WIMBLEDON

July 2, 2012

Roger Federer

R. FEDERER/X. Malisse
7‑6, 6‑1, 4‑6, 6‑3

THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

Q.  Can you describe why you called for a trainer, what was going wrong at that point.
ROGER FEDERER:  Yeah, I mean, I felt the back going the beginning of the first set, and then I played on it maybe three, four games.  I asked for the trainer, the doctor to come out to just talk about it.  So I decided to have treatment inside.
Yeah, I guess it must be a mix of maybe from the five‑setter and the two days off and the cold wind today.  So I guess it was unlucky in this regard.  Fortunately I pulled out the match the way I did today.

Q.  How is it feeling right now?
ROGER FEDERER:  Okay.  I mean, way better than a few hours ago, so that's pretty good.  But honestly I'm not too worried.  I've had bad backs over the years.  I've been around.  They go as quick as they came.
But of course I have to keep an eye on it now.  I have one and a half days, which is a lot of time, to be quite honest, to work with.  Two good night's sleeps and I'll be 100% on Wednesday.
I'm pretty convinced, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to pull out the match the way I did today.

Q.  Did it happen on court?
ROGER FEDERER:  It happened on court.

Q.  Xavier really enjoys playing you.  Do you find sometimes you bring out the best in your opponents?
ROGER FEDERER:  I don't know.  Look, today I thought was extremely difficult for Xavier.  I did apologize to him after the match just for the first set.  Not that I had anything to do with it.  I know how hard it is playing somebody that is injured.
He's a great player.  I mentioned it before in my press conference a couple days ago what I think of him.  It's nice playing against him.  Today obviously was, you know, tough conditions ‑ a lot of wind, cold, rain delay, I had the back thing going ‑ so obviously it was hard to get any sort of rhythm, which I think indoors would have been quite different.
But, yeah, Xavier is a great player.

Q.  Youzhny next.  Why do you think so many 30‑year‑olds are doing well now?
ROGER FEDERER:  A good generation.  Think back 10 years ago when we were all coming through, how many of us there were really.  My junior year back in '98 was unbelievable.  Who I played in almost every match I played back over there made it on tour after that.
I think we had a record in Paris with the number of over‑30‑year‑olds in the main draw, which I'm happy to see.  Happy I'm not the only guy left, you know.
Yeah, I don't know how many still are in the draw right now, but obviously I see familiar faces left and right everywhere I go at every tournament.

Q.  What is your feeling when Nadal leaves tournament quite early?  Is it a joy or a pity?
ROGER FEDERER:  I'm an honest guy, and I say it's a pity.

Q.  Can you describe your thoughts on facing Youzhny, what particular challenges there are against him.
ROGER FEDERER:  Did he end up winning?  I played him last week in Halle.  I played him here last year on grass, and again at Halle years back.  We've played a lot, to be honest, on grass.  We know what to expect, both of us.
I think he's a great player.  He can take the ball early.  He can, you know, mix it up well.  He's a great fighter.  I had an extremely tough match with him last year on Court1.  I expect something similar.
So I hope to recover and play a good match against him, and hopefully victory is on my racquet.

Q.  You were talking about this generation.  You're the leader of this generation.  Can you talk about the two or three most important matches in your career?
ROGER FEDERER:  I haven't made a ranking.  I might have to do that eventually one day just to give you guys everything on how I feel and care about every single point in every single match I played.  (Smiling.)
No, like you mentioned yourself, you kind of know which ones meant a lot to me.  I don't know, is it the one where I got a wild card in Marseille and I beat Moya who was 4 in the world?  I think that was big.  Clearly it was.  That gave me belief for every practice and every match that I play that I could hang with the best.
Hamburg was obviously big, entering the top 10 in 2002.  Carrying Switzerland to victory against America in Davis Cup in Basel was a big tie.  Little things like this all add up.
It's hard to pick out which ones were the best.  In the beginning, obviously you need big wins at times to sort of give you that motivation for the practice sessions, for the travel day in and day out, which in the beginning is fun for some time, but then it gets frustrating when you're losing.  That's not a whole lot of fun then doing all the sacrifices.

Q.  Was the Sampras win also a key?
ROGER FEDERER:  Yeah, but it was ‑ how shall I say ‑ it was confusing in some ways, too.  I came to the American summer after that and I was like, Okay, play like you played Pete.  So simple, right?  Nobody plays like Pete I understood.
That's where things got complicated for me.  I realize I don't play every day as good as when I played against him and nobody else played like Sampras.
Things got complicated for me in my mind to be honest, and I had to work on that for quite some time.

Q.  How surprised were you that they didn't shut the roof today?  Do you think that had any effect on your back injury, it was bit cold?
ROGER FEDERER:  I think so.  I think it didn't help.  Would it have happened anyway?  Maybe.  You do feel a five‑setter a little bit maybe.  Maybe the two days, who knows what effect that has.  Maybe I was just a bit unlucky today because I did a proper warmup, I did everything right the last couple days.
It's not during a Grand Slam where I'm going to start doing stupid stuff, to be honest.  It's just unfortunate.
No, I was happy they kept it open because it is an outdoor tournament at the end of they day.  We don't want to play indoors all the time.  It's not that big of a deal coming on and off.  I know spectators would rather see a match than sitting in the rain.
They do a great job here.  They love it.  To see the referee coming out and inspecting the courts, that's the whole drama that belongs to Wimbledon.  Eventually if it's too bad and it's really raining, this is when you shut it.
It's tough.  There's just this drizzle the whole time.  You figure at any minute we could come off.  Sometimes you're stressing out because you want to stretch the lead; sometimes you hope it rains so you can come off.  So it also plays some tricks on you mentally.
I had other problems on court today.  Maybe that helped with the rain situation.  I don't know.

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