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INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA (MEN)

May 10, 2007

Tomas Berdych

ROME, ITALY

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Obviously you played very, very well. What do you expect for tomorrow? Because you heard that Volandri beat Federer, and were you surprised about that?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Of course I was surprised. First of all, of course, I would like to congratulate him, because it was great job to beat Roger.
I mean, it's going to be, I think, very, very nice match, because I hope we going to play on the center court and it's going to be full. I'm going play with the home guy, which is here at home, he's Italian, so everybody is going to be on his side.
So, yeah, I have to fight with the situation. With my last score with Filippo I think it's 2 or 3-Love for my side, so that's kind of advantage for me, so we will see.

Q. What do you remember of those three matches?
TOMAS BERDYCH: One of them was a final in Palermo, which was my first final on the ATP and I won it, so it was fantastic. And it was -- yeah, it was quite a nice match.
Then we played a second match in Dusseldorf, which is not ATP tournament, but I think like level of the tennis is pretty high there.
And then it was the next week on Roland Garros, so all of them was straight sets.

Q. So you haven't lost a set?
TOMAS BERDYCH: No.

Q. And where did you play better? Do you think he didn't play that well? Especially Roland Garros, I saw the match. Wasn't great from his side. What do you think?
TOMAS BERDYCH: I think like tougher match from all the three matches was the final Palermo. It was my first final and I was nervous and all the things together, but then the next two matches I have to say was fine.

Q. What do you respect more of his game? What is his best quality? What you, I don't say fear, but you have to worry about?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Of course, he's a good clay court player so that's his advantage. He's good moving on the court, and I think especially his backhand he's pretty good.
So, yeah, I have some kind of tactics which I'm going to take for tomorrow's match, and we will see if it's going to work or not. But it's going to be nice match.

Q. Are you playing better the last two, three week, four weeks than you were most of the early part of this year?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Yeah, of course. The start of the year wasn't as we expected. I was fourth down on the Australian Open. It was like, yeah, so, so. But then the other tournaments wasn't what we want.
So now the last two, maybe three weeks are pretty good. The clay court season is fine. I start with the semis, two semis. So now I'm going to fight for next semi final in a row so we will see.

Q. The crowd will be very excited tomorrow. How many times did you have to play in your career against the home crowd? What do you remember? One match particularly or one player? Where?

Q. Maybe in Spain?
TOMAS BERDYCH: I don't know why everybody laughing, but I think you already know the answer. Yeah, it was the match with Rafael in Madrid.

Q. Do you think you will go out, if you win, doing the same thing you did in Madrid, or no?
TOMAS BERDYCH: No, no, I think -- or I hope -- that it's what is going happen, yeah. That's fine it that everybody is going to support Filippo and they would like him to win the match, but I think they going to stay fair and they understand to the tennis and it's going to be nice atmosphere.

Q. It's a very small court and many people and lots of noise. Have you played there much with that atmosphere on this court?
TOMAS BERDYCH: No. I never played on center court here, so it's going to be first time, so we will see.

Q. Apart from Nadal, were there other situations, maybe in Davis Cup or somewhere? How do you usually react? Do you get pumped up when the crowd is against you or you get nervous?
TOMAS BERDYCH: It depends on the situation in the match. When you have the match which is like close and you have the chances to win the match and you are on the side that you winning the match, then it's like a little bit kind of like advantage that you know that everybody is on the other side and then you're beating the guy.
So then it's nice. But then when you're losing and you are down, yeah, there's the other part of the situation. But what did you do if you're playing, let's say, Davis Cup in Argentina and there's $15,000 just screaming for the Argentinian guys. That's fine.
If we playing at home it's the same for us. So this is like kind of situation when you play Davis Cup, but other tournaments it's not much problem.

Q. When you went on court today they were already playing, Federer and Volandri. What was the score? Did you see it?
TOMAS BERDYCH: They already finish.

Q. They did?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Yeah.

Q. So did you look a little bit of the match or nothing?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Yeah, of course, I was watching the match. I have to say that I was pretty happy that Filippo won, because if I look for the statistics of the last four matches with Roger I won one set.
With the statistics with Filippo I didn't lose the set. So of course -- but, you never know, because one day he can beat Roger and the next day it could be better and worse. You never know; this is the tennis. I have to be ready for tomorrow's match.

Q. Did you have the impression that Federer was playing particularly bad or Filippo was playing particularly well? What was your idea of the match?
TOMAS BERDYCH: I mean, if you want to -- if you want to beat Roger you have to play well. You have to play like more than hundred percent. And then if you have a chance and Roger is not playing well and making a little bit more mistakes than he does usually, then you have a chance.
So I think that's the situation was happen today. But, yeah, I have to say that Filippo was playing really good tennis.

Q. If everyone in the Top 4 can win the tournament, because I mean, Volandri, Berdych, Chela, Gonzalez can win. It's not an impossible draw right now. It was more difficult before. What this means for you? It's normal?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Of course it's something like in my mind that Roger is not there and there are some different players. But also if you look for the draw you have Fernando, which was a final in Australia, and also I think Chela is playing good this year, start of the year.
So, yeah, there is like advantage that Roger is not there, but still the other players -- you have a player who beat him, so he cannot play bad. So it's going to be tough.

Q. Are you will a little disappointed that Murray and Djokovic have maybe moved ahead of you a little bit? A lot people think you're just as good as they are and more people talk about them. Do you think that you can catch up and move ahead?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Yeah. Of course Djokovic is fantastic. He's great start of the year and that's fantastic how he's playing. When you look for Murray, I'm still in the draw; he's not. I have a few points on him.
Maybe if I'm going to win the next match I can be so close to his position. So I'm not thinking about this or if somebody talking about one guy or the other ones. I'm just trying concentrate myself, and I don't care if somebody's going and, I don't know, thinking, yeah, you're great. You're fantastic, whatever.
I mean, that's not my kind of life. I just want to be myself and I'm concentrating for myself, not for the other ones.

Q. Clay, is it your best surface, or are they all the same? Is there one you like better?
TOMAS BERDYCH: If you're playing well on the hard then you're going to say that the hard court is better. Now I'm playing good on the clay so, yeah, difference in these two surface is not big.

Q. We have asked you ten thousand questions about Volandri but nothing about Starace who's the other Italian. What do you think about Starace? Are you surprised he's doing so well in this tournament?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Surprised? I mean, if everyone who's like not the favorite and not the guy who's everybody talking about them, I don't know, like he said Djokovic, Murray and all of them, and then you have some guy who's playing well and like this, maybe be can beat Davydenko.
Yeah, he can play semifinal. Why not? I mean, everybody in top 50 have the chance to beat the top guys. That's nice for the tennis because it's not just about three, four guys and every single week they are in the semifinal, final winners. Every week same. That's nice. And why not? The tennis need new faces, and that's good.

Q. Lucie is coming? She's already here?
TOMAS BERDYCH: No. I don't know if she's -- when I left to the court she starts to play with Safina, so I don't know the score. So but she's going to play here.

Q. You wait for her?
TOMAS BERDYCH: I'm going to Hamburg, so.

End of FastScripts

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