AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2006

Roger Federer

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

ROGER FEDERER: Oh, I'm very pleased with the way I played. Very good performance. The circumstances, I knew what to expect. I've played him on many occasions, and he played exactly what I expected. Always a tough match against Max. I think I really played good, especially mentally I thought it was a good performance because you don't get many opportunities, and when you get them you have to take them, and that's what I did. So I'm very pleased.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I guess, you know, most important is serve return and the mental part. All of them I would say I passed the test. I never got broken, you know, broke him when I had to, never had to go to a tiebreak. Mentally, you know, I never let go. Always kept giving me opportunities, and that was important.

ROGER FEDERER: I was at the hotel watching the match, yeah. I mean, I wasn't watching them all the time. But obviously it's hard, you know, in the heat. If somebody can do it in the heat, it's him. Obviously it's not the fairest of things, you know, if a guy is playing at the same time playing under a roof and he's playing outside. But I guess, you know, we have sort of a rule which needs to be followed. It's for the good of the players. It's just that for some, you know, who are unfortunate, maybe like the two of them, I guess they had to sort of pay the price for playing on the outside court. I don't consider myself lucky, you know. I would have preferred, too, with the roof open. During the day wouldn't have been a problem, I think the heat. But I think it maybe should have been the same for everybody. I guess not, you know.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I guess the best solution would be no heat rule. Either you have one or you don't have one. Hard to say. It's a tough call.

ROGER FEDERER: No, that would be totally wrong, I think. Either you do it all the way or you don't. I don't think you have to stress the issue too much. I don't think Domino complained. He's a tough man and a tough competitor. Yeah, that subject will be gone tomorrow. It's going to be even more hot. Maybe we'll see no play on the outside courts.

ROGER FEDERER: No, not really. Maybe once I'm up two sets to love, sort of get that feeling that it's going to be hard that some stuff will go wrong. But, again, I've lost matches being up two sets to love, too. They maybe sometimes hurt you the most because you should have won the match. But, again, I get moments in the course of the match where I feel unbeatable, but not from the start, that's for sure.

ROGER FEDERER: Absolutely. I think the danger is the long tournament, tough conditions, the five-setters, you know. Dangerous players are always around in a draw like this. I cannot take anybody lightly. I got to focus on playing well and keeping -- playing good tennis. So far I've been able to do that. Obviously, I agree with you, it looks like it's going to be a walk in the park, but it's definitely not going to be that. Players change, they adapt, they try other things. Like this match tonight, I thought that was a dangerous match. I got through it quite comfortably. I hope I can keep it up. But the next match, again, is going to be very difficult against Tommy Haas. I've had some difficulties with him in the past. I already played him twice this year. Looking toward to that match because that's going to be a different match. Finally get some baseline rallies going. Looking forward to that one.

ROGER FEDERER: Who did I play third round here? I don't remember. I beat Santoro and Baghdatis. I think it's very good - at least the same if not better, to be honest. I really thought the last matches I played really tough and really good, never had any letdowns. For this reason, I'm very pleased.

ROGER FEDERER: Not really. I mean, it wasn't the heat of the court that got me pain. It came out of nowhere basically. I played a tough three-setter against Agassi, and the following day I was struggling, you know, to run and stuff in the practice. I was like, geez, I hope that goes away till the following day, and it didn't. I played with pain from the start. I changed my game after the first set against Safin. Obviously I was disappointed that I had to do that, but I still almost won the match. So I was actually very pleased with my performance. That's why my disappointment wasn't that big, maybe because I knew I was playing in so much pain. I just always hope it doesn't come back because the pain was quite strong. Yeah, it's not fun playing like this, that's for sure.

ROGER FEDERER: All I remember is my match point, so... I don't remember anything else, to be honest.

ROGER FEDERER: Little bit. Sort of always look forward, not really too much backwards. I think we really were one of the young guns back then, all trying to come through. Kuerten, I remember, was doing a lot of the New Balls Please ads. To play Tommy was a big match. To play Rios then, maybe go further. I was quite sad and disappointed after the match because I thought I really played a good match. I really remember that. So anyway also it was fun walking away from a match not being too disappointed and happy about the performance because back then that hardly ever happened. I always thought either the effort was not good enough or I could have done much better. But I thought really I did everything right and he was just a better man on the day. No, I remember it was a good match, good crowds. Also under the roof, I remember, yeah.