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SHANGHAI ROLEX MASTERSOctober 10, 2012Roger FedererSHANGHAI, CHINA R. FEDERER/Y. Lu THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. It seemed pretty straightforward. Can you talk about the match, how you felt about it. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I thought it was a good match for me. Obviously not having been broken is a good thing early on in a tournament. You hope it sets a trend for more to come. It's just about sort of getting a sense of how to play the points again, even though it's been a couple of weeks. But my last matches have been on clay. You always wonder if you have lost something in the meantime. But I'm happy that things worked out well today because Lu I thought played a pretty good match. He's got the game to be really dangerous, particularly on a fast court like today. I was able to manage. That was a good thing too me, so I'm really happy. Q. I assume you felt no worry about the death threat or anything, you felt comfortable? ROGER FEDERER: I felt fine, you know. There was maybe one quick thought. I saw one of the bodyguards outside of the court. I thought, Still around, obviously. I have bodyguards every time I play a match on a center court, which is normal. Once the match started, got underway, I never thought about it again. Q. You always have been an all‑time favorite in Shanghai. Tonight I think the crowd wanted Lu to win more. What do you think about that? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, look, I mean, I don't understand Chinese quite well enough yet, so I don't know what they were chanting. I was trying to tell myself they were cheering for me very strongly, but I don't think it was the case (smiling). It's okay. In some ways I would have hoped to play the Chinese player, who Lu beat in the first round, because that would have been a first. It's good crowds, though. It was nice to see the Shanghai crowd get into it, be excited about the match, even if it was maybe more so for Lu. I mean, he played inspiring tennis at times. It was a good atmosphere and a nice match to play. If that was the case that they were cheering for him, which I thought they were, that caught me a little bit off guard, to be quite honest. Q. You say your last matches were on clay obviously. You're a man that always comes in prepared. I'm assuming you've been practicing on hard courts. Were you in Dubai or in Switzerland? ROGER FEDERER: I was in Dubai for some time now. I practiced four times maybe while I was there. Nothing major. It was just more about keeping the rhythm, making sure I don't take too long of a break in case I was going to play here. Obviously I had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday here. Once it even rained. So I haven't practiced a whole lot. I couldn't really work on my game. This was just more sort of a maintaining couple of weeks, making sure that when I do come back again, you know, I don't get injured, all those things. I'm happy actually considering the last few weeks that this was a decent first round. Q. When was the decision made to come here? ROGER FEDERER: Monday or Tuesday. Q. That late? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, it was very late. Q. Do you know you are match away from securing 300 weeks at No.1? ROGER FEDERER: I hope it's correct. I hope it's correct. Q. It is correct. ROGER FEDERER: Sometimes you do it and then they say, One more match. You never know. Q. You keep winning. ROGER FEDERER: Okay, you have to win 10 more years to reach 300 weeks. I'm obviously excited. It's a big number, even though 299 or 300 doesn't make a big difference for me. It's obviously a big match for me. If you look back, there's many matches there was a lot on the line, so this is just another one. Obviously it's not a final, so I'm not going to go in super nervous about it.  It's just more, you know, the difficulty also playing a good friend. That adds to the special occasion, I guess, tomorrow. Q. In China a micro‑blogging service has over 274 million users, including Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Li Na. Will you use that because your fans here are looking forward to following you? ROGER FEDERER: On what? Q. A micro‑blogging service. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, we'll see. Time will tell. Q. Finally China has not only one but two players in the top 200. This is the first time it's happened in the past 10 or something years. Do you realize the progression they've made? Have you practiced with any of them in Shanghai? ROGER FEDERER: Not this time around. I think I practiced with some of them the last few times I was here. I always thought they were playing pretty good tennis. I'm not surprised to see some of them making their move, getting some decent wins now. That can inspire an entire generation. So it's good to see. I have the feeling that once the Chinese male players break through, there could be quite a few of them. I'm obviously not quite aware of how the whole practice, how they do it, how the whole coaching staff is organized here. I'm sure it's very professional. I'm sure they're hard‑working, because that's what you have to be at this day and age to make it on the Pro Tour. Hopefully the next few months or years I'll play some of them. It would be nice. Something I'm looking forward to. Q. You say you feel like you'll be able to play another few years if you stay healthy. I would suspect the little ones are getting closer to school age. Have you thought about how you would deal with that, whether you would travel without them? ROGER FEDERER: Look, I'm here by myself this week. Eventually it's just going to be the natural course of how it's going to go. Maybe I have to then go by myself. Sometimes I can take them along. Sometimes you just don't go. You manage your schedule. It depends where you are in your life.  Maybe I'm not playing anymore. They're only three, so I still have some time. It's going to be interesting to see how it's all going to play out. At the moment we're not thinking about it too much. We're going month by month and hopefully have a good schedule in place for not only the kids and Mirka, but also for myself, tennis, for practice, vacation. Everything needs to be well settled, well organized to make this work obviously. I think a lot about it to make it all happen because there is a lot on the plate for everyone. Q. You mentioned the security. Are you aware the guy who apparently posted the threat apologized? Any thoughts on that? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, I've heard about it many days ago. I guess that's another thing that came out recently. Yeah, I mean, what do you want me to say about it? I think it's not something I want to spend too much time thinking about to be honest because it shouldn't have been in the press in the first place. It's in the past now. Q. When you were here last time, 2010, you were alone. What have you been doing to kill your time in Shanghai? ROGER FEDERER: I've been busy. I've been busy. As you surely know, I have many promotions to do for the tournament because I want to. At the end of the day it's my choice to do all the events. I like to push tennis here in this part of the world if I'm already here. Then I had a couple of sponsor appearances, press. This time around I had a lot of ATP political things to go through, which was interesting to say the least. Obviously I practiced, too. I'm here trying to get prepared as well as I can. You kind of go from there. Now I play matches. Sleep in, play late. Sleep in, play late. That's sort of the schedule now. I don't have much time to get around anymore. It's now spending most time at the courts right now. Q. You meant to practice on Court 4 today with Zhang Ze. It didn't happen. Do you think he will have a chance to practice with you? ROGER FEDERER: I'm sure he will have a chance. Hopefully tomorrow. Q. There's a famous football player Nicolas Anelka that came to watch your match. Did you know that? It seems you have a lot of (indiscernible) with football, Brazil, do some work with football teams. Is that true? ROGER FEDERER: I'll try to answer. Yeah, I love soccer obviously. It's where it started for me, as well, like tennis. I joined a soccer club when I was very young. I've always been a big fan of the sport. I've seen Nicolas play. Wonderful soccer player. Me taking pictures with the Brazilian soccer shirt was something we did for the tour in Brazil now coming up. We had some fun with it, me playing volleyball and soccer. Yeah, I obviously have received many, many great jerseys over the years from some of the greatest soccer players out there. Obviously I appreciate that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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