PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 14, 2004

Andy Roddick

THE MODERATOR: Andy improves to 18-4 on the season, and he'll take on the winner of Safin-Hernych in the third round tomorrow. Questions for Andy.

ANDY RODDICK: I am happy. You look happy, too.

ANDY RODDICK: Definitely. You know, over the last couple days, we've been trying to maybe work on the transition game a little bit more, maybe give people a little bit of a different look than maybe what they would normally see. You know, it's always continuing the process of trying to improve. It's pretty simple.

ANDY RODDICK: I probably would have said, I hope I'm in that category. I think everybody kind of knew Roger, it was a matter of time. I was probably more of a question mark two and a half years ago than he ever was.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah.

ANDY RODDICK: What do you mean?

ANDY RODDICK: I'm not sure. You know, a lot of it's just between the ears. He has a big serve, he returns well, he hits a penetrating ball from the baseline. I mean, I don't know what he's ranked right now.

ANDY RODDICK: I can think of a lot of people I'd rather play that are ahead of him, you know. I'm not sure. I guess that's a question you'd have to ask him.

ANDY RODDICK: No, because I learned about it three days ago.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. Obviously, I don't think it's a great draw for me. But at the same time, it's probably not a good draw for him either. But that's the way it goes. Throughout my career, I'm going to have some good draws, I'm going have some bad draws. That's why you hear the old saying, "Luck of the draw."

ANDY RODDICK: I like it. I mean, I'm kind of indifferent. I just want to get out there and play, if the sun is shining or the lights are on. Obviously, when the lights are on, it's a little more electric. I think it's a little easier to play during the day. Whatever.

ANDY RODDICK: Not really. It's out of my hands, so I just kind of go in with a positive attitude either way.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know about improvement. I mean, when I hear that question in regards to Marat, he was a pretty good player before he got hurt. I mean, you know, he's been No. 1 in the world before. So I don't know if it's some vast improvement that all of a sudden he come out and shocked people. I was impressed, he had a lot of tough matches. It just showed that he put in the work in the off-season physically which probably helped him mentally. Yeah, that was very impressive.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I mean, obviously he did something to prove that notion wrong in Australia. The knock on him was that maybe he'd take days off sometimes. But so far this year, I mean, he hasn't played too much, but at the Aussie Open, he definitely was the exact opposite.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, that was big. Even throughout the first set, I felt like I was getting into his service games a lot more than he was getting into mine. I think I had breakpoints in at least three of his service games in the first set. I felt like I was returning a little bit better. So if I got into the tiebreaker, if I could hold my own, I thought I was getting pretty good looks at his serve today. You know, but obviously if you don't lose a point on serve in a breaker, your chances are looking pretty good.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I think so. He definitely didn't serve as well as he did when we played in Scottsdale. So I definitely got a couple more looks.

ANDY RODDICK: It's impressive. I'm not going to lie, a couple weeks ago, I thought it would take a little bit longer for him to come back and start playing well again. I think it's just impressive that he's put in the effort to come back. He was supposed to come back, then he couldn't. You know, you just got to stand up and applaud when people come back from serious injuries like that and start winning in, what, their third tournament back or something. It's impressive. It's good.

ANDY RODDICK: I think so. I mean, I think we had this the other day in the press conference, a similar question. If you look at the guys that finished in the Top 10 last year, I'm pretty much one of the only guys you'd look at and say, "He's a banger. He's a guy who just steps up and tries to enforce his power on people." I think kind of took a left turn from what people were saying five years ago. With Pete. I think people are getting quicker, more consistent. I think Andre really revolutionized the game by taking full cuts at returns. Now a lot of guys are doing that. It's become a big neutralizer.

ANDY RODDICK: I'm trying, boss (laughter). You got to play with the cards you're dealt, though, man. I'm working on it. I'm a work in progress, for sure. You know, definitely I try to take things from what other people do well. You know, I try as best I can to apply them.

