NASDAQ-100 OPEN

April 1, 2004

Andy Roddick

ANDY RODDICK: "Andy improves to 24-6 on the year. He's into the semis of the NASDAQ-100 Open. "Open for questions." Don't worry about it, I got it. Don't worry about it (laughter). I'm like the Princeton offense. Let's go.

ANDY RODDICK: Sorry?

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. He was the better player pretty much all day. Lucky for me, I just think he got a little tight at the end. He gave me a gift of a game when he was serving for it at 5-4. I would love to sit here and claim all credit for it and say I was just fighting and I was great and everything, but that's not really the case. Couple double-faults, couple uncharacteristic misses on his forehand. I was able to maybe tough him out after that.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, that was a big shot. You know, I hadn't really played the point that I wanted to up to that point. So he came in. And, you know, wanted to make sure if I was gonna miss that passing shot, I was gonna miss it on my terms. You know, lucky for me, I hit it about as well as I could.

ANDY RODDICK: It was weird. I mean, the whole match was weird. Half the time I felt like I was kind of maybe coming into my own, starting to play pretty well. Half the time I felt like I was just playing horrible. It was just up and down pretty much like that the whole day. So, you know... But I can play tomorrow, so that's what you -- that's what I was going in to today looking for. It's the ultimate goal, I guess.

ANDY RODDICK: 5-6?

ANDY RODDICK: I ran?

ANDY RODDICK: I probably could have made it. I probably could have run sideline to sideline a year ago. I don't know. You're right, that is tough. But it wouldn't have mattered because I lost second round last year. So I didn't give myself much opportunity to run around (smiling).

ANDY RODDICK: I haven't felt fast this week, to be honest. I felt like I've definitely kind of cheesed through a couple matches here this week, but I'm still alive and hopefully we can make something good out of it this weekend.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't think so. I think it's just all year I felt like I'm on the verge of playing really well. It's just kind of I can feel it coming on, but it's not quite there. Maybe I'm trying to force a little bit too much, I don't know. But I have a couple more matches here, and hopefully I can get a couple. That would be nice.

ANDY RODDICK: Not really. That's what makes him the player that he is and that he's been. I mean, he pretty much has every shot. He has the slice backhand, he can come into the net. He was serving great for a while there, and then I kind of got into his service games a little bit more. But not really. I mean, he's very good at varying the pace and then just punishing his forehand when you're not expecting it.

ANDY RODDICK: Not in this room.

ANDY RODDICK: We'll see. Like I said, it got me through. I'd love to sit here and say, "Oh, it was awesome. I came back and I was playing great. My confidence was soaring and I'm perfect." But he let me back in; I mean, it's as simple as that.

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, we've all been there where we served for a match and let it get away from us. Once that happens, it throws you a little bit. I was mad at myself for -- I would have loved nothing more than at 5-all, I'd just broken back, to have a strong service game. I put myself in a position to have to hit a running forehand winner to even hold serve. You know, I didn't like being in that position in the first place. But I guess the short answer to your question would have been yes (smiling).

ANDY RODDICK: Maybe I should work a little harder on it (smiling).

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know, man. It was horrible today. I have no answers for you. I tried. It didn't look pretty. I mean, I just pushed a volley on matchpoint and pushed an overhead. There it was. But, definitely, it wasn't my best volleying day to give the understatement of the year.

ANDY RODDICK: No, I won't let the truth get in the way of a good story, though.

ANDY RODDICK: Improved fitness, diet. I'm going to pass on that one. I'm going to pretend like I didn't have pizza last night (smiling).

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, that's fantastic that I had a bunch of aces, but I got broken twice and I was double-faulting a lot. I'd rather pitch a consistent ball game. You don't want to strike out 12 and give up three dingers. I'm going to have to tighten up all aspects of my game if I want to keep going in this tournament.

ANDY RODDICK: What about it?

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, it would be all right.

ANDY RODDICK: We don't really hang out. We practice together a fair amount. I mean, I don't think there are going to be any surprises as far as our games go, as far as matching up against each other. You know, I lost to him - what was it - three, four weeks ago in Scottsdale. I kind of let that match get away from me. I was up a set and a break. He's just playing great tennis right now. He's putting on his hard hat, he's going to work. He's not flashy. He's not going to make the crowd "ooh" and "ah," but he's gonna make you beat him. He's gonna stay out there. He returns very well. He's definitely tightened up a couple of his shots. He's just playing good, solid tennis right now.

ANDY RODDICK: It's good. That's where you can kind of judge your improvement. Most people can win when they're really playing well. So, you know, that's definitely one of the positives I'll take away from today.

ANDY RODDICK: There's a lot of space, man. We're playing two tournaments in four weeks. There are some guys who lost first round in Indian Wells and didn't play for 12 or 13 days. So there's a lot of room.