WIMBLEDON

June 28, 2004

Roger Federer

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Roger.

ROGER FEDERER: I'm very pleased again to be back in the quarters. It's the third time for me. You know, really tough match today. So big satisfaction.

ROGER FEDERER: It is definitely, you know, different. You know, I faced the pace of the serve, but it's a different angle it's coming from. So it makes it -- the thing is, you're not used to it, you know. He serves very consistent. I had the feeling he was serving a lot of first serves today. I thought he was going to maybe double-fault much more in the second and give me maybe more chances. But I had a great first set, I thought. From then on, I didn't have really too much of a chance on his serve, except maybe at the beginning of the third. So, you know, it's a nice experience, I have to say.

ROGER FEDERER: Just his serve or just him?

ROGER FEDERER: Well, first you got to be able to read his serve a little bit, be able to, you know, control the returns. Especially second serve, you have to try to do as much as you can. You know, first of all, you've always got to focus on your own serve to make life more comfortable, you know. Because if you get down or if you always have to face breakpoints all the time, you can't really focus on the opponent's serve anymore. So this is what I usually do against big servers.

ROGER FEDERER: It's nice to hear, you know. I've gotten many, many compliments throughout my career, so it's not really something new. But I enjoy, you know, obviously the way I'm playing right now because I'm winning many matches. That was not always the case. So I'm enjoying this.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah. I think it's more of a - how do you say - the pulse is higher when you're - how do you say - not doing anything. Usually the pulse goes up when you run. You know, but against him, it's more, "I hope he's not going to have a huge swing at my ball and, you know, I'll be down. Suddenly if I get broken, I will never see that set again." And that's really the scary thing about playing guys like this. You know if you get broken that there's a very big chance to -- well, that you're going to lose the set. That makes the pulse go up a little bit.

ROGER FEDERER: What do you mean?

ROGER FEDERER: This year?

ROGER FEDERER: French, no (smiling)? It was in Halle against - I don't know - maybe second, third round. I don't know.

ROGER FEDERER: I felt more like I was reading his serve really well in the beginning, you know, the first set. I got chances right away in the first game. After that I thought, you know, I always had a good look at it. Didn't give many aces. After that I had the feeling like he started, you know, to change tactics a little bit, would go a little bit more to my backhand on the ad court. I couldn't figure it out, you know, that I would never catch it. That was putting me under pressure. He gave me a chance then again in the end of the third when he started really to miss many first serves. But at that point I was so out of rhythm on the return that I couldn't even take advantage of that anymore. So I needed the tiebreaker to win.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, you can have friends standing up to the service line and serve it from there. It's maybe similar, I don't know.

ROGER FEDERER: I didn't, no. It's all about reaction and trying to read his serve. I knew it's going to come down to that.

ROGER FEDERER: Say again.

ROGER FEDERER: I don't try to think too much of it, you know. I have to say every match so far on grass has been, you know, quite unbelievable. I've always played great tennis. There's not a match where I remember I've played bad tennis and came through. I always played very good. And I think this is good looking ahead to the tournament because, you know, from here on only tough opponents will come my way. But I don't, I don't know, check too much how many matches I won in a row now. I couldn't even tell you.

ROGER FEDERER: Right now?

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, for sure. There's many guys around who have a chance, you know, always. I try to prepare the best I can. So far preparation was good. Also, every time I step on the court, you know, I'm playing at a very high level. You really need somebody who can play in the very high level, also very consistently. So far nobody's been able to do that on grass this year, but it can change very quickly.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, definitely, because beating different players with different styles is always, you know, a challenge. You know, some have their strengths in the return, some have them in the serve. Some with the movement, some with the volley. So it's always a nice challenge. That's why I was really looking forward to this match with Karlovic because there's been so much talk about his serve, and I've seen it, you know, against players. You always have a to smile. But when you face it, you just try to ignore really what's coming my way because I try to win against him. That's really what I tried to do, and it was a nice match, you know, fair. I really enjoyed it.

ROGER FEDERER: No, it's nice for a change really.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, it is, because, I mean, I knew that I might just, you know, walk from side to side for games. That's no problem because, I mean, as long as I'm holding my serve easily, too, that's okay. So that was the case.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, good. Very consistent performance. I'm very happy really. Came up with, you know, good shots at the right time. You know, two tiebreaks, it's always good to win tiebreakers. Hadn't played one yet, so it's good.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I think my strength is, you know, that my serve is better on grass. You know, I can -- especially because I think I have a very good second serve, as well, that is even more effective here on the grass. The ball doesn't bounce as high on the returns for me, so it always stays low where I can hit it harder. Especially the movement comes very natural for me on the grass. So I think that has its strengths.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, well, for sure a very tough match. I'm going to play a player who's got a lot of experience. You know, against Lleyton would be extremely tough because he won here in the past. Everybody knows what great matches we had. Moya, you know, on grass, he doesn't play too often, so it's tough to say how strong he is. But if he can beat a player like Hewitt in the fourth round, I think that will be also a very difficult test, even though I've got a much better record against him. Yeah, no matter what, I have to play, again, very good to go through.