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ROGERS CUP

August 12, 2009

Andy Roddick

MONTREAL, QUEBEC

A. RODDICK/I. Andreev
6-1, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your thoughts on how you felt on the court today?
ANDY RODDICK: I felt okay. It's always a little different coming from one tournament to the other, you know, getting used to kind of the sight lines and the conditions and stuff.
Not perfect, but, you know, obviously I'll take the win.

Q. How did the courts and the balls compare to what you played already this summer?
ANDY RODDICK: They're slow. It's a slow center court, and the ball is not really moving too much.
I didn't think Washington was overly fast, and I think it's pretty slow here. I still think that we shouldn't be changing tennis balls midsummer. I think that's just, you know, at the height of not using common sense.

Q. Is that something the players talk about? Is there anything you can do about it?
ANDY RODDICK: Well, what are our options? Not playing?

Q. Well, no. I'm just wondering whether you can talk...
ANDY RODDICK: We can talk all we want.

Q. I mean, is it something you do talk about?
ANDY RODDICK: We come in here and we can use you guys as an avenue to get our thoughts across, because otherwise they're just hollow words.
You know, this isn't something that's new. I guarantee if you check transcripts from, you know, 2004 and 2005 we'd be talking about the same thing.
You know, unfortunately there doesn't seem to be priority on continuity throughout the US Open Series as far as the tennis balls go.

Q. What balls were you using in Washington?
ANDY RODDICK: They're Wilson.

Q. Is it the balls and the court too leading up to the US Open?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't think you're ever going to find -- I'm sure the courts are kind of this -- you're never going to get the court exactly the same, but they're similar. You know, you'd rather have to adjust slightly to one thing as opposed to slightly to one thing and a lot on another.

Q. Can you talk about your next opponent, Fernando?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. I mean, he's obviously been playing great so far this year. He's been playing a lot more consistently. He's gotten through pretty comfortably in his first couple of rounds, so we'll see how that goes.

Q. You were 1 and 2 against Andreev before. Is that a guy who gives you trouble generally, or was it just the statistics?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I mean, apparently yes, but I definitely don't feel like it's too terrible of a matchup for me.
You know, obviously I played him at the French one time when he went on to the quarters there. He played really well that time. Another time was early in '06 when I probably wasn't playing at my peak.
You know, you're going to run into guys who you don't have great records against, but you know, I certainly felt like I was, you know, playing bad tennis maybe going into this match.

Q. Have you tried to do anything -- I know it's always the same sort of question, but a carryover from Wimbledon, your level of play, is there anything you can do to sort of carry it through when you have a break like that?
ANDY RODDICK: I mentioned this last week in Washington. I played average in Wimbledon until the final weekend, until the semis and finals. I played pretty well those tournaments, but by the sounds of most, I haven't been around for three years, and all of a sudden I played well at Wimbledon.
You know, I've kind of been here, and especially this year I've put up, you know, plenty of good results. So it's not something that happened overnight. It was definitely a process.
I felt like I hit the ball pretty well last week. So, you know, I don't know if it was just those couple of days. I mean, I feel like I played pretty well, but I'm doing -- my thought process is more along the lines of continuing what's been going on since last December as opposed to a month ago.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
ANDY RODDICK: No, it didn't. It didn't surprise me. You know, I thought I played real well, but you know, the same things that allowed me to play well there are the same things about playing Wimbledon and forward. It's about preparation, it's about getting through matches.
You know, if you get through matches when you're not playing your best, obviously it gives you more opportunities, and I think that's what separates someone in the top 5 and someone in, you know, in the top 50. I think again the things that allow me to play well in those matches are things that started in December, not at Wimbledon.

Q. I'm sure you had these questions last week, about how knocked out have you been by reaction to your performance, especially in the final?
ANDY RODDICK: It's been humbling, that's for sure. I don't know that I've ever had this level of support in my career so far, and that's not saying I haven't had support, but you know, there's different support than kind of like at a tennis tournament, at a match, and support now where it's kind of walking to put cream in your coffee at the coffee shop.
It's a different type of deal, but you know, I think it definitely helped a lot as far as, you know, the recovery process and getting excited to get back out here again, you know, and especially seeing the excitement it caused for tennis and in the States. You know, it was kind of like the story for a couple days or a week, which is rare, especially in the States. There's been a lot of good things that have come of it.

Q. How would you assess your chances to make it to the final here, which would be a third straight final for you?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. You can get a lot better if I get through tomorrow and a lot better if I can get through the one after that. I'm not going to talk about three or four matches in advance.

Q. Did the mailman get through to you?
ANDY RODDICK: He got through the gate somehow. I don't know. I thought that was -- that was a pretty funny story.

Q. Have you seen the guy again?
ANDY RODDICK: No, I'm scared about what he's going to do to me.

Q. What are the common themes or reactions have been from people seeing you with new eyes?
ANDY RODDICK: Seeing as what?

Q. Seeing you with whole new eyes. Is that a bit unsettling considering how long you've been around?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. You know, I still don't -- I still don't know if I have a complete grasp of kind of what changed it and what -- you know, I touched on it last week.
I think during my career I've kind of been portrayed as every single type of person: good, bad, ugly, you know, rude, nice, you know. This is kind of the first time it's been presented in a light that's kind of the hard-working, kind of everyday-Joe-type tennis player trying to make good and, you know, all the while the meat and potatoes of who I am has probably stayed the same. I think people maybe realized it's not easy and it does take work.
I think, you know, I think they realize that there has been a lot of time put in and, you know, definitely an effort to try to do the right things out there.

Q. Do you feel you're the same person you were when you were No. 1? Obviously everybody evolves.
ANDY RODDICK: I said last week no one is probably the same -- they're probably all more mature at 27 than they are at 21. I just had an audience for a lot of it.

Q. Your reaction to all this stuff, how much do you think it's just Wimbledon? As much as you like the
US Open and you like the Australian Open and the French, the Wimbledon final is "the" match every year sort of thing. Does it magnify everything?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. It's tough being objective about something, you know, especially when, you know, I saw it from here and you guys kind of saw it from here.
I'm not sure. I mean, there's definitely -- you know, Wimbledon probably is the most prestigious event. I think there are a lot of people know that kind of what it means to me. It's certainly the title that I probably want the most. But how much of kind of Wimbledon's aura is responsible for this kind of reaction, I'm not sure.

Q. The crowd, after everything that's ever happened since then, is there anything quite like them chanting your name right after the match?
ANDY RODDICK: Probably not. I don't know that I've had something like that before. I mean, obviously at Davis Cup they're cheering for you, but they're cheering for a flag probably more so than a person, which is fine.
You know, to be honest, afterwards, I was kind of sitting there, and you know, there's a million things going through your head all at once, and I thought they were -- especially with the significance of what Roger had just accomplished and kind of the history of tennis transformation that had just occurred, for them to kind of acknowledge my effort was real nice and, you know, I certainly appreciated it.

End of FastScripts

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