US OPEN

August 24, 2002

Andy Roddick

MODERATOR: If we could have questions for Andy Roddick.

ANDY RODDICK: I thought Vanessa Carlton was great. I think she's extremely talented and when I learned she signed on, I was looking forward to seeing her.

ANDY RODDICK: I honestly haven't seen it, so I'm not sure what I think. (Laughs).

ANDY RODDICK: Maybe two months ago, I came up here and we shot a commercial.

ANDY RODDICK: Down to the really nitty-gritty questions. (Laughs.) I don't know.

ANDY RODDICK: In Europe, I wore the hat because my hair was too long and flapping everywhere. I honestly don't know. It's pretty much whatever comes out of my bag first, so we'll see.

ANDY RODDICK: For sure. Regardless of how I do this week, I feel very comfortable at this event, and I like this event a lot. I think it's great seeing tennis, just really almost taking over a great city like New York City. It's a lot of fun to come here.

ANDY RODDICK: No.

Are you already telling me that he's in my draw?

ANDY RODDICK: Thanks.

ANDY RODDICK: Honestly, no. We haven't really practiced together.

ANDY RODDICK: No. If anything, I mean, if anything, just the whole thing was great last year. I came in not really knowing what to expect, and I played really well and I got to play a lot of night matches, which it's a special experience here. It's unlike any other tennis experience. So I'm really looking forward to getting out there again. I love this tournament so much. Hopefully we'll see it happen.

ANDY RODDICK: It kind of depends on the person. If someone came from 50th at the beginning of summer and won a bunch of tournaments and now they are 20th, you look at them to play well. But there are some guys that just come to this tournament and feel so at home, they are going to play well regardless of how they have done in the summer.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't think my summer was totally terrible.

ANDY RODDICK: Oh, chances, I don't know. I'm just going to go first round. I'm not going to get ahead of myself. That's kind of -- I'm just going to really enjoy my time and go match by match and we'll see what happens.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I was just talking to Jim Courier just now and we were talking about it. Two years ago, I was traveling maybe once a month and I went to Europe maybe once a year; I've been there twice in my life beforehand in everything I've ever played and it's just an adjustment period. It's not going to last forever. I think a bunch of players go through that. It's not like it's a bad place. It's just not home; it's not familiar. Maybe that might have something to do with it.

ANDY RODDICK: There's a lot of tennis out there. You know, you look at other sports where they have four and five more golf seasons. Tennis really isn't comparable to that. You would like to pick and choose your spots, but there are mandatory events that you do have to play.

ANDY RODDICK: Well, it depends in what context. I mean, I am young and I am American, so it seems fitting, right? Yeah, it's just something that's there. I mean, there's no bones about it. That's what I am. I'm a young American guy. I've heard it over and over for last two years, but it's just something I've kind of accepted and it's not going anywhere. I just try to make the best of it.

ANDY RODDICK: There are a lot. Last year, I would go into Masters with a serve and a forehand and just try to play my way through, and lucky enough, I played well in some of the bigger events and timing my peaked well. This year, I've already won more matches than I won all of last year, by a decent amount, and I've been playing week-in and week-out, my timing hasn't been as good . I played well, kind of not so much the wrong times, but not the right times. Back to the original question, I feel like I'm returning better and breaking serve a lot more this year. I've won some matches 2-2, 2-3 this year that probably didn't happen last year. I think I've gotten quicker on the court and I think my backhand is better. With that being said, I do have a lot of room for improvement.

ANDY RODDICK: Hopefully be in the tournament still. I'm not really thinking about any celebrations. No longer a teenager. Probably just a quiet dinner with close friends and family.

ANDY RODDICK: They are not there much this year. I was a little unlucky earlier in the year, but recently it's been okay. My diet, I kind of adopted a new way of eating, and that helps me feel better on a day-to-day basis. I feel like I've gotten stronger. I'm a little bit bigger than I was last year, but I think fitter, also. I think those are the main things.

ANDY RODDICK: Serve.

ANDY RODDICK: They are slower than last year. I don't know, I mean, it's a couple of tournaments that it's been a little slower this year, but that's the way it goes. Last year, they were a little -- you could almost see like a little, I don't know how to explain it, almost a shine on the court last year, and it's a little more gritty this year.

ANDY RODDICK: It could. It could. But it's kind of -- when I play on slicker courts, I can go for the buck-5, buck-10 (105, 110) kind of slice, serving into the body and it's just the courts kind of help me pick which second serve I'm going to go for.

ANDY RODDICK: I haven't hit on the stadium yet. I played on Louis Armstrong, and it was biting a little bit there, so we'll see.

ANDY RODDICK: No, I think they were slower. I think maybe they slowed up, especially later in the tournament. I was watching the finals on TV and it almost looked like a clay court match. Obviously, when I was playing Greg, it didn't feel that slow. (Laughs). But that might have been more me than the courts.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, it's special coming back here, especially as an American player. I'm glad it's here. We all look forward to coming back to New York City. We all love it here. It definitely takes on a special meaning this year.