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DAVIS CUP QUARTERFINALS

April 9, 2006

Andy Roddick

CHILE vs. USA , RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Andy.
Q. Can you describe your emotions, what you're feeling after clinching the tie?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. You're excited, you're relieved, you're pumped up. I don't know. I mean, your teammates come over and you're happy. I mean, there's a lot of good emotions that run through you.
Q. There has to be a lot of self-satisfaction. This might be called your best weekend of the year. You beat two very good players under tough circumstances.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, absolutely. You know, this has definitely been the best weekend for me so far. I've kind of been looking for something good. You know, maybe this was it. I came up pretty big this weekend, especially today. Fernando playing lights-out the first couple sets, just kind of stuck around and really found a way.
It feels good.
Q. Your diving form was pretty good today. Did you think those might have changed things, 3-All there? Would have been a breakpoint if you hadn't made the first one.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, well, the swing that would have taken place had I not made those would have been pretty severe. It's game point versus breakpoint. It's pretty intense.
You know, I just kind of laid out and was lucky to make a couple of them.
Q. Things got pretty animated on the sidelines there. Looked like maybe you were exchanging words with Hans and some of the guys on the bench.
ANDY RODDICK: No, there's nothing really out of the ordinary as far as Davis Cup goes. It's not surprising that the teams get into it. That's part of the whole team competition.
But I thought -- I actually thought I did a good job of not getting too caught up in it. Everybody kept kind of worrying about everything except what was going on on the court. I was kind of able to take it back and really focus on the task at hand.
As much as I would have liked to have joined in the conversations, I was able to kind of pull back a little bit.
Q. Does that just come with experience, not to get caught up in that? You know they're probably trying to work you.
ANDY RODDICK: I'd like to think so. But I've been stupid on many occasions as far as getting caught up in the wrong things. It was definitely a conscious effort to try to just withhold and try to focus on what I had to do to win.
Q. From past experience, is there any way to generalize about how a Davis Cup experience affects you the next few weeks on the tour, positive or negative energy transfers?
ANDY RODDICK: I've always done pretty well after Davis Cup. I don't know if that's coincidence or not. I don't think anything negative can come out of this weekend, but there's a whole lot of positive that can come out of it.
Like I said, hopefully I can use this as a springboard.
Q. Where were you on the calmness meter? We keep hearing you have to be calmer. You seemed very calm out there.
ANDY RODDICK: I was at the right moments. I wasn't getting too caught up in everything. I liked my demeanor on court today.
Q. You mentioned Bobby Bernstein looking at tapes. What were some of his comments?
ANDY RODDICK: Just something with my feet on my serve. I guess on old videotapes my front foot would kind of drop back before I would go into it. I guess he was filming in Miami and it was staying put. Little things like that can affect the rhythm of a serve. I started trying to fix it about Tuesday or Wednesday. I served really well this weekend, and consistently, too. Not one good game, one bad game.
That makes it a lot easier. Even when I feel like in the third against Massu I didn't hit the ball that well, but I thought if I get into a tiebreaker, I can still serve. So that was big for me.
Q. After kind of a tough start to the season, what does this weekend say to you?
ANDY RODDICK: It feel goods. I'm not going to lie. There's been a lot of frustrating moments so far this year. To kind of come through for myself and my team, it feels really good. It kind of feels like a lot of the work that's been put in is paying off a little bit. Even if it's just one weekend, you know, I'm not going to get too overexcited over two good matches under intense situations.
I felt good about the way I performed, and especially under pressure this week.
Q. Any word from Patrick?
ANDY RODDICK: I haven't talked to him yet. I don't get very good service in our locker room. I'm sure I have about six messages from him, though.
Q. Do you feel like you kind of had him when he got really emotional, that it swung your way?
ANDY RODDICK: Those are two questions. I felt like it swung my way. I also watched the match against James the other day where it looked like he was down and out, going through the motions a little bit. I knew he was going to play a couple games where he wasn't hitting his first serve hard, winging the balls from the baseline. All of a sudden he puts his foot on the accelerator again, you're a little shocked.
I was definitely conscious kind the not to get lulled into that lackadaisical rhythm.
Q. You're 7-0 closing out matches. Do you like that role? When you came out on the court today, did you say, "I'm going to close this thing for the US, I know I can do it"?
ANDY RODDICK: I said I wanted to and I know I have the ability to. I don't know. I feel like that's just coincidence because I always play the first on the second day, and more often than not we have a lead going into that day.
