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TENNIS MASTERS CUP

November 12, 2008

Andy Roddick

SHANGHAI, CHINA

THE MODERATOR: Unfortunately Andy has to pull out of the Masters Cup Shanghai with an ankle injury. He's here to answer a few questions.

Q. How and where did it happen, and when?
ANDY RODDICK: Yesterday. When I was doing a warm-up drill in practice I just went over on it, and, you know, we tried as much as we could to get it better.
You know, I can't really stop and start very quickly. It's anything when I go kind of over on the outside it hurts. And so I do that a lot on my serve also, so it's a -- it's definitely a tough prospect trying to beat Roger with no serve and not being able to move much.

Q. Did you feel anything before that during the first match?
ANDY RODDICK: No, no.

Q. It happens suddenly yesterday?
ANDY RODDICK: Yes.

Q. Do you have any sort of diagnosis how long you might need to recover, or what grade of strain or anything like that?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I mean, they looked at it. They don't think it's too long-term, which is nice. It's unfortunate for this event as far as I go, but, you know, I don't think we're looking at anything more than a week or so.
Which in the grand scheme of things is good news considering the nature of the injury. Unfortunately bad news for me participating here.

Q. Will it have any impact on the preparation of next year, or will it change anything for you in terms of preparation?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't think so. I don't think so. You know, good news is after this tournament you normally take five or six days anyway. And I wasn't planning on going anywhere as far as, you know -- I was planning on going home anyway. Basically I'm just starting that process four days earlier by not being able to finish here.
But from all accounts, from my trainer and I've seen the doctor, they say it should be okay. It shouldn't be anything too long-term.

Q. What time did you definitely decide to pull out? How much time he had to replace and prepare for the match for tonight?
ANDY RODDICK: How much time did...

Q. Stepanek have.
ANDY RODDICK: I did it yesterday. I woke up this morning at at about -- or I called him this morning at about 10:00 or 10:30 and said, You should prepare like you're going to play. I'm probably 50/50 to play tonight, and I'll let you know as soon as I try to warm up.
I came out here and tried to warm 45 minutes or so ago, and it was pretty apparent that my movement was probably 30% or 40%.
You know, unfortunately that's just not good enough to get it done at a tournament like this. Then when it affects my serve also in warmup, the risk/reward wasn't there. I didn't feel like I could go out and try to compete and win a tennis match.
Like you said, you're risking further injury where it might cut into preparation for next year. I called Stepanek earlier today to let him know where my head was at, and then just told him when I came off the practice court. So he knew as early as anybody else.

Q. You are pretty success in Asia this year. Do you think you're a little bit unlucky in Shanghai, 2005 and this year, and also in 2006 you were very close to defeating Roger Federer.
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know, I got to put it more as a bad coincidence than to blame it on a city. It's unfortunate. You don't really want to end your year like that, but in a way I'd like to leave all these things in 2008 and kind of use them all up here as opposed to bringing them into 2009 with me.
Hopefully I have all these nicknack injury things out of way. They've been pretty frustrating for me since May this year. I feel like I've been playing catchup a little bit, you know, as of as far as not being prepared and ready. A lot of it's been out of my hands.
So I'm very much looking forward to getting healthy and actually having some time to try to get fit again and be prepared going forward next year.

Q. Are you planning on making any sort of coaching appointment this winter?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, we've been talking about if for a little bit. There's a short list. I didn't want to start going through the process of talking to people either over the phone or in person until my season was finished. That's something that I'd definitely like to get taken care of in the next couple weeks.

Q. Is Paul Annacone on your list?
ANDY RODDICK: No, I'm not going comment on who's on the list and who's not at this point. It's a short list, and it's a list I'm comfortable with. I'm also not really looking to pursue people who already have jobs.

Q. Nadal said yesterday that he pulled out of Davis Cup because it has been a particularly long year and a tough schedule for him on his body. Have you found the same thing this season?
ANDY RODDICK: I'm going to be very clear with two things here: this particular injury had nothing to do with it being a long season. It was an accident and it was unlucky it happened. Could easily have happen if you were walking down the street and get on a curb and twist your ankle.
I've played tennis a lot, and you know, it's part of it sometimes. That being said, I think I've been pretty forthright in my opinions on -- regarding the schedule and it being too long. You know, I don't think you can -- I think too much is asked of us as far as playing 11 months of the year, and now they're imposing more mandatory tournaments.
It doesn't make a whole a lot of sense. It's unfortunate for someone like Rafa that goes out there and does things the right way. No one is ever going to question how much effort he gives every time he's on the court. I don't think anybody wants to be on the court more than he does, so you know, at a certain point you would hope they start respecting our opinions a little bit more.

End of FastScripts

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