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US OPEN

August 27, 2019

Roger Federer

New York, NY, USA

R. FEDERER/S. Nagal

4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. This was his first US Open. Coming into it, did you see anything in particular from his game? Anything surprise you on the court tonight?
ROGER FEDERER: I guess maybe how he handled the moment. Never easy to come out and play your best. Even though it's kind of what you live for, you dream about, playing on the big stage. So I think he did that very well.

I think his game is based on being really consistent, moving well, moving the ball around well. Sort of very much a clay-courter. That's also the surface he's played basically the entire year almost.

I think he knows what he can bring. That's why I think he's going to have a very solid career. But, of course, it's not the game that comes out with the biggest surprises. It's really consistent. I think he did it very well tonight.

Q. After the first set, once you settled down, the match seemed very much on your racquet. Is that how you saw it? Were you happy with how you stayed the course at the end of the match?
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, look, I broke every time first game each set. That was good. I think trying to forget the first set is never sort of easy I guess in a first round, under the lights. People expect a different result. I expect something else.

I just wanted to pick up my game really, start to play better. I was able to do that. That was a relief, going up 3-Love in the second set, realizing that it is in my racquet, how I also felt it in the first set.

The thing is I wasn't serving consistently enough. I was hitting double-faults that usually I don't do. Also I was just hitting too many unforced errors. I was in two minds, I guess.

I was able to clear that a little bit. Maybe it's not a bad thing to go through a match like this. It was very similar at Wimbledon when I dropped the first set there, as well, in the first round. At the end you look at the last three sets, and they were good. That's encouraging.

Q. You haven't played that much recently. Did you expect there to be some rust? Do you feel you've gotten past it?
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, you can see that way that I haven't played so much. But I feel like I played a lot this year. I don't want to say like I feel my body.

It's just a switch, again, from the clay and grass over to now the hard courts. I think it just requires a bit different tempo in the shots. Also maybe sometimes going up again, sort of spinning the ball at times. I don't think it plays particularly fast, especially also was slower tonight, it was night session again.

I'm playing a clay-courter, who is comfortable to just rally, keep the ball in play. He actually does a really good job, especially on the inside-out, how he gets around. That was impressive.

I knew I could struggle, to be quite honest, especially with the rhythm. You will be in trouble if you serve as poorly as I did in the first set. That puts the pressure on because he had the upper hand from the baseline. It was up to me to be able to change that.

Yeah, I'm happy.

Q. You were serving a lot of double-faults in the first set. Was there anything in your frame of mind that you changed as you approached the second set that helped you serve a few aces?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, what I was realizing is that I was hitting a lot of serves long. So you kind of try to, like, clock them down. I don't want to say you aim for the net. You aim more of a trajectory downwards.

Never a good thing when you're having to aim in the wrong place, hoping it to go in the right place (smiling). But that's what you do. You do anything to get it right eventually.

Throughout the match, I wonder how many times I served in the net? Hardly ever. I don't know if it was still getting used to the balls or the conditions tonight. As he was returning from backhand on the second serves, I felt sometimes it was good to serve and volley. Sometimes I overcooked it, sometimes I spun it too much.

At the end of the day I think it's still me getting used to the ball, as we played with different balls in Cincinnati. I practiced with different balls in Switzerland, as well. It's only been a week. I hope every day that goes by I start feeling better.

Q. You had to keep your level high in the fourth set. What was your state of mind?
ROGER FEDERER: I thought he was getting a bit down on himself naturally after set two and three. That's why it was key to stay ahead, and I did. That's why it was a pity to get broken there at 2-1, give him sort of a life back.

Those five-setters have a way to go. You have different lives, you feel like. You feel like you're down and out, then all of a sudden you feel energy again, momentum. The crowd gets into it. You forgot completely you actually lost the last two sets 6-1, 6-2.

That's why the score system in tennis is genius. You have to get over the finish line. I got that the hard way in Wimbledon.

He did a good job to stay with me. I had to close it out. That was a tough last game. Maybe exactly the kind of service game I needed to serve it out.

Q. Could you explain a little more in what way the balls here are different, what sort of adjustment that requires from you.
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, look, you always compare them to the ball you just played with recently. I wish the balls were a bit more lively overall on the tour. Slazenger balls are very heavy at Wimbledon. Always have been. At the French I've seen changes throughout the last years, there's different ball manufacturers.

I thought the Cincinnati ball was extremely flat, wasn't bouncing very much. It was hard to, like, get anything going on the ball. Then naturally because that happens, you start playing sort of ping-pong. There's a lot of spin involved, but imagine bad ping-pong players, they just bump it back and forth to one another. It's just hard to get really good sort of, I don't know, banana balls going and all that stuff. It's just tough.

Here I was expecting more of a lively ball. But I don't think it's crazy. Kicker isn't doing that much to be honest. He was a kicker, he wasn't getting up super high. I was kicking on my second, he was just hitting it back. Shows you it's pretty easy to return. I think it's going to get faster over the course of the tournament.

That's where I think the ball comes into play, it becomes important. Altitude, all that stuff. Here we're basically at sea level.

Yeah, you got to figure it out how you need to play. Of course, against which player. He did well today. I struggled a little bit. But I found my way, so hope to pick it up in the next match.

Q. Black and white kit tonight. How much input did you have in that, going for a tuxedo look?
ROGER FEDERER: All of it. Yeah, I like to be part of the game there. It's been a fun process with Uniqlo. I think we've done a nice job now. Got more time now also to design stuff ahead of time, whereas obviously the first year was just a bit what shall we do next week basically as the contract just started at Wimbledon last year.

It's great fun. I love the kit. I hope people like it, too.

Q. You talked a lot about caravaning after Wimbledon. What makes a good caravan trip?
ROGER FEDERER: Good weather. I don't know, rain is not the fun bit. I think the people you're with. We had another family traveling with us in another caravan. Then my full family, four kids and Mirka. We had a blast. But we were happy to come home again, as well. I was beat after Wimbledon and the caravan trip. I needed a vacation after the vacation (smiling).

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