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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN

August 15, 2011

Andy Roddick

CINCINNATI, OHIO

P. KOHLSCHREIBER/A. Roddick
6-7, 7-5, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What happened at 4-3 in the second set, just after he broke him on your service game. Seemed like the match changed from that point.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I mean, he was pretty -- first two points he shanked a couple balls and they dropped in. One got awkwardly up. I went for a couple forehands on the line and missed 'em both.
That was that.

Q. Talk about what happened in the second game of the third set?
ANDY RODDICK: Obviously a split-second thing. Soon as I did it I want it back. Um, you know, it was a judgment call for him. Pretty sure I saw an eight-year-old girl catch it on the way down. He was telling my I hit it as hard as I could.

Q. What you did you tell the chair umpire?
ANDY RODDICK: I was like, Dude...
It just sucks. I can't blame him, but I'm sitting here turning a six-week injury into a three-week injury, rehabbing eight hours a day, and a split second decision he interjects himself and it's done. It's so frustrating. I certainly accept what I did. I put him in a bad situation out there.
But I do think it's stupid in tennis that -- I mean, in football if someone throws a helmet on the sideline, it's there helmet. We wonder where we lose our ratings battles to the WWF, Monday Night Raw.

Q. By John McEnroe standards...
ANDY RODDICK: John McEnroe, the guy is still getting endorsements because he was allowed to throw shit.
I understand where he's coming from. But at a certain point, you know, you hit a tennis ball into a stadium, someone goes home with a souvenir, and it pretty much ruins the match from there. Seems counterproductive.
At a certain point, I would love it if we got out of our own way.

Q. Did you think there needs for some more situational awareness from umpires, like if it's a breakpoint?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I understand his call. I understand it. You know, that's up to him. I've seen that not called before, so that's the only thing. If it was an automatic thing, if a ball went out of the court -- I mean, it didn't go out of stadium, far from it.
But if there was an automatic thing that if it went out of the court that was an automatic warning, we wouldn't be discussing it and I probably would have been less frustrated, but...

Q. When get angry, what's a better way to refocus on the match? I'm not criticizing.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, sometimes it works for you; sometimes it doesn't. Tonight I was feeling it. I don't know that I quite had my legs back yet. I think it would have taken a lot tonight.
I was just disappointed. Equal parts mad and also disappointed in myself. My team also, we been trying to get back and I do that. You know, it's essentially a long uphill battle from there.
So I was pretty mad at myself.

Q. Looking ahead a little bit, obviously you've been hurt. You're going to play next week. What are your thoughts going into New York at this point?
ANDY RODDICK: Doug, I'm not that -- I just want to play good tennis. For two sets tonight I actually hit the ball well considering. I hit the ball a lot better than I thought I would, if I'm being totally candid.
I probably will wake up tomorrow morning feeling a little bit better about where I'm at than I did when I woke up this morning. I'm not that concerned about New York right now.
I got to get to Winston-Salem and try to get a couple matches. That's it. You know, for me it's silly to think about New York yet. Obviously if I go and win Winston-Salem then it's a different ballgame, or final of Winston-Salem it's a different ballgame.
So a lot can change in a matter of two weeks.

Q. How hard is it when your body is letting you down?
ANDY RODDICK: It's hard. It's frustrating. It's tough because -- it's a tough thing for me because I've made a career off of, you know, outraining a lot of guys and outworking a lot guys.
I need to find a way to taper that off a little bit so I'm not hurting myself in training like I have a lot this year. It's going to be a little bit of a process finding an optimal balance.
But, yeah, it's frustrating. It's disappointing. You know, the old two steps forward one step back. You know, it's frustrating. You can't get any momentum.
For me now, the way I'm playing, it's not the way I'm hitting the ball. It's just playing the points at the right time and getting in a groove where you play and you're not thinking about it because you have five, six matches behind you and it becomes second nature.
I haven't gotten to that point this year. I played twice, been off -- I've been off six weeks a couple different times. It's just frustrating. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
If I'm going to acknowledge that, I do need to acknowledge the fact that I was predominantly healthy for nine or ten years straight before the last year and a half. Just got to take it. A lot of it is out of your hands, but you just keep pushing forward. It's not easy.

