TMS - STUTTGART

October 16, 2001

Roger Federer

MODERATOR: Questions for Roger.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, in the third I think I had a very bad service game the first of the match. I think that decided a little bit the match. I maybe had a few more chances in the first. Yeah, I felt like he was really serving well, getting back a lot of returns also. I always had to work hard on my service games. Well, in the end, that's what made the difference.

ROGER FEDERER: No, not really, because I knew it was a bad call. It was good for me.

ROGER FEDERER: No, I don't think so. I mean, I think we both are fired up enough to play each other. I think we both are a little bit in a low right now. He was more fortunate today.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, from now on I probably can stop talking about Sydney. If I'm playing that bad or I can't even go past the first round, why should I talk about Sydney? I'm just not playing well enough to be there anyway. So I'm just going to try to play as well as I can the next two tournaments and we'll see what happens.

ROGER FEDERER: I think mentally I don't feel very good at all in the moment. Still fighting back a little bit from injury. The injury is still not gone totally. I still feel it a little bit. Yeah, I played the quarters last week in Vienna. But also there I didn't feel like I was playing the same like before. So when it gets tight, I'm just not playing well. It would have been a good match to get through this one, to build my confidence up. It went the other way.

ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I think I was missing matches lately. Since Wimbledon, I maybe played, what, six matches. That's not a lot. I'm the type of guy who needs a lot of matches to play well. I'm not the type of guy who loves to practice two, three weeks in a row, then play a tournament. Still waiting a little bit.

ROGER FEDERER: Obviously, everybody is talking about Sydney the whole time. But I'm not really thinking about that on the court. I'm just a little bit too worried about my game because I feel like I'm not really serving well, I'm not really feeling well from the baseline. When it gets important, I can't make the breakpoints. It's like, I don't know, just too negative right now probably.

ROGER FEDERER: I think he played a good match today. I think it was, yeah, not a bad match today at all, except maybe the end from my side was terrible. Until there, I think we both played pretty well. I knew it's going to be tough after he beat Hrbaty in three sets, I knew he was like back playing well. Obviously he got confidence, because he won here last year. Hopefully he can go far.