It feels good. I hope can I keep it going (laughter). I'm glad. I'm just glad I could get it to 7-0 and not 6-1.
Q. 50 winners today. Very impressive. Maybe more impressive than winners is 17 unforced errors in four sets.
ANDY RODDICK: Whoop whoop.
Q. Is that the defense? He was talking about how good your defense was today.
ANDY RODDICK: Well, I was shocked, I guess. They said after the first two sets, when I still felt like I had my best stuff ahead of me, I was plus 21 in winners to errors. To hear I was plus 33, that's a lot better than I've been this year. I've been on the bad end of that a couple times as far as not putting the ball between the lines. That doesn't really help much in tennis most of the time.
Q. Not to take you out of the now, but it's Russia next. Can you discuss that? Can you discuss it in the context of you've had two home ties, now it will be away.
ANDY RODDICK: Yep. They're a great team. I mean, they have -- Davydenko is a top 10 player. Safin, when healthy, is a top five player. It's going to be extremely tough. They're deep, as well. Even if someone gets hurt, they have a couple other guys who can step in and play singles, like Tursunov, Andreev. We're definitely going to have our work cut out for us. For the first time in a while, maybe since Spain, we're not the favorites going in.
It will be a tough one, and cold as well.
Q. When Hans made the decision to replace Massu and González yesterday, was there a part of you that took that personal?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know if I care that much. I might have convinced myself it was personal after hearing it. It was a little weird because in a sense by is action he's saying he thinks they have a better shot of sweeping singles than they do winning one doubles match.
That definitely sends a little bit of a message to James and I. I wanted you guys to write that it was a dumb move as opposed to a genius move after today.
Q. Can you also talk about the site here, playing on the court, the fans here at Mission Hills?
ANDY RODDICK: It was great. I mean, I'd also like to say props to the Chilean fans for coming out and being that passionate about their team. That's amazing. When the chips were down, though, our fans definitely stepped up as well and got pretty animated and pretty heated, which was fun.
Q. Planning on having that support in Moscow?
ANDY RODDICK: I'll take half that. I'll take a quarter of that. We need to come up with some fun chants or something.
Q. What surface are you expecting the Russians to give you?
ANDY RODDICK: I'd be surprised if it was anything but clay.
Q. You played away ties on clay, won a couple, but you've also lost. Does this team have a better chance? Will experience help you? Do you have to take a better attitude, different attitude over? What do you have to do?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know if attitude has ever been our problem. Even in Spain, you forget we were -- against Nadal I had a pretty good shot to put us at 1-All, set points to go up two sets to one when he was starting to get some work on his legs. We were deceivingly close to taking a pretty big momentum swing in that one.
We're going to go there and we're going to try our butts off. That's all we can do. I'm excited for the opportunity. Like I said, I don't think anybody's going to consider us the favorite. We're going to go in and do our best to take it to them.
Q. The circuit obviously is a pretty brutal individual effort. Here there's a real team effort. James didn't get the point the other day. He really took Fernando down quite a bit. Talk about the team aspect, how James' effort helped today.
ANDY RODDICK: Like I said, I've said all week, I don't care if I win another match for the rest of the year. If we can hold up that cup, I really don't care. That's probably the one time of the year where you can say that and be that selfless and mean it.
This was just my turn. James, he got us here to the second round. I helped us get to the third round. I'm just glad that we can step up and try to help each other out. Like you said, it's a team effort. This weekend was no different.
Q. Andy, you used the word "demeanor." Do you suppose demeanor could have had as much a bearing on which team won today as stroke? You clearly were in control. The other guy was losing it.
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. That's for you to judge. I can just talk about myself. I felt kind of calm during the storm, for lack of a better term. You're probably more aware of what was going on around it than I was. You probably have a better -- you'd probably be a better judge than I was there.
Q. What is next? Do you look at Europe as a challenge with all that clay ahead of you, if you're going to play?
ANDY RODDICK: It's certainly a challenge (laughter). I'm looking forward to it. I got to figure out a way to get from grass on Sunday to clay on Tuesday right now. That's what I'm thinking about.
But the good news is, I play a guy who is playing out there on grass right now also. That was a good draw.
Q. Will you play Rome?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. I'm going to play Rome.
Q. Can you survive Rome without another exciting incident?
ANDY RODDICK: Can I survive Rome without another exciting incident? I really hope so. That was probably one of the worst days I've had.
Q. Did you model your basketball slide on any particular player?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. Probably someone who wasn't very graceful.

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