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DAVIS CUP FINALS: SWITZERLAND v FRANCENovember 18, 2014Roger FedererSeverin LuthiStan WawrinkaLILLE, FRANCE THE MODERATOR: Welcome to everybody with the Swiss Davis Cup team. We will start with questions in English, then to French, and we will finish in Swiss German. Q. Roger, can I ask you first of all about your back? How is it today and how optimistic are you of playing at the weekend? ROGER FEDERER: It's definitely not good enough to practice yesterday. I wish progress would be faster, but we're trying hard. You know, we're heading in that direction. I feel it's definitely a little bit better than it was on Saturday night and Sunday and also Monday. Yeah, baby steps, I guess. I'm hopeful. I mean, I hope so. Q. As you'll be aware, it's not just your back that's caused great interest over the past couple of days. Can you tell us more about what caused the ill feeling between yourself and Stan on Saturday night? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I was on the other side of the court really. I was quite far away. We had a conversation after the match. Everything's totally relaxed about the situation. We're old enough. We have Severin as a coach and Davis Cup captain and friend who was there, as well. I just wanted to see if there was any hard feelings because it was probably one of the loudest moments of the match, around 5‑4, 5‑5 score. Clearly a lot of noise. Yeah, like I said, there's no hard feelings whatsoever. We're having a good time here. We are friends, not enemies. But obviously it was maybe one of those moments, heat‑of‑the‑moment situations. I don't think from this point forward there's much to say about it anymore. Q. Stan, the umpire, Cedric Mourier, on Sunday night has given an interview today where he says that you said it was Roger's wife that was talking to you during the match, and he could see you were clearly annoyed by it. Is that the case? STAN WAWRINKA: First of all, I'm not sure he's allowed to talk. But, yeah, as Roger said, I think first thing, we had no problem together. We talk about that already straight after the match. Not only about that, about many things. We know how to deal when we have a small thing like that. About the match, was not the first thing was happening during the match. I don't think the umpire was doing great job. As you can see also at the beginning of the third set with the overrule and everything, was quite a mess already. But, again, for me there's not much to say because it's become a big deal because of the press, because of you. But for us it's nothing really. It took us five minutes to talk about that, to think about the next main goal that we have: the Davis Cup this weekend. Q. One more question. Now that Cedric has said what he said, and mentioned your wife by name, do you have any comment to add to what Stan has said? ROGER FEDERER: I mean, the umpire is not allowed to do an interview in the first place. If he mentions my wife's name or not, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. I think everything has been said. It's totally relaxed. I don't know what the big deal is really. Q. Have you had to have conversations with your family about how they react on court? I know tensions get high in the heat of the moment. ROGER FEDERER: You said you had your last question before. Now you're pushing it (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Can we move on, please? Anything else in English. Q. Stan, the match on Saturday night, how much of a lift was that for you? Sure, I appreciate you didn't win the match, but the way you played. Results of late have been a little bit up and down. A boost of confidence, how important was that for this weekend? STAN WAWRINKA: For me, the week was big. Was really important, for sure. Was tough night. Was tough afternoon, Sunday all day. Are not easy, especially to have four match points against Roger, to be playing the way I was playing. It's more easy to think about the next step, what I'm going to do after, stay positive, when I give everything on the court. Even if I lost with match point, the week was amazing. The top eight guys. I beat Berdych the first day. I lost to Novak, lost to Roger. I beat Cilic. Now I need to adapt on the clay court. I did a long session today, almost three hours, yesterday one hour easy. I feel okay so far, so we'll see. Q. Roger, about the back. What is the ongoing treatment? What are you actually doing day‑to‑day to help it along? ROGER FEDERER: First of all, I needed rest in the very beginning because you need to have the inflammation go away. Then it's exercises, treatment. Back issues are different for everybody. Clearly I'm not going to talk exactly about what my back problem is. It's something I've had in the past. At least I'm an experienced back guy (smiling). From that standpoint, I feel like I have a great team around me. I know as well a little bit myself how quickly I can move forward. But it's been a slow process. I wish I could be on the practice courts, but I can't be there yet. I'm hopeful for tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please. Q. Roger, what do you have exactly in your back? Are you going to be able to play the final? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I'm hoping that I can play. That's why I'm here. I hope I'll have the best possibility to play. I have the medical staff and my friends here who are having me feeling better. I have less mental pain already. I'm more positive now. The back problem I already had in the past. Sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's not as worse. This time it's not or I would have played that final. I would have if I would have been able to. You know me. But unfortunately it was too bad so I couldn't play. Now I just need to wait and hope I'll be able to practice in the next days. Q. Are you worried? ROGER FEDERER: We'll see. I don't know. I'm a very positive person and I do believe I can always do. Q. Roger, what is the percentage of your chances to play and be ready? ROGER FEDERER: It's impossible to give you an answer. I don't know if you had any back injuries. As long as you are not on court practicing, you have no references. I'm making some progress. But I know I don't have a month ahead of me to get better. I need to get better quickly. I'm trying whatever I can. But I can't give you a precise percentage. Q. Do you believe that what happened on Saturday makes your task even more difficult this weekend? Roger's injury, but everything, too. CAPTAIN LUTHI: Well, I believe this makes us even closer to each other. As the two players said, we talked about it. After what happened Saturday night, we just talked very briefly, about these rumors and everything. That was because of the press. Someone started telling a story after some things that are untrue started coming out. So we never answered to anything because for us it was not a big story, it was just the press. Q. I know you spoke about it in English, but how is the atmosphere between Stan and Roger on the team, after everything that was said about London? STAN WAWRINKA: Well, things are going well. To talk to each other, now we have to go through the press (smiling). No, it's little things that can happen. But for us it's not that important. We talked about it just afterwards so that we would make sure it wouldn't become important. These are discussions we have together. We have known each other for a long time. We just say things to each other and then we think about something else. We never had major problems between us because we know each other well. We are friends. We get along well. We know that in one particular tennis match, especially in a semifinal, there can be tensions. We are trying to win the match, of course, but after, whoever wins, it's okay. ROGER FEDERER: I like when Stan answers (smiling). It's true that the past days were difficult for me because I wasn't able to play that final. I would have thought, Well, Stan should have finished that match at 5‑3. I wouldn't have had a back problem and we wouldn't have had the situation we had. But it was an incredible match. It was an historical match. There was a great atmosphere. Then now we are here and everything is very relaxed. We had very good contacts on Sunday, Monday, every day. It's the same with the rest of the team, too. We are all very close to each other. It's a great pleasure to be all together here and to spend these good times together. Q. What was your routine today, Roger? Can you compare what you felt Saturday with the last scare you had with your back in Hamburg? ROGER FEDERER: No, it was not Hamburg. It was another time. I already felt the same type of pain that I felt against Stan in the past, but I don't want to give you too many details because then we're going to go into things I don't want to go into. But now I have treatment and I'm just staying quiet, not doing much, just walking a little bit, having massage. Honestly, I don't do much. I do treatment again, then I come to press, put on the grill here, then we go back out of here together. STAN WAWRINKA: We're going to wait until you're all outside before Roger stands up because he has trouble standing up (laughter). ROGER FEDERER: I'm going to stay here until tomorrow, not moving (smiling). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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