NASDAQ-100 OPEN

April 4, 2004

Andy Roddick

THE MODERATOR: Andy has now won his last eight finals he's appeared in, it goes back to May of last year. It's his third career ATP Masters Series title, and he's the sixth American to win here in the tournament history. Questions for Andy.

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, any time you win on someone defaulting, I think you feel a little fortunate. You know, it's not the way you picture -- it's not the picture perfect ending, it's not the way you want to win a tournament. But at the same time, I'm here at the end of the day. That was my goal coming into the tournament.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I don't know if that was just coincidence or what, but, you know, it was weird for him to have an injury because I was trying to feel out what shots he wasn't hitting well and maybe trying to make him play a little bit more, maybe aggravate it some more. But once I realized he could stay in rallies and play okay, then midway through the second set I just tried to forget about it and I just said, "Okay, I'm just going to try to imagine that he's not hurt at all." That started working a little bit better for me.

ANDY RODDICK: No worse than it has been for the rest of the tournament. I mean, I probably played two other matches where it's been a lot worse. I don't think it was that much of a factor today.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I woke up this morning and stuff wasn't going down the way it should. You know, I was battling, I was trying to maybe bluff my way through because I knew he was hurt, too. But like I said on court, I'd much rather play through an upset stomach where you know it's just a temporary thing as opposed to an injury where you don't really know the extent of it and you don't know if you can make it a lot worse. So I guess I was definitely working with the lesser of two evils there.

ANDY RODDICK: I was gonna get through it. One way or another, you get through it with an upset stomach. You can't do any serious harm, you know. So I knew I was gonna get through it. But it was just gonna be a little uncomfortable.

ANDY RODDICK: I think I just let my patience go out the door. I mean, I don't think I committed to a game plan in the first set. At one point I tried to play consistent and rally with him. The next point, I just tried for something. I was like, "Okay, either we're going to commit to being aggressive or we're gonna commit to a grind session." At that point, aggressive sounded a lot more fun than grinding out every point.

ANDY RODDICK: I was thinking that it was a good thing that this was going to be three-out-of-five sets. But at the same time, you know, he was able to play a little bit, get himself into points. I think it was smart of him to play on. All it takes is maybe a break, then I could get rattled a little bit and who knows... But, you know, I definitely knew that it being three-out-of-five sets, that it was to my advantage.

ANDY RODDICK: McEnroe, just that one in Team Tennis.

ANDY RODDICK: Interesting.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't remember too much of it. It was two and a half, three years ago or something. But he was definitely cool. Something I kind of looked forward to. He was very cool to me when I was a practice partner on the first Davis Cup team. It's always fun to play against someone who's kind of an icon of the game, someone you kind of grew up watching.

ANDY RODDICK: I knew I was on the verge. At love-30 in the first game of the fourth set, I told myself, "Two more points, and he's probably gonna call it if he gets down a break." Turned out to only be one more point. Obviously, I mean, I was trying to kind of get him into submission, but, you know, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going for the knock-out punch there. It takes away some of the joy of winning a tournament when you know your opponent is hurt. So it was kind of, you know, a Catch-22 type thing.

ANDY RODDICK: No, I thought it was great. I thought it was fantastic. I mean, the chants. They weren't for me, but I thought it was awesome, you know. It creates a great atmosphere. I'd love to see more of it. I can definitely appreciate it, even from the other side.

ANDY RODDICK: It's tough. Because Guillermo, even from the baseline when he's not hurt, you feel like you're getting good cuts on the ball. But he puts it high and he puts it in places where you can't really take a good rip at it. Even if you do, you have to create all your own pace. So even when he was serving like that - his serve isn't his biggest weapon in the first place - but it was weird, you know. It definitely took me a while until I finally decided I was going to commit and go for it either way.

ANDY RODDICK: Not right away. In the breaker he was fine. I was extremely impressed with the way he was playing. Because when I saw him sit down at 6-5, he was struggling to sit down even. Then he came out and was, you know, running -- maybe he was trying to put on a bluff to kind of get in my head, and maybe it worked. But, you know, definitely when I started getting momentum, obviously I could tell more and more.

