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BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR FINALSNovember 6, 2012Janko TipsarevicLONDON, ENGLAND R. FEDERER/J. Tipsarevic THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. You are not new in the Masters Cup, but Roger also is not new. What is your opinion of the first match? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I think Roger was just too good. I have not been feeling great for the last couple of days. But even in the previous matches that I played Roger, I wasn't having that much success, as you can see. I definitely won't blame the loss today on my medical situation, if you would call it like this. I think the problem, I mean, I probably would have lost anyway, but the problem was that he got an early break in both sets. Everybody knows that when Roger starts leading, he is probably the best player in the world when he's a break up early in the set. But, yeah, I gave it my best shot. It just didn't work today. Q. Because of Roger's head‑to‑head against other people in Group B, a tennis writer as a joke renamed the two groups Group Blood Bath and Group Pillow Fight. So your perspective on the matchups in Group B? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I'm aware that Roger has a very positive score with all of us, but I don't think that means anything right now. On this event, I think Novak said a very, very smart thing yesterday, saying that there are not any real favorites in the groups. If I remember correctly, last match Del Potro won against Federer in Basel. If I remember correctly, David Ferrer won two events indoors in a row playing amazing tennis. So if it was a joke by looking at the statistics, it wasn't a bad joke, but it has nothing to do with reality. Q. You're dealing with a medical situation. We've seen Federer, who is 31. If he goes next year, he'll tie the record for most consecutive Grand Slams. Can you talk about his durability? Is he lucky? How is he able to maintain that kind of excellence year in and year out? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I think Roger Federer is everything but lucky. People see him play this flawless tennis and saying, Oh, life is so easy for Roger, he's so talented. I mean, he is talented, but there's so much work behind that and so much thinking to improve ‑ at least what I think. The fact that he was born with that magic hand of his is a plus. But I think that Roger Federer is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, professionals that this sport has ever had. Throughout his career, he was always putting tennis as the No.1 thing in his life, never doing anything to damage his professional tennis career. Because of that, and because of the professionalism that he has and the time that he devoted to this game, this is the reason why he has such high durability and was almost never injured in his career. This is my take on that. It has nothing to do with luck. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the scheduling issue, especially since Roger has been careful about scheduling, taking time off, so on. You talked a little bit about that the other day. Could you elaborate on your thinking for next year. JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I mean, London was a big goal of mine this year and I'm really thrilled that I managed to achieve it. But a big goal of mine for next year would be to go deeper in the Grand Slams, which means that I can organize my schedule better. It's easy for Andy or Novak when they win a Grand Slam and win 2,000 points to schedule their tournaments accordingly. But for guys like me who have only one quarterfinal and two third or fourth rounds, it's not so easy to make a schedule that benefits you that you are fresh all the time. I am extremely, if I can say, proud of myself by the fact that I only lost two matches this year from guys who are not top 20, and I played 30 events and a Davis Cup. This is my 31st event. It shows that I have durability. But if I want to shorten the season and play less tournaments, I need to play even better on Grand Slams and big events. It's better than last year. I earned more points than I did last year, a significant amount of points. But I feel I can do better if I want to shorten the season for myself. Q. Your illness is a cold, fever? Do you have time to recover in 24 hours? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: I don't play tomorrow, which is good, I guess. I felt good in the first set. Even though I lost it, I didn't lose the first set because I was, you know, feeling bad, whatever. But later on when we played these longer rallies, my serve started to suffer a little bit. But I'm feeling better day after day after day. And, as I said in my previous press conference, the beauty thing about this tournament is that nothing is finished with one win or one loss. Even though I lost to Tomas last year with a match point, I ended up the season by winning a match, and that's always a good thing to have. So I'm feeling better day after day. Roger was just too good for me today, and that's the end of the story. Q. A question about Novak. Obviously he had a spectacular season last year. Did you expect him to be able to maintain the No.1 ranking this year? How would you characterize what he did this year versus what he did last year? JANKO TIPSAREVIC: Last year was something special. I'm not going to say it's never going to happen because this sport is full of surprises. But, to be honest with you, I was expecting him to stay No.1, because just talking to this guy ‑ this is maybe a little bit too personal ‑ but in my opinion on his mind is only one thing: to be the best and No.1 in the world forever and ever and ever. So I wouldn't be surprised if he stays the No.1 all throughout next year and win whatever goal he has in his mind, like more Grand Slams, French Open, all four. With him, nothing surprises me honestly. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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