US OPEN

September 1, 2001

Roger Federer

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Roger, please.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, seeing a draw the beginning of the week, I was hoping to play him in the fourth round. But you don't really think about that yet, because you've got too many matches to come. So now that it's a fact, I'm looking forward to it. Most likely we gonna play on center court, so it's nice to play here.

ROGER FEDERER: I feel pretty good, I have to say. My injury doesn't bother me. So that's a really good sign. I'm saving a lot of energy by winning my matches fairly easy. So I'm happy the way I played today, and it was a good test. I really hope I can carry it over to the match against Agassi.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I just like the aggressive baseline play they have. They play, there's a lot of risk, hard-hitting from the baseline. So I'm very similar, but it seems like I do it better than the other guys. It's -- I don't know why. But Agassi, of course, is maybe the toughest American right now. So it's gonna be a tough one.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, it hasn't happened yet so I still have some work to do on that. Beating Pete in Wimbledon was something to me very special. He was like my favorite player when I was growing up, alongside Becker and Edberg. Agassi, I mean, my game's totally different to Agassi's game. So I could never compare myself to him or anything like that. And I don't know, but it will be a huge success for me if I could beat him here.

ROGER FEDERER: No, no Agassi posters for me. I had Edberg and I think Sampras.

ROGER FEDERER: The necklace?

ROGER FEDERER: I don't know. First I had a gold necklace from my mother once for birthday. That one got too small then, and somehow I got into these surfer necklaces. So I liked them, I started to buy them. I have a whole collection of them.

ROGER FEDERER: Exactly.

ROGER FEDERER: I don't know, no. (Laughing). But I like the beach, so...

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I like Miami, South Beach, Key Biscayne, South Africa, Capetown, a lot of places. Sydney.

ROGER FEDERER: No, not yet.

ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean since Wimbledon, not much has happened. I was injured for like six weeks. I just played the tournament in Gstaad the week after. But I had to take treatment from then on. So I haven't been working at all on my game. I started to hit an hour a day, so, yeah, I don't know if for five sets my physic is good enough. But I think so, because I don't play with -- I'm not very tight when I play. So my looseness gets me through the long matches.

ROGER FEDERER: I have no idea. I mean, I don't know, maybe two people waited for me at the airport in Basel after the win against Sampras. So I don't know if the Swiss are the same as the Croatians. But Goran has been around much longer than I have been, so I mean everybody was, like, hoping so much for him to win that Wimbledon. For us, it will be little bit different because we're much younger.