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ROGERS CUP

August 13, 2009

Andy Roddick

MONTREAL, QUEBEC

A. RODDICK/F. Verdasco
7-6, 4-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Looked like he was giving you a pretty good workout on the groundstrokes today.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah.

Q. Did you have any problem reading them?
ANDY RODDICK: Problem reading them?

Q. Yeah. Or he was just hitting them well?
ANDY RODDICK: No, I mean, the guy was swinging out of his shoes. (laughter.)
Problem reading it? No, no.

Q. How satisfying is it to come through like that when it's that tight and obviously some very high quality tennis from both of you?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I thought he played real well. I mean, he was just, you know, crushing any ball that he had two feet under. I was just trying to kind of fight him off for as long as I could, and you know, that ended up being enough.

Q. Looked like you were going a lot to his forehand. Is there a reason why you weren't hitting more to his backhand?
ANDY RODDICK: I wish it was that simple. I kind of go with the defense that he probably hits his forehand about as hard as anybody on tour; therefore it's tougher for me to control the ball. And couple that with the fact that he covers -- runs around his forehand and covers about 85% of the court with his forehand.
I'm dealing with a very small pocket to hit into, so trust me, I was trying to, I swear. (laughter.)
That was in the game plan.

Q. You must get this question a lot, considering your status: 31 tiebreak wins and only 8 lost this year. You can't explain that just on the serve. What do you do in tiebreaks for a phenomenal record like that?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. You know, obviously I think it probably does start with the serve.
You know, I just think it's a lot easier for opponents to kind of, you know, like I said, go for broke, you know, during the course of a set, and then when kind of all the pressure is on maybe one shot or two shots in a tiebreaker, it's tougher to pull the trigger without a conscience.
You know, I think that plays into my favor maybe a little bit more in tiebreakers.

Q. You have a big matchup coming up against Novak Djokovic. Can you talk about that a bit, please?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. I mean, it's always tough with Novak. We've certainly had some battles already in our career.
I think, you know, we're pretty aware of what the other does well, and you know, it goes without saying that I'm going to have to play well if I want to advance.

Q. Do you feel pretty confident playing against him? I think you won your last couple against him on hardcourts.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I mean, but I don't know how much stock you can put into a win that was six months ago.
I mean, you know, a lot changes. It's the same as, you know, I try not to put too much stock into my loss to him at the US Open before I played -- it's always changing.
You know, it probably would be more relevant if we had played in the last couple of weeks or last month, but it's been since March, you know, and to his credit, he didn't -- he certainly didn't play that well that day that we played. He had an off day.
I'd like to take a lot of credit for it but, you know, I think it was more of him not playing his best.

Q. I think we've seen all the top seeds who should be getting through to the quarterfinals getting through. There is a possibility of all 8 top seeds getting into the quarterfinals. What does that say to you about where the men's game is at now?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I just actually heard in the locker room, I guess it would be the first time the top 8 ranked players in the world are in the quarterfinals of the same tournament.
You know, I don't know. I mean, I think that certainly the top 6 have been putting up results pretty much very, very consistently this year. This is probably one of the most consistent years I've had, and I'm still looking at 5. So, you know, there's certainly a precedent being set by the top guys now.

Q. Was heat and humidity a factor at all today?
ANDY RODDICK: No, I was fine. That's one of the advantages of having him hit a winner on the third ball every time. (laughter.)

End of FastScripts

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