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BNP PARIBAS OPEN

March 17, 2010

Andy Roddick

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

A. RODDICK/J. Melzer
7-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You had a really nice drop volley on set point. Were you waiting to pull that serve volley, or you just saw his court positioning?
ANDY RODDICK: I saw his court positioning. You know, I knew that if he was going to be staying back, he was going to be 10 or 12 feet back, and if I could get the kick wide enough, you know, he'd either have to hit a winner from back there, which would have been a heck of a shot, or I was gonna get a chance to kind of dictate the point with the volley. And.
The dropover presented itself, and I was able to execute it.

Q. What's the reason for so much success against him?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we've had a lot of close matches, a lot of matches that, you know, I've won a first-set tiebreaker.
You know, I don't enjoy the matchup as much as a 10-0 record would suggest. He's always tough, and I think there's definitely a little bit of luck involved there.

Q. Speaking of 10-0, you don't often play two guys in a row where you have such a tremendous record. Your record against Tommy is amazing.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I mean, especially two guys you have a record against who are both flirting with being top 20, you know.
Again, I don't know. I've always seemed to play well against Tommy. You know, that, and, again, I remember a match specifically in Rome where it was cold out and I was literally serving and volleying on second serves. I won a match I had no business winning just by trying to confuse and conquer a little bit.
I was able to win it. Some of those, it just happens like that.

Q. Do you remember the first match you played against him in juniors?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I played him in Australia in the semifinals of a warmup tournament for the Australian Open, and I lost that one.

Q. Was that the only time you lost to him ever?
ANDY RODDICK: I think that's the only time we played in juniors, yeah. Yep.

Q. When you see he wins, does that give you a little bit of boost?
ANDY RODDICK: No. I mean, the thing that I've been preaching all week is, you know, tennis doesn't -- it doesn't have much of a -- you've got to start over again on a daily basis, you know.
There's no entitlement just because I beat No. 4. There's no guarantees. You still play the match. You still have to go out and execute.
You know, that's just the way it is. You know, plus here the ball gets up a little bit more; it's a little slower. He's going to probably feel a lot more comfortable than playing on some of the faster courts we've played on before.
We've played at the US Open and at Wimbledon, and that's obviously probably a much bigger advantage for me.

Q. Are you happy with your game right now?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I think so. I could have returned a little bit better tonight. I was having a lot of trouble picking up what he was going to do with the serve. I think he mixed it up real well with paces and spins and whatnot. It really kept me off balance.
I definitely didn't feel comfortable there tonight. But as far as the way I'm hitting the ball, I feel fine, yeah.

Q. A marked improvement from San Jose and Memphis?
ANDY RODDICK: I think it's a big difference from those two. I was getting through matches there, but I didn't feel real good about -- and I was pretty honest with you guys. I said, I don't really feel like I'm playing that well. You know, I'm surviving. And I'm decent at that.
But there wasn't a whole lot of confidence in what I was trying to do. I had game plans, and a lot of times I wasn't able to execute it. That's pretty frustrating at times.

Q. So when you feel the tick up in your game, is it you're holding serve easier?
ANDY RODDICK: I think it's preparation. I think I was able to go home, dial it in, work on what I needed to, and then there's a sense of confidence.
The difference between playing well and not playing well is, let's say that last game tonight on a deuce point I was able to stick, you know, seven or eight backhands in a row crosscourt to where I felt like he was going to have to play a high-risk shot up the line if he wanted to get out of it.
When you're not playing well, you leave one of those short or make an unforced error. I think that point is kind of a microcosm of playing well and not playing well.

Q. Are you going to watch NCAA games all day tomorrow?
ANDY RODDICK: You know, I'm going to fight the battle between playing nine holes, watching NCAA games, fitting in practice. I'm actually really looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. How is your golf game? Nadal shot a 74 yesterday.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, it's not like that, no. 74 is a good -- that 's what I get on the third hole.

Q. Somebody was saying Mardy was the best the other day.
ANDY RODDICK: Mardy is very good. He's a scratch golfer. But I'm pretty sure I heard that Henman had beaten Monty in a charity XO at St. Andrews in a round, which I thought was pretty good.
I know he's consistently shooting --

Q. The next Scott Draper.
ANDY RODDICK: -- 67, 68, and he's not scared to practice a lot. So, no, I'm not very good.

Q. Every day is a new day. You can't be displeased with how the draw is breaking matchup-wise.
ANDY RODDICK: You know, some days -- sometimes are great. Sometimes you get bad draws. It starts over every week. You know, I've had good ones; I've had bad ones. That's the way it is.
You guys, you're going to write about a story about intriguing matchups, and you're going to look ahead. That's part of it. That's part of it that we appreciate it, because you sell the games.
But we're focused on whoever we have to play that next day, and that's how we prepare. We kind of start over each day. You know, so I think how we look at is probably a little bit different.
Ours is probably a little more boring and probably doesn't help you much.

Q. But Federer and Robredo, who...
ANDY RODDICK: Well, yeah, but, I mean, that's anybody. In any sport, if you're asking them if they're more likely to win or play against the guy who's the best ever in their sport or someone who is a very, very good player and has had a very, very good career, it's not much of a fair question to Tommy.

Q. Do you have a course you'd like to play here? Where have you played golf here? Is there a course you would really like to play here?
ANDY RODDICK: You know, I'm not good enough to really play anything. I've got to try not to be pissed off tomorrow before I play the next day, so maybe like a pitch and putt somewhere.

Q. What are your thoughts about this last 24 hours? We saw Roger get beat and then Novak get beat earlier today. You must have at least took notice of those two results.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, to be honest with you, I didn't know Novak had lost until I got -- it got brought up in news feed. I kind of -- well, I spend my day kind of, you know, trying to -- when you play a night match, you're spending your day trying not to stress too much or watch too much tennis or go on overload.
But, um, I watched a bit. It happens. I know Roger -- I'm pretty sure I read somewhere he's been sick recently. I don't know if that had much to do with it, but, you know, it's tough to not play between Australia and here and expect to come out and be match tough.
Normally he's good enough to get through it, and then all of a sudden by the quarters, semis, he's played his way into it. Novak is the opposite; he's played so much recently. It happens.

Q. How hard is it for a guy like Novak to come so far after a really emotional Davis Cup effort and then have to travel...
ANDY RODDICK: Well, it's brutal, and we're -- on top of that, he played in Dubai the week before and had a bunch of tough three setters to go and play at home on clay in an emotional tie, and a tie that was historic there, because I don't think they had ever been past the first round.
So that was a pretty big emotional thing, especially with him being the leader and then having to come here, you know, in totally different conditions.
That's never easy. And especially, I mean, he had split sets the first two matches. So that's a lot of emotional and physical baggage for a couple of weeks.

Q. Given your level has been pretty high when you've been healthy the last year and a half, getting close to the time where you should get the next Masters Series shield...
ANDY RODDICK: Say that one more time.

Q. The next Masters Series shield...
ANDY RODDICK: Oh. I mean, again, you win tomorrow and then renegotiate for the next day. You know, I'd love to have another Masters Series shield. Pretty much any time would be a good time for me, yes.

Q. Have you had a chance to see the actual airplane that your wife's picture is on, and do you plan to ride on that plane?
ANDY RODDICK: I have not, and I'm not going to give you that quote. Sorry.

End of FastScripts

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