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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 29, 2010

Roger Federer

MIAMI, FLORIDA

R. FEDERER/F. Serra
7-6, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Do you have a preference, to have a match like this, being tested in a longer match as opposed to having a quick match in the earlier rounds?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, most important is to come through the rounds, you know. So I don't have a preference how it's done.
I always like to come out with confidence, that's for sure. So it's nice to having won two breakers, because that doesn't happen every match you play.
Sure, I still have to tidy up my game a bit, you know, having had one break up in the first and two breaks up in the second, it's normally something that doesn't get away from me.
But I thought he came up with some good stuff, and that made it difficult for me, you know, to close it out.
That's why I'm happy to still be through.

Q. Obviously quite a few players have fallen by the wayside, Djokovic and Murray. Can you talk about how hard it is to come out, even for the top guys, and repeat week after week?
ROGER FEDERER: We don't play every week. Maybe that's the tough part, too. If we were to play many more weeks we'd have more matches and we would have more momentum, but then we'd also have more injuries.
You have to be smart and clever about how you schedule. Sometimes it's also not in your control. Simple as that.
Because if the guy takes time away from you and he's playing the match of his life on a particular day in the best-of-three-set match, it goes very quickly.
You saw it very clearly with me last week. I was up set, couple break points, and five minutes later I'm down one set all and starting a third set and momentum on my opponent's side.
It's just something you have to try to have a cushion like today. I was a break up in the first, two breaks up in the second, and I still was able to come through in straight sets.
It doesn't always happen that way. It just shows how deep, you know, men's tennis is right now.

Q. There were maybe a few patchy moments, but you also hit a few shots for the highlight shows. I'm wondering how often do you hit a shot that surprises even you at this point in your career?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, it's nice when you do hit amazing shots, you know, especially in an important stage. It's not as important if you hit it at 40-Love, you know. But what you try to do is put yourself in a position and sometimes improvise when you're in a very -- in a tough spot.
He definitely pushed me a little bit by playing really aggressive, so I had to come up with some good defensive stuff. I dug out a few I think incredible things, and especially at crucial moments especially in the first set, as well.
So I was happy with some of the moments I had today.

Q. Were you surprised being down a double break that he was still mentally pretty strong and still fighting?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I don't -- I didn't have the feeling he was playing the score too much. He was just playing his style, which is aggressive, you know, taking chances.
Sometimes missing by many feet. Sometimes, you know, hitting it right in the corners. So I knew that was gonna happen kind of thing, but it's still impressive to see when it does happen against you. You know, that he hits the spots three, four, five, six points in a row, and there's not much you can do sometimes.
I wish I would have maybe served better, you know, at the crucial stages of the match, which I wasn't able to do. But then he took advantage of that and was able to come up with some amazing stuff.
Then you can only hope that, you know, he's gonna cool off again and that yourself you're gonna get your act together so you don't allow him maybe to play that way.

Q. Were you unhappy? Like when you were serving for the set and then serving for the match and you lost your serve, were you unhappy or frustrated?
ROGER FEDERER: Unhappy? No, not really. I don't think I gave it to him. I think he went to get it, which is a big difference, you know.
I definitely could have played a bit better during those moments, but maybe knowing that he was gonna go for extremely big stuff maybe I got a bit passive.
And my serve, like I said, let me down a few times. But all in all, I'm thrilled to be through. Again, you know, at the end of the day, that's what counts, and not all the stuff we did in between.

Q. I don't know if you've been asked this since Australia, but you've got your family here; your children now probably about nine months I think.
ROGER FEDERER: Almost, yeah.

Q. How is that sort of challenge evolving of fitting your tennis around having a family with you as they get a bit older?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, the traveling has been real easy, to be quite honest. I'm surprised how easy it's been, because I expected it to be hard, to say the least.
So for that side we're very happy. Little ones had issues after Australia, the teething, the ear infections and stuff. That was kind of rough, but at least we weren't traveling too much. Mirka was sick; I was sick, as well. So it was something maybe we had in the family.
But, you know, now everything is great again. And as days go by, they become more and more active, so it's a lot of fun to interact with them.
Yeah, everything changes in the room, you know, whereas before you had tables and chairs, you know, it's empty space now so they have room to move. So it's a lot of fun.

Q. What is the most important thing for you as a tennis player: to win a Grand Slam? To be No. 1? To win Davis Cup? Or to win medal in the Olympics?
ROGER FEDERER: To me now?

Q. Yeah.
ROGER FEDERER: To win Wimbledon. But then again, every player is different, you know. Sometimes many of those dreams go hand in hand, you know. Like the ranking.
I guess for me, if I could have picked two things, Wimbledon and No. 1 in the world. I was able to do that in 2003 and 2004. Did that a long time ago.

Q. Are you missing playing Rafa? Because it's like one year that you and he played.
ROGER FEDERER: I see him play a lot.

Q. Play against him...
ROGER FEDERER: Sure, playing against him is always a lot of fun, too. I think it's great for the game. I think it's great for our own game, because I have the feeling we always have tendencies to go back to the practice courts and say, Okay, whoever has won or lost has to go work harder, even though I don't think we were ever slowing down.
It's been always a lot of fun playing against him, and I hope that day is gonna come soon again where we can play.

Q. Here maybe?
ROGER FEDERER: Maybe here; maybe next week; maybe the following week. We play many of the same tournaments.
Now obviously that he's not No. 2 in the world anymore, the chances that we play earlier in the tournament are greater today.

Q. He was out actually watching the match earlier on. Do you ever go out and watch his matches?
ROGER FEDERER: No, I don't.

Q. The day started out rather miserably with lots of rain. Could you tell us how you spent that time and how you weren't supposed to come out until the second match, but...
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, well, that's the thing. You always got to be expecting to play right away. Sure, they give you a notice of maybe 30 minutes to 45 minutes usually.
This time around there was one hour 15, which was kind of good to know, because all of a sudden they said they're moving the first match away.
But, you know, it's something we're quite used to. I'd rather come out and wait and have enough time to tape my ankles, eat, warm up plenty, because we couldn't warm up today.
You know, sort of what the players like to do is go out and hit for 30 minutes and then go back and eat and rest and take a shower. Kind of get ready for the next match. We didn't have those 30 minutes.
Yeah, so we kind of warmed up only for five minutes and off we went. Maybe that's one of the reasons rhythm was lacking for both of us in the beginning.
We had the gusty winds, and it makes it even harder. I played some cards with my friends and just hung out and waited and saw the rain over center court, so I knew I was not gonna play for a while.
Next thing you know it's like you're on court, so you have to be mentally very ready for those kinds of things.

End of FastScripts

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