ANDY RODDICK: I'm not complaining. I'm just saying -- I'm not complaining at all. I have a blast playing the way I do. It was just an observation.

ANDY RODDICK: I'd have to say no. I mean, there are a lot of guys who are big and powerful who are ranked 30 and 40. There are a lot of guys who don't have so much power, who are very fast, you know, play the finesse games, like Coria, those guys. They play a chess match out there. You see a lot of those guys getting far in the tournaments than you do just the guys who are, you know, kind of raring back and letting it fly.

ANDY RODDICK: Not really. You know, I hadn't watched him much. I saw him play Hewitt this year in Australia. The kid can play, regardless of age, you know. And there was a lot of hype around him last year. You can really tell when it's in the locker room. I mean, the media will kind of latch on to kind of anybody, try to make them a story right away. The perception in the locker room is, "This kid, he can play, he can play ball." You know, it's not really surprising. We don't really think of him too much as a 17-year-old, but just as a Spanish guy with a hell of a forehand.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know about that. But, you know, there's definitely, "Okay, this kid is young, but he has some work to do." Whereas every once in a while, like Nadal, "This kid is serious, he's going to win matches right away," as opposed to, "This kid is going to be good in three years, watch out." The perception was kind of like he was ready to play ball right away.

ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. He started doing well in the clay last year. Started beating up on guys, I think that was it. Then I think I saw him play for the first time at Hamburg last year. I watched him play a little bit. Woke up the next morning and he had beaten Moya on dirt, beaten Costa on dirt. It was like, "All right, welcome."

ANDY RODDICK: I think he had a buzz cut, that was about it.

ANDY RODDICK: Not many people have. It's not one of my prouder moments in my career, I promise you.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, you can do Rainer Schuettler had a great year last year. I think Lleyton was really at the forefront. I'm not saying these guys don't have power. It's just not their first priority. It's not their first. Obviously, you can't just be a retriever in this day and age. But they definitely find different ways to win.

ANDY RODDICK: Sure. I mean, I'm constantly looking at the way people match up against each other, why they win, why this guy wins against this guy but loses to this person. I mean, that's one of the things that's intriguing about tennis. It is one-on-one match-ups. Almost to see how crucial different styles are in the outcome of a match.

ANDY RODDICK: Sure, absolutely.

ANDY RODDICK: I'd probably pay to see a lot of guys. You know, definitely Andre still. He's still -- every time I watch him, I feel like I'm eight years old again. I'd pay to see Fed. I love seeing the way Nalbandian works against guys, kind of gets in their grill a little bit. There's a lot of guys. I'd play to see a lot of match-ups, as well.

ANDY RODDICK: Sure, absolutely. I want Venus and Serena to come back, personally, and really put it in there. I think it would be great. You know, the way the two Belgians have come along, kind of started dominating, I'd love to see the Williams sisters come back, and kind of be a two-on-two battle, Battle Royale, I think that would be good for the women's game.

ANDY RODDICK: Probably off the court more so than on the court. I hear a lot of junior coaches saying, "I teach all my kids to hit their forehand like Andre Agassi, their forehand like this person." I said, "Well, if you could do that, you'd be the best coach in the world, and you're not." I think you kind of have to kind of take what you have. I knew I wasn't -- I'm not built like Andre. We don't have a lot of similarities on the court. But the way he handles himself off the court, the way he tries to help the game, the way he does his charities. I think he's, you know, if it's possible, maybe even underappreciated for what he does off the court, even though he's been recognized for it and whatever. It takes a pretty special person to step in even when he doesn't have to.

ANDY RODDICK: I'm trying. I'm trying. One of the questions I asked Andre when he kind of used me as a quasi sparring partner in the fall of 2000 after I'd played Juniors all year, I said, "If you had to look back and you had one regret." I was expecting him to say, "I got out of shape and dropped to 140." He said, "I didn't start my charitable foundation early enough." That really struck home. The next year I tried to start up my own. The rest is history. I don't know if I'll ever get up to his level, but I'll try.