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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS WIMBLEDON

July 8, 2017

Roger Federer

Wimbledon, London, England

R. FEDERER/M. Zverev

7-6, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Should we put the clock back because the Fab Four are all in the second week the first time since 2011, and Murray is the only one who has lost a set? A comment on that. How do you explain it?
ROGER FEDERER: I think it's great. I'm not that surprised because I thought that everybody this week was going to find their form, especially speaking about Andy and Novak. So I thought they did it very well.

With me, I hoped I was going to be there. Whereas with Rafa's confidence, I thought he was also going to be there.

So I'm not that surprised, but it's great. It's obviously hard to make all second week for us, you know, when I'm not playing. So sometimes it's in your favor these statistics (smiling).

Q. You made it to middle Monday now. It's an incredibly special day for the fans. All the remaining men and women are playing that day. What is it like for you as a player to be part of that?
ROGER FEDERER: Today?

Q. Middle Monday.
ROGER FEDERER: Oh, middle Monday? It's nice, I guess. I don't know.

Q. The fans get to see everyone participating.
ROGER FEDERER: Right, yeah, but I don't know. I don't even know who plays on Monday. I know the men's all shift to the same day. But I don't know, women's matches as well?

Q. It's everyone remaining.
ROGER FEDERER: Okay. So it's a great day to play (smiling).

I would be happy to be a fan. I'll be enjoying some of the matches that I will be watching on TV, I'm sure.

Q. Sounds as if you've had a bit of a head cold. Can you tell us a bit about that?
ROGER FEDERER: Not really.

Q. Are you on the paracetamol to try to get better?
ROGER FEDERER: How many times I have to sneeze, you don't want to know that stuff.

I'm feeling better. I'm definitely feeling better. Today I feel 50% better than I did two days ago. I'm happy things are progressing well, and I hope that on Monday I'm back to 100%.

Q. I also understand it's the first time ever that seven of the last 16 men are over 30. Is this a question of old guys rule?
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, honestly, it's been, I don't want to say like this for a while now. Is Novak over 30 or not yet? I don't want to put him there if he's not. Is Andy over 30, too?

Q. Yes.
ROGER FEDERER: I did congratulate him, I remember (smiling).

Anyways, I mean, obviously, it's been happening for some time since they turned 30, even more so, that we just seem to, you know, not go anywhere. Not just us, but my generation of players, there's still a ton of players, like Lopez who won in Queen's, and Youzhny who gave Milos a run for the money.

I came through the juniors with all these guys. It's nice to see them still hanging on, still enjoying the tour, still being tough out there, making it difficult for the youngsters to break through.

There is a bit of that clash right now, the young ones trying to push out, especially the 35-plus guys. But then there's a strong, strong team as well around the generation of Rafa and Murray and Djokovic obviously, as well.

Q. Does it not worry you when you get a cold at your age that this could be the end?
ROGER FEDERER: It's extremely scary times for me right now (smiling).

Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, you swapped your racquet in the first set, then you swapped back again.
ROGER FEDERER: Not to the old one, I don't think.

Q. Maybe it's my older eyes then.
ROGER FEDERER: You were seeing very strange things out there today (laughter).

No, I switched the way I normally would. I think I didn't make any mistakes, but I'll double-check it with my coaches.

Q. Get back to me.
ROGER FEDERER: I'll get back to you.

Q. How important is the serve? You're not serving 135 like Raonic. The placement, how important is it, especially on grass, the accuracy?
ROGER FEDERER: I think it's very important. I think accuracy is almost as important as pace once you get over 120, yeah. I think especially also what comes with a good serve is concentration, focus.

I think today I had really good focus on my serve, on the first shot. It was also avoidable not to be broken in the first set, but then I had to hang on to it with being down one breakpoint or two breakpoints maybe at 5-All in the first set. That was definitely a key moment.

But I thought I had great focus. The serve is clearly important. I mean, good servers do usually quite well here on the grass.

Q. How would you describe the progression and the style of play of your next opponent?
ROGER FEDERER: You know, good shot-maker. One-handed backhand always brings a bit of a different feel to the match because of the slice, coming over. You know, which shot is he going to choose? He always has two options. Not that a double-hander doesn't, but the double-hander will most likely come over, and will only slice as a mix-up. Maybe he's in defense.

So with him it's different.

Yeah, he's in the prime of his career you would think right now. I expect that every time I have played him he has become better. I expect the same on Monday.

