DAVIS CUP - USA vs SWITZERLAND

February 11, 2001

Patrick McEnroe

Andy Roddick

ANDY RODDICK: I was excited. This has been a dream of mine for a while. It's too bad Roger played so well, because Jan-Mike put up a great fight. But Roger was just great, you know, all weekend long. He was just fantastic.

ANDY RODDICK: They told me -- I mean, I obviously knew there was a chance of it after Todd's match, his first match. But probably for sure somewhere around last night. I was pretty positive. But knowing Todd and the fighter that he is, you never know.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. Hopefully, I can do the same thing in a year or two, just totally dominate a tie like that. I'm looking forward to it. I see him doing it and it makes me want to do it also.

ANDY RODDICK: There would have been more intensity. I think I would have been even more awake and maybe even more into it. I was a little loose. But there's no telling what would have happened if it was a live match.

ANDY RODDICK: Well, obviously I was disappointed I didn't get to play -- play for something. But, you know, there's always pride. I'm never going to go into a match and say it doesn't count towards the total outcome because, I mean, it's an experience. A match is a match. Maybe next time, I mean, I got my Davis Cup debut out of the way so next time I'll be ready to go. I'll just try to approach it with a positive attitude.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I got a little sloppy, went for some stupid shots, and I just tried to regroup after that.

ANDY RODDICK: It's awesome. Our team is great, nothing but positives away from this. Captain Mac did a great job. The guys fought hard. The unity was great. We had a great time together. The only thing that didn't turn out our way was the outcome. But, I mean, I learned a lot of valuable lessons and made some great friends along the way. So it was a great experience all in all.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: Obviously that's important. Obviously, the first matter of business is to win. You can have a bunch of guys that can't stand each other and you'd rather win. I do think it's important for our future to have that, but more than anything I'm obviously disappointed but excited about what we all saw from Andy today. I think he's, you know, his game and his attitude is what we need as a country. And we don't need it just from him, we need it from a couple other guys as well. So it gives me great hope. I knew coming in that it was going to be difficult. I knew it was going to be a long -- maybe a long road back. But now it gives me hope to think that it might not be that long for us to get back, really, into the thick of it. Obviously we've got to win one more match later this year to make sure we're back in the thick of it next year. But it gives me a lot of inspiration to see him go out there. And I can tell you that if it was a 2-all situation that I think he would have even played better. You know, that's the feeling I have from Andy. So, you know, we had a great spirit, as he said. The guys fought. We ran into, you know, as Andy said, a guy who dominated the tie. Federer is a great player. He sort of came into his own, I think, this week. He played with a lot of confidence, and we just couldn't stop him. You know, if we could have gotten on top of him once, maybe gotten a break, Jan-Michael had a set point, maybe we could have turned it around. But the guy's got a lot of game.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: I've seen a few from someone in my family that I remember, yeah. No, certainly for a guy that young, you know, particularly, to pull it off at 19 and to beat -- it's not like he was beating, you know, any has-beens out there. He's beaten two great players in Todd and Jan-Michael and dominated the doubles, as far as I'm concerned. He really sort of dictated the way the match went. So it's impressive. To say I'm surprised would -- I'd be mistaken. I mean, I didn't think he could play that well, but I knew he had -- he has the potential to be a great, great player.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: There was some noise in the middle of the point. I just wanted to alert him to that fact, you know, right in the middle of one of my guys' serves or when he's about to hit a shot. Nothing major.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: Well, we hope. We have a couple other guys with some serious potential and talent. And I think Andy, so far, you know, is the guy that made the biggest strides. But certainly there's a couple other guys that we hope to get in the mix quickly, you know, real quickly. So obviously if they can come with that type of game and energy and enthusiasm, I think our future is great.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: Yeah, Andy would have played the fifth match regardless, yes.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: Yeah, Todd was injured and we, you know, I mean, I'm not -- yeah, that's what happened. Are you asking me if he was healthy would he have played? Well, that's a different -- that's a question for another day when that day comes up. So that day didn't come up. Todd was injured, so... There's only so many decisions I can make. I can't make decisions that don't come up.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: Well, there's a real good chance we could go in that direction. I think obviously a lot's going to happen between now and then. So, you know, knock on wood, all these guys will be healthy, number one. So that's the first and foremost thing that goes into picking a team. But certainly, I mean, I think it's obvious what my feelings are, which is that it's time to start looking to the future. And what exactly that means, I haven't decided yet to be honest. I got to give us the best possible chance to win. It's obviously a crucial match for us in September to win and get back into World Group. So I'm going to take a team there that's young, yes, but that can win the match as well.

CAPTAIN PATRICK McENROE: One with lines. (Laughing.) Go ahead, Andy. Sorry.

ANDY RODDICK: Probably hard, hardcourts now. I've played on them the most. I'm fine on, you know, most all surfaces. But probably hardcourts because I get -- I play on them the most.