‑ and then also going into the US Open and beyond. So, you know, like anyone predicted, it was going to be an interesting second half to the season. With Jo playing well again, that clearly mixes things up again a bit. Q. You're 33 years old. Two years from now... ROGER FEDERER: Thanks for the reminder, by the way. It sounded really, like, big. (Laughter.) Q.  Happy Birthday, by the way. It's young for me. ROGER FEDERER: Okay. Q. Two years from now the Olympics are going to be going on basically the same time that this tournament is scheduled for. Is it possible this is the last time you play Toronto? ROGER FEDERER: Well, "basically" doesn't mean "quite exactly." There is a chance I can come back. I don't know if it's the week before or week after. I think it's just the week before. I will have to see how I feel then, you know, how am I playing, what is the best possible preparation for the Olympics, because I guess that's going to take the importance of the summer, you know. So we'll see how it goes. It really depends the nine months leading into sort of that summer, really. I can't answer that question now. Q. If we talk about guys who haven't yet won a Grand Slam on the tour, would you put Jo at the top of the list or among the guys that you would say, Yeah, he's very likely to be one of the guys who could break through? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah. I mean, he's been in semis and finals before. Was this his first Masters 1000? Second? What did he win? Bercy? Right. And then he's won a couple of 1000s now. So, yeah, he's in contention. Plus he's been in the finals of the World Tour Finals, as well. He's been up there. I think especially when his confidence is high, he's a big confidence player, he can beat top 10 guys, you know. He did four of them this week. Sometimes I think it's hard to do throughout the year, and then to do four of it in the same week is going to give him sky‑high confidence. I think that's how he needs to feel to win Grand Slams. Anything not this high with confidence is going to be quite unlikely for him to do it. Q. What does Jo do that Milos Raonic doesn't do? ROGER FEDERER: I mean, it's a totally different player. Really, it's not fair to compare one to another. Totally different background. But then there is some similar base, you know, in terms of both have a good serve and both have a good forehand. That's what the majority of the players anyway have these days. Then it's about, I guess, cleaning up the rest of your game and moving well and all that stuff. But clearly Jo is much older than Milos is, so Jo has been able to create more chances naturally because he's been on the tour longer. Milos has had a very good career so far already. Q. You know in matches where you have two players who hold serve very well and who are very dominant on their serves, it comes down to, you know, the big points. It was obviously a very close match, 7‑5, 7‑6. Was there any difference that you felt just in terms of, you know, not maybe pushing him to get yourself a break point and then pushing forward? Was there any difference as far as, you know, your level of comfort with him today? You have had many close matches in the past. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, like you said, I think I have played many close matches. I know how it feels to go through sets and hours of not breaking. I've been there. You know, I have done it to opponents; opponents have done it to me. Nothing new there. I definitely felt much further away from victory than he did. I mean, naturally because of the scoreline, I mean, he was in the lead, but I just didn't feel like I was playing good enough to win today. It was just really frustrating the way I felt out there. I fought. I mixed it up, and I was hoping to, you know, sort of sneak in a set and then maybe, you know, he would get a bit nervous or maybe would play a bad game. But I just couldn't create enough opportunities. So I think he deserved to win at the end of the day. It was pretty simple, in my opinion. Q. The question about the psychological preparation for this game, were you surprised when you started to play? How were you prepared, for example, when you're always behind the score? ROGER FEDERER: I didn't understand, I'm sorry. Q. The psychological preparation for this game, for a final game, is completely different that you had before, right? So, I mean, how you will feel the psychologically, how you will prepare for this game? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, I feel much better today than I did yesterday. I was quite tired yesterday from the Cilic and the Ferrer match. I think especially the Cilic match came out like two days later. I felt tired yesterday during the day, but then once the match came about, I was actually feeling pretty well, you know. So today actually I feel much better. The preparation was simple, you know, in the sense that, you know, I woke up, came over here prepared, and played the match. That's it. You know, it was just a turnaround from late nights to all of a sudden day. It gave me less time. Just also the way, you know, you feel out there. I didn't start poorly. You know, I think actually the beginning of the match was actually my best part of the match. So from that standpoint I was happy how I was feeling and playing. But then that it actually start to drop off rather than get better, that's what disappointed me the most today. Before the match I was feeling really calm, I was feeling good about my chances, I felt like my game was good this week. It wasn't great, but it was good enough to potentially win. I came close today, but, you know, not close enough to create enough opportunities. Q. (Off microphone.) ROGER FEDERER: I was not playing good enough. You can be as nervous as you want to be. If you can't hit forehands or whatever, it's just, like‑‑ it wasn't my day, man. It was just a shitty day. (Laughter.) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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