WIMBLEDON

June 25, 2002

Roger Federer

MODERATOR: Questions for Roger.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, still looking for reasons why, yes, why I played so bad. I'm terribly down right now. I mean, it's quite normal after such a loss. And I expected much more than coming in here and losing in straight sets. So I'm very disappointing. For the moment, I haven't got any words.

ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I don't know. I knew he was young, but I didn't know much more. I tried to get some information from other players. I mean, a lot of guys hit with him. I never did. But I got my information, and I just couldn't really figure out his game today. My game let him play well today. So didn't really matter actually the way he played. I'm just really down about my game today. That was quite bad.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, I just had my chances, you know. In the second set, I missed them. Okay, maybe in the first one I have the break. I couldn't take my chances today. I had Love-40 in the second. This was really my only big chance throughout the whole match, and I didn't take it. He deserves to be through because I just couldn't come up with the right shots at the right moment. And that hurts especially in a Grand Slam over five sets where I really think I'm the better player. But today it was just too bad.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I couldn't quite figure out his serve. I was struggling to read his toss. Other than that, I mean, he returns pretty good. But I just felt like from the beginning on, I was not serving well. Tried to get more serves in. But as soon as I wanted to go for an ace, I will never make it. I still think the conditions are much slower than last year somehow. I mean, just I haven't looked at the stats, but I maybe made one ace, I think. I mean, it's a joke if I think I made 25 against Pete last year or something. I don't know what was wrong today. My serving was, for sure, not very good.

ROGER FEDERER: It hurts. I mean, I was looking forward a lot to this tournament again just because I was so happy that I heard I was playing on Centre Court. It's a special place out here. I think it's the best centre court in the world and I love playing on it. After nice experiences, even against Henman, I thought it was a nice match. To come out today and play such tennis I played today, it's just a shocker. So I'm very disappointed. It's going to take some time until I get over it, but I will have to work hard and come back strong for the American hard courts.

ROGER FEDERER: No. Usually I prefer to be in the favored role. But I still think Arazi was a very tough opponent at the French Open. Here, I mean, usually I should win this match. I'm high favorite over Ancic. He played well today. Yeah, this is very disappointing to lose back to back first round in Grand Slams. I'm looking for reasons why, but I have time to figure that out, so we'll see.