Q. Talk about Davis Cup a little bit. Last year you didn't play; this year you did. Are you going to play next year? Too soon?
ANDY RODDICK: The furthest thing from my mind right now is a tie in February or March. I need to get through next Monday.

Q. Do you have any thoughts on why the injuries have been coming so quickly?
ANDY RODDICK: I don't know. I'm not a doctor. You know, I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm sure playing a thousand matches probably has something to do with it. (Smiling.) You know, probably count two guys that have done that out here right now.
You know, I've always trained hard. I've gotten hurt a couple times in training this year, which is tough, because you know, if you come back, you're out of shape and you don't feel like you're where you need to be; you push, you get hurt. If you push too hard in training you get hurt.
So for me it's going to be a delicate balance. I need to reevaluate how to go about my day-to-day business a little bit. I've talked to a couple people. I've talked to Courier actually, and he said, I just kept banging my head against the wall and I was out by 27. You know, we have a pretty similar mentality, so...

Q. Do the rankings bother you?
ANDY RODDICK: It would bother me if I felt like everything was where I wanted it to be and these results were coming. Obviously I don't like it.
But if I told you that that was the first thing I thought of every day when I woke up I would be lying to you. If I play well and get a good stretch of two, three months, the ranking takes care of itself.
After this I don't know what I'll be ranked, but I'm shocked I'm ranked as high as I am considering the year I think I've had. I don't know if I dropped to 18 or something. If the best I can do is 18 in the world I feel like I can play for a while.

Q. After the Open, do you think like you might take a little bit longer of a break to recover?
ANDY RODDICK: All I've been doing is breaking. I was just home for six weeks.

Q. You were in the top 10 for a very long time. Does being on the outside of to change your outlook at all?
ANDY RODDICK: Like what? You don't get credit for being there. You only the get credit for not being there. It was boring when I was there; it's not boring now. You guys should thank me.

Q. You talked about a lot of things you were disappointed with.
ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, listen, I said through most of two sets I was pretty happy with the way I was hitting the ball. Not far off, which was surprising. I haven't hit at all hardly. I served great in the first set.
Haven't played that extended of a -- that's the longest I've played at one time yet. So there were definitely some positives. I'm disappointed in myself that I let it end kind of the way it did.
But, yeah, it wasn't totally horrible as far as ball-striking.

Q. Djokovic is having a career, maybe generational, year.
ANDY RODDICK: Uh-huh.

Q. You've had good success against him. You haven't played him this year. Can you break down what he's doing?
ANDY RODDICK: I think he's serving better. He's fixed -- I think a couple years ago he might have gotten inside of his own head as far as the serve went. I think there was a little bit of a hitch there that seems to be smoothed out.
He's back to '07 when he was 122 hitting the corners consistently. I think that's probably the biggest thing. You know, when that serve starts going, it kind of causes you to get a little uptight and then the rest of it goes.
He's always been a great player. It's just a matter of confidence. I think, you know, he thinks he could probably cartwheel a marathon right now. Roger, I think he had one year when he lost three matches; McEnroe had one where he lost three matches; he's certainly on pace for one of those.
What he's done this year is like XBox.

Q. It's going to be the tenth anniversary of the September 11th.
ANDY RODDICK: Uh-huh.

Q. Could you just talk you have talk about your memories of that day, where you were?
ANDY RODDICK: I actually had tickets to a concert in New York City that night, and for some reason I left the night before. I was in New York, and I woke up the next morning at my parents' house and just saw it. Like anybody else, you're just shocked. I didn't know what to think. You know, it was a place you were the day before. It was just really weird, you know.
But I will say this: The six months to a year after that, I probably haven't been prouder of the people in this country as far as the way they came together. I wish it would have had a little bit more staying power.
Hopefully the ten-year mark will bring back some of those feelings of unity that we did have after that.
You know, I don't think it's a bad thing to remember.

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