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U.S. OPEN

September 1, 2010

Andy Roddick

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

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

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How surprised were you with his performance tonight? You played him at Wimbledon; played him twice before.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, the Wimbledon match wasn't that level. I thought it was pretty bad tennis, to be honest, probably by both of us.
He played great tonight. You know, on my little cheat sheet that Larry and I put together, I wanted to keep my unforced errors down, which I did. You know, he's going to take big swings and pot shots at the ball. I wanted to make him do that from stretch positions, maybe on the move; I did that. I wanted to get a very high percentage of returns in play; I did that. I think it was close to 75% of returns in play.
You know, I thought I hit the ball pretty well. I thought he played very high-risk and executed for four sets. I kept telling myself, You know, this has to have an expiration date on it. Unfortunately, I needed another set for that.

Q. You were very upset with the foot-fault call.
ANDY RODDICK: Let's be fair. I wasn't upset with the call. I got called for two others which I wasn't that upset about. I just expect my umpires to know the left foot from the right foot. If I ask, you know, what I'm doing, and she says, Right foot, and I point to my right foot and she says, Yes, that one.
So then I let it marinate, and say you had time -- that's impossible. So if I'm questioning it and then you're telling me this and you're pretty adamant about it, that's impossible. I've never once -- find me any tape where my right foot has ever landed in front of my left foot on the serve.
And just the stubbornness of - I let mine get in the way - of them not being able to say, Okay, just change your mind. You know what, it was your -- it never would have stopped. I got called for two others after that, and I had was no issue with it.
You know, in the moment, I was just stupefied.

Q. How much did you let it get in the way?
ANDY RODDICK: It wasn't in the way. I was down 5-2 in the third already. If anything, it kind of shifted the energy a little bit. You know, after that, I played okay actually.
But, uhm, I don't think -- it had zero impact on the match. It wasn't like I was up, and after it happened it was a different result. I'm sure a lot is going to get written about it. But the actual impact on the match was probably close to zero.

Q. It seemed like you did get a lot of energy from it, though, a certain edge that was missing early. Did you feel that way or not?
ANDY RODDICK: Well, at that point any change in energy was a good change in energy for me. You know, he was in a groove. He was seeing the ball big and he was taking risky cuts at the ball. They seemed to be dropping, the majority of 'em.
So, yeah, I don't know. It wasn't all bad.

Q. When you went for the short change after that set, was that more to get out of there for a moment and have time to yourself or was that a necessary...
ANDY RODDICK: No, it was because my shorts were wet.

Q. I know you've said once you decide to play you don't like to point to excuses. Could you address the energy level in the first two sets? Was there a lingering medical reason it wasn't where you'd like it to be?
ANDY RODDICK: Like I said, there's nothing there. You know, we're not talking about it if I win a match. I'm not going to talk about it because I lost it.

Q. You're a married man now. Do you feel you kind of curtail your anger when you have situations like this and maybe not go off into a real boil? Is it different now that you're married in these situations where you feel you have to be more respectable on the court?
ANDY RODDICK: You thought I was respectable tonight?

Q. Could have taken it to Johnny Mac levels.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I could have. And the fact that I didn't is because I'm married? That's the thought process we're going to go with?
No, I think that's -- no. We got to find another avenue for a story, I think.

Q. The replay showed your left foot did touch the line.
ANDY RODDICK: That's fine.

Q. If she had just said left foot would it...
ANDY RODDICK: There would have been no discussion. There would have been zero discussion. There was two after that. It was the fact that I couldn't get her to admit that it wasn't the right foot just infuriated me beyond...
The lack of common sense involved in that was unbelievable to me. I just have trouble when they stick to an argument that obviously isn't right. It's her job to call it. Like I said, there were two after that that they said front, and there's no argument there. There's zero argument there.
I mean, we got to be able to maybe have a test, like point to your right foot, point to your left foot; okay, now call lines. I think that would be maybe standard.

Q. Did she have an opportunity to correct herself, though?
ANDY RODDICK: Well, she was talking. She was talking.

Q. She answered the one thing, right?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. Then I pointed again. She said, No. Then I said again, Have we thought about this? Do we realize that it's a physical impossibility?
She says, No. I think she was definitely responding, you know, when I was asking questions. None of the responses was, It was your left foot.

Q. In hindsight, did you let it go too far?
ANDY RODDICK: In hindsight did I let it go too far? Yeah, probably. Probably. I think it was a very correctable mistake, and I probably let it get to me more than it should have. Yeah, sure.

