TELECOM ITALIA MASTERS

May 8, 2003

Roger Federer

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, who expected this, you know, to beat Tommy Robredo 1-1 on clay? Yeah, I'm very, very pleased. Match went well from the start, you know. I felt good on the returns, tried to keep the rallies short on my own service games. It worked perfectly so I didn't have to change anything. I had the perfect game plan and I'm very happy.

ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. It's very difficult to answer. I think -- I don't know, it's just my feeling. Everybody who is in the quarters or semifinals of a tournament can win the event, you know? Guys have more chance, guys have less chance. But I think I definitely have a chance because I'm playing really well. But it's not what I'm thinking right now. I go match by match. The next match I know I'm the favorite so I hope I can use this situation for myself.

ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. I don't think I'm on such a confidence roll, actually, you know. Because I come into all these matches and I know -- I'm not scared, but I feel that I could lose any match, you know, also in one way. But since Miami, I haven't lost a set in Davis Cup, Munich and here now. I'm surprising myself every time I win so easy. Really strange, you know, to me. But I wouldn't put it this way that I'm on a confidence roll. I feel like I'm mentally really good right now and my game is just playing well. I feel like, you know, before, a couple years back, I would always feel like I would shank every ball. In the wind I would be struggling too much. But now all these things don't bother me anymore. I just keep playing well, you know. It's really nice feeling to have.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I would like to have, you know, dropshot, this forehand dropshot all these Spaniards have. When they have this time, they just wait and wait and wait, in the end they play a dropshot. I could do it but I just don't have the confidence or I feel like, "Oh, if I lose the point, I look so stupid." So I don't even try these shots, you know. But sometimes it's good to do it just to mix it up.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, you never know why you're playing well so quickly, you know, on clay. I think the beginning of a clay court season is always a little bit written in the stars, you know, how you say in German. I guess, you know, especially for a guy like me who prefers maybe the hard courts or the faster surfaces, even though I don't feel this way anymore today, in the beginning in my career I felt different, you know, towards clay. But I'm in a way surprising myself, but in one way I know I can play well because I played all my life on clay. I feel very natural, my footwork is very natural on clay, and this is why actually I'm not that surprised, you know. But still, to have beaten such good players, you know, in such little time is a very good result for me and I'm very happy.