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WIMBLEDONJune 30, 2012Andy RoddickLONDON, ENGLAND D. FERRER/A. Roddick THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Straight to the point. Lots of speculation with the way you walked off court. You think you may not be back here next year? Are you able to give us a definitive answer yet? ANDY RODDICK: No. Q. Not at all? ANDY RODDICK: No. Q. May I ask what is going through your mind at the moment, please? ANDY RODDICK: Right now I'm thinking about the match. You know, he's playing great this year. I mean, he semi'd the French and then came in off of a win, so it was going to be tough. I thought I played well. I had one really good look at a forehand on a set point in the second set; just clipped the tape. You know, that was a big, big turning point there. Q. How do you think your game was overall? ANDY RODDICK: Great. Listen, we're comparing it to 12 days ago when I told my team, Listen, all I want to do is just play good tennis again. You know, play where I feel good on the court and I'm doing what I want to do. Between last week and here I felt like we got to that point. It was a good match. My last eight matches dating back to last week have all been very, very positive, especially compared to what I was putting out there earlier this year. Q. I thought it was going to be your day after the first set. ANDY RODDICK: That's the thing, though. You don't get style points. You don't get extra points for winning a set easily. The first set that I won and the second set that he won count the same. That's one of the things about tennis. They have a way of constantly making you kind of prove yourself, whether it's on different surfaces, January through November, one set to the next. It's what makes the sport great. There's always a question out there. Q. Are people reading too much into the kiss to the fans as you walked off court? ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. That's just another way of going about it. I understand that journalistic ploy and that's what you're supposed to do and stuff. I certainly appreciate the softball questions in between, but, again, I don't have an answer for you. I'm not going to be able to give you much else. Q. We've seen you in this room in a lot of different moods over the years. Usually after a loss you're pretty good most of the time. Today you seem more philosophical. ANDY RODDICK: No. I mean, I don't know. I don't know about 'philosophical.' You know, normally if I put a decent product out there and feel like I played well and‑‑ you know, I had a game plan and I had to be aggressive. That was always going to be high‑risk. Almost got through two sets. Get through two sets, you're looking pretty good in that situation. I took good cuts at the ball when I had it. That's what I had to get back to. You know, honestly, going into Eastbourne I was hoping I'd win a match because I hadn't won a match in so long. So you tell me I win seven straight and have a chance to move on against a guy that is 5 in the world and played a pretty good match, that's some progress in a short period of time. Q. As far as the Olympics go, coming back here again, best‑of‑three, will be a different situation? How do you see your chances in that? ANDY RODDICK: Right now I feel better coming out of this tournament than I have in a little while. Not this tournament, but meaning tournaments this year. I'm excited. Two‑out‑of‑three sets on grass is a crapshoot. Anything goes there. If I can kind of maintain the form that I've had it's going to be uncomfortable. I don't think I'm going to be seeded. I don't know that that's going to be a comfortable round for anybody on this surface at this venue. Q. Is it the case that you have yet to make up your own mind? ANDY RODDICK: Guys, if I don't have a definitive answer in my own mind, it's going to be tough for me to articulate a definitive answer to you. I've answered that question now. Q. You get a lot of love here. Do you sense that when you're going around town? Do people shout to you or anything? ANDY RODDICK: Yeah. You know, I walk around. I have a lot of conversations with people I've never met before throughout the day. You know, it's nice. It's almost as if I've been accepted here. It's a different relationship, 'cause maybe as opposed to some of the guys who are the absolute superstars, I'm one of the guys that they've seen on TV that they can say what's up to. It's a different level than Roger or Rafa. Maybe it's more comfortable. I certainly enjoy that. Q. So while it's never easy to see good things in a loss, it sounds like you're saying there's some things you learned positively about your game and where it's at in the last week or so. ANDY RODDICK: I don't know about learned. I just got back to the point where I'm playing relevant tennis. You know, it's not going out there and‑‑ I don't feel like I was fighting myself. I felt like I was fighting my opponent today. It sounds like a simple thing, but it's a different point. I felt like I was out of that for a little while. I feel healthy and good. There are probably less questions as far as my game goes than there were 10 or 12 days go. Q. Where do you go from here? ANDY RODDICK: I'm going to go home and I'm going to play Atlanta and get ready to come back here. Q. Mardy was just asked to talk about your legacy. He said you were the alpha male of your generation, and then he said the best grass court player ever not to have won here. Is that comment meaningless, like kissing your sister, or does it have any significance? ANDY RODDICK: I don't know about grounds for comparison. I don't have a sister to kiss, and I probably would've have if I did. It's nice from Mardy, but I think he's pretty biased also. He likes me. Q. When you hear things like what Mardy Fish said and you think about your body of work, how do you feel about all that you've done to make yourself where you are right now? When you walk off the court and still have more to come back here, what drives you? ANDY RODDICK: I enjoy what I do. Being a t tennis player is a tough thing. To kind of keep a certain level for a really long time, it's not easy. I think a lot of people see a product on TV and assume that's just what we do. We get out of bed and go play matches. For every hour we're on court playing a match, there's probably 12 hours of preparation of some sort. I'm proud that I've been very dedicated to my craft. There aren't many days when I go to sleep wondering if I could have done more as far as preparation or work or effort. So that makes it easier to walk off the court and be proud. Q. What sort of appreciation does that give you for a story like Brian Baker where he's battled through years of not even being able to do that sort of thing? ANDY RODDICK: Well, it's great to see. I mean, honestly, I remember Brian. After I came up he was probably the best junior I'd seen. I felt like he was going to kind of be that guy to keep me company for a little while. He had the tools. Then it was like a slow thing where it was one thing there, one thing there, one thing there. We're all so obsessed in our little moments, and all of a sudden you think, Gosh, where is that guy? Then you hear he's coming back. That's good. But you don't really take it too seriously. Then all of a sudden he's healthy and he's still got game. It's just great to see. Everyone loves a comeback story. You know, the fact that he was hurt for so long, but then almost he didn't force it right away to come back. He kind of took his time, and all of a sudden decided he was going to go for it again. It's pretty remarkable. You think of people who are off for six months and it's tough to come back. Hell, six years, I can't imagine that. Q. Shorter window. Mardy is in the fourth round after what he's gone through a few weeks ago. What do you think about that? ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, I'm really happy for him. I was worried about him, you know. Not worried about him for tennis. You can have tennis. I was just worried about him. I didn't like kind of seeing him in a very vulnerable state. We talk all the time. As bad as the physical problem was, it was the not knowing what was going on, the mental part was really hard for him. Not knowing what he did that set it off. I know one of the big things was traveling again and not being in a controlled environment for it. That was a big mental hurdle for him. I don't think he wanted to sit on the sidelines, especially given the position he had put himself into coming into this year. It's a hard situation. I hope he can keep going. It's a pretty good effort to come in here and grind away the first week of a slam. Q. Given what you're saying about Brian, where you thought he could have been without the injuries, what do you think about his level now and what he could do going forward? ANDY RODDICK: Well, we'll see. It's going to be interesting. I mean, he's definitely going to be inside and he's going to be on tour and he's going to be there. Then he's going to expect himself to do this all the time. That's where we're going to get a true read on where he is. You know, he certainly doesn't seem to have many weaknesses as far as forehands, backhands, serves, volleys. He seems pretty complete. It's a matter of doing what's he's done over the last two or three months for three or four years straight. That's harder to predict. Everybody here can play. If you take their best moments, they all have the potential to be in the top 10, every player in the draw. It's a matter of doing it continuously and when you're supposed to. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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