WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 12, 2003

Roger Federer

MODERATOR: Questions for Roger, please.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, what can you do, you know? It's a pity, fighting so hard and then being down 6-2, you know. So you hope, you know, that he's not gonna close out the match and just hope you're gonna get another chance, you know. But normally it should be over, you know, so...

ROGER FEDERER: I think I never have, so... I don't.

ROGER FEDERER: I don't remember saving a lot of matchpoints in the past, you know. It's always something you get every - I don't know - 50 matches or something.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, if I win in the end, that's all right. But today was, yeah, was a tough match, you know. I thought he played a good match, you know, to get to this position. He played real aggressive. I had problems handling his serve. I was getting used to the conditions really. This is always what I felt throughout the whole match, even now. I'm still getting used to the conditions. It's just different than in Montreal, and I couldn't make the transition so easy. I would have told you the same if I would have lost, you know. But I'm really happy I came through. And I think, you know, I played well in the matchpoints. It's not really his mistake, you know. Maybe he could have changed something else, but I really thought I played some great matchpoints and deserved to win in the end.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I was pretty relaxed, you know. What can you do? You have to accept the situation and still try hard. But at 6-2, obviously, you're relaxed. Then at 7-all you're not so relaxed anymore because then you want to win.

ROGER FEDERER: I don't know what they did. I don't know what they said.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I didn't know if one match was enough or two or three, so I had no idea about the calculations after I lost against Roddick. So I knew that one would have put me at No. 1 - I think. You know, seems like they're making errors all the time everywhere in the world.

ROGER FEDERER: That's all right, you know. What can I do about it? Results haven't been good enough to be 1, so I'm 2. I'm just gonna hang in there. I've got a tough draw now, and I'm just gonna look match for match.

ROGER FEDERER: (Smiling.) If it wouldn't be, I wouldn't be playing tennis, so...

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, seems like I have a lot of fans, you know, around the world now. Yeah, a lot of people tell me I'm their favorite player or they love my game, or they tell me they're gonna come and support me, which is nice. So I have had it in the past, but not that extreme.

ROGER FEDERER: That's normal for me, you know. I've always had high expectations on my shoulders, so I'm used to that.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, situations like today don't -- you cannot practice them, you know. You just try your best, you know, until the end. That's what you do in every match. Sometimes you can turn it around, you know; sometimes you don't. But I would say rather like the first round of last week, that was more like because of my confidence I could turn it around, because of the will, the motivation for No. 1. Everything was playing a big role in that. Today was just, you know, "Hang in there," so...

ROGER FEDERER: It was out.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, it was called out, but late. It was clearly out in my eyes.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, the ball is bouncing much higher. The court's different. The balls are different, which I don't understand because it's the same brand. But I don't understand anything anymore about this game, you know (laughter). Every tournament I go, the balls are supposed to be the same, but they change, so... I got little problem with that, so every week you got to adjust, you know. The danger is always much bigger, especially when you play a qualifier who has played two matches and has been here for five days or a week almost. It's not so easy.

ROGER FEDERER: No, because he played a good match. He put me under pressure. As I said, I could never really find my rhythm, you know. So for me, was just important that I really, really focus on my serve so I don't get behind like what happened in the first set. And, yeah...

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, well, that's also one thing I think I've improved, coming back from behind, you know. I think that's really something you've got to be able to do when you're at the top, because it can make a huge difference losing first round or semis - last week already, you know. Hopefully, same thing's going to happen here.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, there are a lot of things we should talk about, you know. But I think it would be nice to have just one ball throughout the whole year, you know. I don't know how the balls react on every surface, you know, if it would be exactly the same, you know. You can change the brand, you know, but at least at the same factory, something like that, so we don't have to -- so we don't get elbow problems or shoulder problems, because this is also another issue. Because when you change balls all the time and conditions get heavy, you get pain, you know. So it would be nice, you know, if everybody could work a little bit together, but it seems to be quite difficult.

ROGER FEDERER: Because you have clay courters, you have fast court players, you have the ATP, you have the ITF, you have just too many people involved, and it's tough to get everybody together and talk about stuff like that.

ROGER FEDERER: I never have this problem. I used to have it three years ago maybe, you know, I was thinking, "Oh, Grand Slam, that's it. I only want to play well there." And I stopped doing that, and now I'm really just playing every event to win. So I cannot think further than tomorrow, so...