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U.S. OPEN

September 7, 2009

Robin Soderling

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

R. SODERLING/N. Davydenko
7-5, 3-6, 6-2 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your great Grand Slam season is continuing. I guess the flip side is you keep running into a certain someone in your quarter. Can you talk about that? Are you tired of seeing Roger looming ahead of you?
ROBIN SODERLING: Well, it's in the quarters, so I didn't really -- I didn't really look so far in the draw. But of course, you know, he beat me a lot of times.
But we had a few very good matches, and I had some good chances to actually win in a couple of them, so of course to me he's the best player of all time. But, again, we had a lot of good matches.
If I can play well, hopefully I have a small chance.

Q. I think most of us would tend to look at your win against Rafa in Paris as a big turning point. But for you, did it really happen that way, or was it more of a gradual, lead-up process?
ROBIN SODERLING: You know, I had -- I had a tough -- actually, I played okay in Australia, but after that, I had a tough couple of months with Indian Wells with my back.
After that, I started to work really hard with a lot of things in my game, and after a couple of months it started to pay off. I think I actually played very, very well the week before Paris, won a lot of good matches, and I think that's where it kind of turned around a little bit.
So I came into Paris with very good confidence.

Q. Your work with Magnus, how is that evolving? I know it was sort of a fresh start for you. Are you now in a position where you weren't really refining things so much as reminding yourself of how to continue to play well?
ROBIN SODERLING: Well, Magnus, he's a great coach. You know, he meant a lot to me. Maybe -- you know, he says the same things that all my other coach have done in the past. But, you know, I tend to listen to him a bit more than the other coaches I had. I don't know why. Maybe it's because he's been such a good player and he played at this level not too long ago.
I believe he really knows what he's talking about. That feels really good for me.

Q. The match today, despite Nikolay retiring, how did you feel out there? How did you feel with your own game?
ROBIN SODERLING: Okay. It was tough. I think all of the courts are a bit different speed. I played my last match on Grandstand which I felt was a little bit slower, so it was tough in the beginning to find the rhythm.
But I think after 30, 40 minutes I started to play better. I played okay. I know I can play a lot better, but I think I played a decent match.

Q. Did he give you any indication that he was hurting? Was it a surprise when he suddenly...
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, I was a little surprised, because I thought that he was moving pretty well. He's one of the fastest guys on tour, and you know, I was -- every time we played, I always been impressed about his moving, you know. He's a very fast guy, so I was a little bit shocked that he retired.

Q. I have a question about doping. How many times have you had an out-of-competition test this year? How are you adjusting to the whereabouts requirements?
ROBIN SODERLING: I've been tested three times maybe. I missed one, unfortunately, so I have a warning. You know, it's tough. It's tough to know where you're going to be in three months, you know, so it's not easy.
But I don't think there's any other way to do it, so we just have to do it.

Q. Have things changed for you much? I know you haven't been home much probably but have things changed for you there with the season? You've come out of anonymity more and been more recognized and more appreciated by your home fans?
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, a little bit, maybe. I got a lot of attention, especially after Paris, in Sweden. I did a lot of things, and for me, it feels really good that the tennis is getting bigger in Sweden again.
I think that's really what we need, and hopefully I can inspire young kids to start playing tennis again.

Q. I know some of our American players get really tired of being asked, Are you the next so-and-so, Agassi, Sampras, whatever. You're probably the target of those questions now, I would imagine. Does it ever get tiresome?
ROBIN SODERLING: Well, I try not to think about it too much. You know, for a country like Sweden, such a small country, we had so much success in the past. We had so many good players, so it's tough to compare yourself to them.
So, you know, I try to play my own game. I try to win every match and see how far I can go. I think it really helped me that we had so many good players when I was young. I had a lot of players to watch. We were like, I don't know, 10, even more, 15 to 20 guys in the Grand Slams every year. It was good for me.

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