Q. Getting to the end of the fourth set, did you expect him to kind of fall out of the zone, or did you think you were going to get him in the breaker, he would get nervous, you have more experience, you could gut it out?
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I mean, that was the plan. There's a lot of matches that have turned on a set before. But I don't know if he missed a first serve in the breaker. If he did, it was one. I mean, he kept it up. You know, he played well. He deserved to win tonight. He went out and earned a win.

Q. Was there anything out there you think you could have done differently or you have to say the guy played great?
ANDY RODDICK: Uhm, I'll put it this way: there's a lot of matches where I come off the court saying, I did not even come close to the game plan that we were trying to apply or exercise. Tonight I came off and I feel like I hit most of the points.
Obviously there's always things you could do differently. But I've definitely been a lot further away from what I was trying to do on a tennis court before.

Q. John and Patrick were both saying in the first couple sets you seemed very quiet, subdued, lack of energy. Do you agree with that, or do you think you came out with the fire you needed?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I did what I could, you know, out there. I battled the way I could.

Q. Can you describe the conversation you had with your opponent at the end of the match. What did you tell him about how he had played?
ANDY RODDICK: I just said, Too good. You know, he's a pretty good guy. I just said, The last time you beat me in a Grand Slam second round you lost the next match, so don't do that, to which he head butted me, which was fun (smiling).

Q. When he approached you at the net, he touched you with the forehead. How did you read this gesture?
ANDY RODDICK: It was fine. There was nothing there. I said something and he responded. There was nothing to it.

Q. What was the feeling like when he was in that zone, when it seemed he kept going big and converting on every big try?
ANDY RODDICK: It's a lot more frustrating when you're the one messing up time after time a opposed to someone else coming up with the goods. If you put yourself in position, I mean, the guy came -- it was frustrating.
At the same time, I was just trying to keep making him come up with it, you know, from all ends of the court just firing, pulling the trigger down the line flat, you know, time after time is not an easy thing to do, and he was able to do it.
Kudos to him. He played great. Obviously it's not fun. I kept thinking there was going to be a Love-30. There was going to be something that was going to make him think a little bit. He stuck to it. He played really well.

Q. You said the loss at Wimbledon was the result of bad play on both of your parts. Taking that into consideration going into the match, was the fact you had lost to him there not really a concern to you because it was identifiable as a bad match for you?
ANDY RODDICK: I was more concerned just because he's dangerous. He's got a high upside and he's got a low low side. You know, he's capable of playing like he did tonight, yet he's under .500 for his career. He plays high risk. It's high reward, but he can throw in some ordinary ones.
I didn't put too much stock in the Wimbledon match. I felt like if you would have showed me these numbers before the match I probably would have taken them - not his side, my side.

Q. Do you generally grab a stat sheet and look at it or only after a match like tonight?
ANDY RODDICK: No, they normally hand it to you. I wanted to see it tonight to see if I was going crazy or not.

Q. Is there anything on there that surprised you?
ANDY RODDICK: I mean, you have a rough estimate. But 66 winners versus 30 errors for him, that's pretty good. I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty firm, too. You know, he played well.
I just wanted to kind of validate my own mind. At least, like I said, make sure I wasn't playing crazy pills.

Q. You love this slam. Every slam loss is an opportunity lost. Do you leave crushed? Could you sleep terrible tonight? Do you understand and just move on?
ANDY RODDICK: I'll sleep a lot better than I did at Wimbledon, which basically I just, you know, felt like I hand-fed someone a win. Tonight I felt like the guy earned it. That's probably easier to deal it, when you make the guy earn it and he comes up with the goods. Still not fun obviously.
I agree with pretty much everything you said in your question. But it's not the worst that it's been.

Q. Given how well you played in the spring, you win Miami, you get the mono in Madrid in May, do you feel a little bit snake bitten?
ANDY RODDICK: It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. You know, I feel like when I've gotten some decent momentum, I've -- in the last year, I missed the last four months of last year and I've been dealing with this for a little bit. It's been a short year as far as all things being perfect at one time. You know, hasn't really been that way too often.
It's disappointing. But, again, I mentioned this before, but I always think that I have a pretty good sense of perspective. I mean, you know, mono is the worst thing that can happen to me. That's not such a bad thing, comparable to most.

Q. Are you still feeling a little lethargic?
ANDY RODDICK: I feel fine. I feel like I'm going to get some rest tomorrow.

Q. Do you feel like you were aggressive in tonight's match?
ANDY RODDICK: I mean, yeah. A little tough to be aggressive when a guy is hitting every ball as hard as he can. I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty firm.
I think I wasn't aggressive because I got married.

End of FastScripts

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