US OPEN

September 4, 2001

Andy Roddick

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

ANDY RODDICK: That's the way I have to play against Tommy. I'm not as consistent as him most days. I definitely have to take my chances out there.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. I mean, it kills me when I'm at home the second week of a Slam and you're watching guys win and stuff. It's good to be a part of it for the first time.

ANDY RODDICK: You know, I don't believe it. I'm supposed to wake up any minute now or something. But I'm going to try to stay asleep.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. The only way it really affected me is normally when I have a night match, I come out around 1:00 and hit. I came out around 1:00, walked on the court, it poured. Bagged it, went back to the hotel. I just hit once. But it didn't really affect me too much.

ANDY RODDICK: Not really. You know, it usually takes me an hour or two to simmer down after matches. That's any time. You know, I've just been getting some food and chilling, watching a movie or something, then going to bed.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I turn the clock away. Whenever I doze off, I doze off, sleep till I wake up.

ANDY RODDICK: No. You know, actually I wanted to play a day match at least once. Luckily, they put me there against Corretja. But either way, today I was kind of, you know, either way. I felt I played my best match during the day. I was kind of shady at night before that. Today I stepped up and played pretty well under the lights.

ANDY RODDICK: Do they? I don't know. I should have studied more.

ANDY RODDICK: For sure I'm going to watch it. You know, I'm probably going to get a late hit in tomorrow. I doubt I'll hang out here. That's pretty draining. But, you know, I'll definitely watch it. I'm still a huge fan. My two biggest influences. You know, I'm as excited as everybody else about that match.

ANDY RODDICK: I've lost to both of them. You know, take your pick. I think Lleyton and I were having a pretty good battle last time before, you know, the unfortunate circumstances. You know, either way they're both playing good tennis. Tommy is playing some ball. He's been playing well all summer. Lleyton is always a fiery competitor. You're going to have to play great tennis to beat him. Either way, it's going to be a really tough match.

ANDY RODDICK: I peeked (smiling). I snuck a look in. I knew I cracked it pretty good. You know, that's just one serve. I'm prouder about the fact that I didn't get broken tonight. That means more to me than speed guns.

ANDY RODDICK: You know, I don't remember. I wanted to neutralize him a little bit. If he's getting into a groove with one shot, they can just drill. They're going to make you run. I wanted to maybe play some points really hard, non-stop, some points, throw in a lob. On big points, you know, when I'm up a set, it's 1-All, he has to hit five balls off of his shoe tops, it's a tough thing to do when you're fighting it off. You know, I just went with what I felt on that point.

ANDY RODDICK: Not really. I mean, I know I can hit a serve pretty hard. I don't have to prove that to myself. I think one of the reasons I'm holding at a pretty decent rate this year is because I've, you know, developed a pretty good out wide slice. I have a serve that I can hit up the T at 120, 130, 35 plus. That's a big part of why I've been serving better.

ANDY RODDICK: I haven't gotten much sleep. In the middle of all this that's going on, all the good stuff that's going on, that's definitely on my mind. I've been talking to them. It's a tough thing. He travels with us all year long. But they know that I'm thinking of them. They know I love them. My prayers are with them. I hope they get through it okay.

ANDY RODDICK: Tarik's father-in-law was like walking, got hit by a drunk driver in France. It was a hit-and-run. He's in pretty serious condition right now.

ANDY RODDICK: Hopefully I'll be occupied.

ANDY RODDICK: Sure. Our families are incredibly close. He knows all my relatives. I know pretty much all of his relatives. They're such beautiful people. It's just a sad circumstance right now.

ANDY RODDICK: At that time he just had a lot more experience than I did. He was already ranked I think top 200 in the world. I don't think I had an ATP point yet. Just a lot of experience. I got faster. I don't know. He was just a better player than I was then.