US OPEN

September 2, 2005

Roger Federer

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

ROGER FEDERER: I did, yeah. It was good. Yeah, we've played on several occasions. Every time I thought it was different conditions, different crowd. Today was maybe the best, you know, next to the Davis Cup we played in France. But obviously you can expect it with the result I had there. The crowd were very quiet. But here was great. They were backing him up. No, I had a blast out there today because rarely the crowd really gets into a match like this. I knew it from the start, this could be a very interesting match, the way he plays, the way I play. This is a night session at the US Open, I knew it could be a great one.

ROGER FEDERER: Yes, I did. But he fought his way back into the match and deserved it to be close. I could have closed it early earlier. Same in the second set, I thought. But he played good tennis. I thought the conditions were tough because there was a lot of wind. His slice was staying low. I had my difficulties to get past him, especially when he was coming to the net.

ROGER FEDERER: I thought I was returning it pretty good in the first set. After that, I was a little disappointed, you know, because he's not a big server. He serves very flat, you know, and the ball stays low. Especially I think in the wind, like today, it's tough to get it down on him, get the timing, get the rhythm. I thought as the match went on, he actually started to serve better and better. In the beginning, he missed a few volleys to help me out. That didn't happen any more in the end. Even though he's not a big server, whatever, he's tough to break because he's got so many options. Always you think he's going to stay back. He comes in. You think he's going to come in. He stays back. He always mixes it up very well. That is his main strength in his game, I think.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I guess they won't show it.

ROGER FEDERER: Not that I know. Definitely going to be following it. Hope they'll win. They've got a couple matches coming back to back. They better make sure they win, stay ahead of the group - stay ahead of France (smiling).