ANDY RODDICK: Longer (smiling).

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, it's tough. You know, it's tough because I, you know, was 85 percent sure that if I won the first tiebreaker, he was maybe gonna check out. That puts a lot of emphasis on each point, even more so than normal. Then you're thinking about looking for if he's not hitting this shot well or he can't run to this side, then you forget about actually winning points. So it definitely rattled me a little bit in that first-set breaker.

ANDY RODDICK: What did he win, doubles?

ANDY RODDICK: How did he win a doubles tournament in a tournament like this?

ANDY RODDICK: See (laughter)? He's been talking about that all week and never mentioned that it was a walkover (laughter).

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah.

ANDY RODDICK: Muster, Ivanisevic had his neck, yeah.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, but he won.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. Maybe like Tempur-Pedic beds for all the players in the finals or something, I don't know... Comfy pillows.

ANDY RODDICK: With him, you're always kind of looking for it. He disguised it well and he has good feel. I started trying to focus on maybe getting my shots deeper and with more force to kind of take that shot away from him. It's tough to hit a dropshot off of a deep ball. But if I hit it short, he has the option of driving it or playing dinkums with me.

ANDY RODDICK: He's in the final of a Masters Series. That's got to count for something. He won the first set even while he was hurt. I definitely don't think that far.

ANDY RODDICK: I was feeling all right. I mean, I wasn't hurt, you know. Plus, my ADD kicks in, and sitting down for four minutes doesn't exactly sound good for me... Figure I'd go see what the court's all about.

ANDY RODDICK: I mean...?

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, he was playing at a very high level. He was making me have to hit my shots and convert points. I was just struggling to do that in the first set. He was, you know, he was almost like a human backboard out there. It was tough to get momentum. I was kind of playing one point well, one point not well. After a while you start thinking about it when he makes that many balls. He was playing very well.

ANDY RODDICK: This tournament was just really good for me. I had been talking to you guys for the last, you know, probably three or four weeks about how I needed a big result to kind of put my stamp on this year so far. And so, you know, this tournament is kind of exactly what I was looking for.

ANDY RODDICK: Did his style of play? He's a serve-and-volleyer.

ANDY RODDICK: Honestly, it was six games of exhibition tennis on clay, so I don't know if I'd be the best judge.

ANDY RODDICK: Brad's got something coming to him (smiling) I will let you know when he's done with it.

ANDY RODDICK: That's kind of a ... That's... That's even a tough question to answer. I mean, who knows? It all depends on if I would have turned it around, started hitting my shots, who knows how he would have played. That's tough to even answer.

ANDY RODDICK: I'm not sure yet. I'm going to have to sit down with Brad tomorrow. We kind of wanted to focus on the hard court season and Davis Cup, you know. I definitely know I'm going to Houston. But I'm not sure. I mean, obviously, I'd love to play in the Masters Series events, but I'm going to have to sit down with Brad and we're going to have to discuss it.

ANDY RODDICK: No, man. That's just tennis. It's what I do (smiling).

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I've achieved inconsistency on it so far (smiling). I don't know. I mean, clay, obviously, I look at it as a challenge for me, but that kind of excites me. You know, I've won some smaller tournaments on clay, but, obviously, I haven't had the results I've wanted in the bigger tournaments on clay. That's something I'm definitely looking to improve upon.

ANDY RODDICK: Not in a short sentence, that's for sure.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, it's a huge goal of mine, you know, to help our team win Davis Cup. I mean, I've been a fan ever since I went to a tie when I was younger. So, you know, it's definitely a priority in my tennis life, that's for sure.

ANDY RODDICK: It was Fort Worth, '92, USA and Switzerland.

ANDY RODDICK: I haven't thought about it. I know I'm probably not going to do a whole lot tomorrow. I'll probably get on the courts and start hitting again on Tuesday. But as far as emotionally, I'm just going to treat it like another event. I'm glad I got a lot of matches in this week. I feel like I'm match ready going into next weekend.

ANDY RODDICK: Doesn't really matter, I'm not the captain. That's not my choice. It's irrelevant.