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U.S. OPEN

September 5, 2009

Andy Roddick

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

J. ISNER/A. Roddick
7-6, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Heart a little broken right now?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. You know, it was a tough one to lose, especially after kind of coming back all that way.

Q. When you were down two sets, what did you do at that point to bring yourself back?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I changed too much. I just executed a little bit better. He played a loose service game there in the fourth. But, you know, bottom line, for the entire match, is he played great in the breakers. He rolled the dice, came in. I made him play his last four volleys. Hit pretty good returns off his serves, hit decent first-shot passes.
He played really good breakers. I don't know that I missed a ball in either one of the breakers, except that last pass. But that was a tough ball anyway. So, you know, he played well when he had to.

Q. With all this variety to your game, does his style of play take you out of that?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot that's out of your hands with the way he plays. I said it before, you can't really teach 6'9", especially coming down on a serve. You try to fight it off as much as you can. Sometimes you can, and sometimes it's completely out of your hands.
Like the majority of matches that we play, it's not really so much about if you execute, you're gonna win. Sometimes you can play bad and win a match like that. Sometimes you can feel like you're hitting the ball well, and that's when you don't want to see a guy like that floating in the draw.
Yeah, it doesn't really allow you to kind of get into as many tennis points, I guess.

Q. What about his net play? Has that improved?
ANDY RODDICK: I mean, I don't think you can talk -- there's no comparison to him now compared to last year. I think he's being a lot more professional now. I think he's doing the things he needs to be doing. I think his coach deserves a lot of that credit.
I mean, again, I made him hit a lot of volleys there in the tiebreaker, and he hit that one right on the baseline that was a great volley.
All you can try to do is fight off a first serve out there and make him hit some tough volleys. I thought I did that in the last breaker. I really felt like going into the breaker like I was going to win it.

Q. Were you surprised he hung with you in the fifth set?
ANDY RODDICK: Well, I mean, hung with me. He served his way out of trouble. I promise you, I was fresher than him. I think he would tell you that much. I wouldn't have minded a continuation set there as opposed to the breaker.

Q. Do you think he did anything differently or better than when you played him in D.C.?
ANDY RODDICK: No, he was kind of rolling the dice there, too. That's the way he's most effective. That's the way he's going to make guys uncomfortable. Sitting back and just rallying, that's not going to work much for him. He's got to come out, make guys uncomfortable, and like you alluded to earlier, just take people completely out of their rhythm. Being as big as he is, he's certainly capable of doing that.

Q. You talked a lot about his size. How much of his defense really impressed you?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I think he's certainly improved in that area. That being said, I feel like when we got on even terms, I was winning the majority of them.

Q. Is it at all hard to accept when a guy that you've been a little bit of a mentor to beats you on a big stage like this?
ANDY RODDICK: It's different. You know, it hasn't happened to me. You know, it's different. I'm happy for him. I'm mad that obviously it came at my expense. I promise you, there was no -- it's not something I really thought about while I was out there. But it is what it is. These guys get older.

Q. What do you think the very young Andy Roddick would think of Roddick and the career he's had?
ANDY RODDICK: He'd probably take it.

Q. Pretty good ride?
ANDY RODDICK: I'd hope so. If I got critiqued by a 10-year-old for my career, I'd be pretty pissed off.

Q. Did you break the momentum after winning the fourth set?
ANDY RODDICK: I did have the momentum after winning the fourth set. It wasn't a thought. Any time somebody comes back from two sets, momentum is certainly on your side. You kind of know what's ahead of you. I knew I was probably going to be in more service games than him.
In the fifth set, I knew I wanted to finish it before it got to a tiebreaker and kind of became a shootout. It didn't happen. He came up with the goods at the end.

Q. I think you only serve-and-volleyed one time.
ANDY RODDICK: I got broken one time.

Q. How hard is this? You came in playing so well, expectations going really deep in this tournament. How hard is it?
ANDY RODDICK: It's tough. I mean, I don't know, you know. I've come to a tournament with as much confidence, into a slam, as I did with this tournament, and leaving earlier than I want to.
The times I've lost early, it's been a little dicey coming in. You know, it's just the way tennis is. The fact that I was able to make a quarterfinal last year and I was playing just terrible, didn't make it past the third round this year, that's just the way it is sometimes.
That's the thing with sports: there's not always a good reason for it.

Q. Can you take stock at all with your Grand Slam season yet?
ANDY RODDICK: Not yet. Not yet, no.

Q. There were people within Isner's camp who said he was inspired by your conditioning, taking your career seriously. Any thoughts on that?
ANDY RODDICK: It would be a better question for them, I think.

Q. You ended up saying you were energized by losing a marathon against Roger in Wimbledon.
ANDY RODDICK: I actually said I was energized by my reaction to my loss to Roger. I didn't feel super fired up after I lost that one.

Q. Ultimately, weren't you, though?
ANDY RODDICK: I think I was able to gain a sense of perspective and I certainly appreciated the support afterwards.

Q. Will this be any different? Will you feel any differently about this?
ANDY RODDICK: It's different. I wasn't anywhere close to winning this tournament yet. You know, it's a different breed. There's not another chance a month and a half away. So, you know, I apologize for not being able to be uber objective 25 minutes afterwards. That's not something I'm really -- I haven't really mastered yet.

Q. You walked right off the court really quick. What were you feeling at that point?
ANDY RODDICK: I actually felt bad when I got to the tunnel. I realized I hadn't thanked the crowd for their support. That was suspect. It's not something I consciously thought of until I was actually on the court. I thought a curtain call at that point wouldn't be appropriate for John at that point.

Q. What caused you to do that, though? Sadness? Anger? What's the emotion at that moment?
ANDY RODDICK: Well, what are the options? I can sit out there and watch the celebration, watch the interview, or go to the locker room. At that point the locker room sounded like a good place to be.

Q. The tiebreak has been such a good friend to you this year. Do you feel like you were a little too passive in those two breakers?
ANDY RODDICK: Definitely not the last one. I could have made some more first serves in the first one. But, no, I mean, the one point I got broken on, I came in, and he hit a little dip backhand passing shot, which is, you know, not the shot you look for on that.
I was covering the line, because he was going there all day. First time he pulled the string and went there. I don't know if passive would be appropriate, no.

Q. How do you like his chances against Verdasco?
ANDY RODDICK: Depends how he can pull up physically.

Q. What you took out of the reaction in Wimbledon, you said it was perspective. Considering how unusual his game is, what can you take out of this?
ANDY RODDICK: Again, I don't know yet. You know, I'm not able to kind of digest everything. It's obviously, like I said, a different match. It wasn't about execution. It wasn't about how well I was hitting the ball or not hitting the ball. But at this point that doesn't make it better or easier, considering I'm out.

End of FastScripts

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