Q. The US Open qualifying tournament are bringing in this thing where the player can talk to their coach in the stands throughout the match. Wonder what you thought about that idea?
ROGER FEDERER: I only heard vaguely.

Q. If you're on the same end of your coach, you can talk between points. If you're at the far end, you can sort of gesture, but you can't actually speak to them.
ROGER FEDERER: For 20 seconds you can go in the corner quickly and check it out?

Q. There's a shot clock, as well.
ROGER FEDERER: That's in qualifying at the US Open?

Q. Yes.
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I'm not all for it. I find it kind of cool that in tennis, you know, you're sort of on your own out there. Not everybody has the same amount of resources for coaching, as well. So I'm not sure if it's that beneficial.

But, you know, might be interesting for some people to see. I know that some parts of the world coaching at junior level and all that stuff is totally normal, that the coaches and the players speak.

I'm sure it's not going to make that much of a difference because I'm sure there's hand signs going on as we speak. It's not that difficult. It's not rocket science out there sometimes. We tell maybe play more to the backhand side. The guy is like... It doesn't take much to understand that message.

I'm not really for it. The shot clock is an interesting one. But how do you judge, you know, when you finish after a dropshot, it's been a tough rally, the guy has to run back to the baseline?

Sometimes we need to have some leeway. But I do believe we should enforce the rule at some stage, somehow, because maybe too many players have gone over the limit. That's where we are now.

I'm not sure if it's good, but give it a try, I guess.

Q. It's good to see you looking so strong and fresh here.
ROGER FEDERER: Thank you.

Q. In Australia you told your fans you were feeling tired there.
ROGER FEDERER: Did I? When did I say that (smiling)?

Q. Some of your fans quoted.
ROGER FEDERER: I was tired, I'm sure. I had a lot of five-setters.

Q. How do you feel different between Australia and now?
ROGER FEDERER: I feel probably I'm fitter by now. I've gotten used to more matches. I didn't have five-setters, like the one against Nishikori, which was a tough one to catch Kei early, then have the tough match. Hard courts are usually more tougher on the body than the grass.

So I feel better, even with the cold.

Q. For a very, very old man, you're moving beautifully.
ROGER FEDERER: More compliments. Thank you. It's a nice press conference today (smiling).

Q. My question is about movement. In the past you've said that the flow of your going fast and slow on court is very important to your movement and gaining acceleration and power. Could you explain that? What do you mean by that?
ROGER FEDERER: I don't remember what I said, when I said it. I probably was talking about maybe the transition game, going from defense to offense. I think those few meters behind and in front of the baseline are crucial.

I feel like with the eye and with the quickness of the reaction, you know, of the body, understanding which balls can you attack I think is really important. I think I did that very well when I was younger. I was able to build on that by working on my fitness.

My eyes have always been there for me to help me out in that regard. You know, especially even more so where I tried to finish the points earlier today. I think that explosiveness is crucial for me to be successful.

Q. There's quite a few players complaining about the courts. How do you feel the court this year compares to previous years?
ROGER FEDERER: I feel it's the same, you know. I think when it does get very hot, the sun beats down on the court for the entire day, I do feel the courts do get a tad slippery, you know, just because there's all this dead grass, in the middle in particular, because it's not attached any more. I feel like that's sort of the slippery place sometimes.

I mean, I also slipped today one time, you know, on a reaction that I had. But I didn't feel like it was unsafe. Maybe you don't want players to feel that way, because the moment you become scared of moving properly, it's really difficult to play, I must admit. The last thing we want to see is horrible injuries, you know.

Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting to see what they're going to do with the courts tomorrow. I would like to find out what the greenskeepers are going to do because tomorrow is no play. They have time to figure out how they're going to prep them for Monday.

Q. Can you tell us how important the support of Mirka is at this stage of your career.
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, without her I couldn't do it. If she said, you know, I don't want to travel no more, I'll say, Okay, my career is over. It's as simple as that.

So she's the key to a lot of this. But she's happy to be doing it, not on a weekly basis just because the traveling gets too much with the four. But, you know, I went to Stuttgart and Halle on my own. Now here we're together. We're having a great time.

So she's been amazing support for me. She's the best. I'm happy she allows me to chase our dreams really, because she's in it as much as I am, even though she's more on a different side right now. She's not as invested in the whole tennis bit like she used to be.

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