WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS
Date: 2007-08-16

WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 16, 2007

Andy Roddick
CINCINNATI, OHIO
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question Was it a bit of getting out-retrieved on some of those points? He seemed to get everything back.
Answer That's -- yes, but that's where the problem lies. When I am retrieving I'm going to get out-retrieved by people who do it regularly and do it better.
I was playing -- I just didn't do anything that I've been working on. I was standing too far back. You know, I wasn't imposing myself and I was giving away free points. All the way around it was a pretty ordinary performance.

Question How do you pick yourself up after a few poor weeks at this point?
Answer Are you defining poor by losing to the winner last week?

Question No, but by your standards.
Answer I lost to a guy who went on to beat a the No. 2 and then No. 1 guys in the world after me. I think we need it redefine the word "poor." This week was poor. This week was poor.
It's fine. I mean, the good news is you have time to work. We have eight, nine days to get on the practice court. I need to kind of do some footwork drills and get my feet going and readjust my court position. Kind of get back to the basics.
If that's a three or four day workshop before you start playing sets again then that's what I need to do and that's what it'll be done.

Question Are you going reconsider whether you going to New Haven next week or not?
Answer No.

Question Looked like he got to every ball you hit. Was that frustrating? You were hitting well and he chased everything down.
Answer He did, but, I mean, he played well. He did what he had to do. I felt like I was missing a lot. Like I said, I was -- maybe he was able to get to those because I was trying to hit them from -- it's like trying to knock a guy out from five feet away. It's probably not going happen. You got to get in tighter so your balls at least connect.
You know, that's my fault. I just tripped it back and kind of resorted to what wasn't working for me before and it was my mistake.

Question How comfortable or uncomfortable did you feel out there? Didn't look the Roddick we've seen here?
Answer It's annoying, because I've been -- it's not like a hitting the ball issue like it was last year. It's just I wasn't -- I just wasn't up in the court. I didn't have a set game plan and it was just my fault. I didn't do what I've been practicing and, you know, for whatever reason.
When you don't do that it makes it real difficult on yourself. So, yeah, I mean, it wasn't the -- how I normally play here.

Question Are you going to have to hook up with Jimmy sooner rather than later preparing through next week?
Answer Yeah. Well, regardless we were planning on a practice week before the Open. The thing is you don't all of a sudden come out and play a bad match, which is the first kind of bad match that I've played in two and a half weeks, and panic.
I'm not going to go into panic mode. I know what I did wrong today. Don't get me wrong. I'm pissed off about it and not happy about it.

Question I would have thought so.
Answer Sorry?

Question I would have thought, yeah.
Answer Yeah. I'm not happy about it. I talked to him. Jimmy's not happy. He was more upset with just the fact -- not so much the way I played but he goes, I don't care it you lose 0-0, but do it what we've been working on and do to the right way. I couldn't agree with him more. He's right. I didn't kind of work on anything out there. I didn't get any better in a loss, and that's probably the most annoying part.

Question You still had three set points in the first set. Maybe if you had made one of those I don't think we would be a having this conversation.
Answer Yeah. I guess that's the good news. I felt like I didn't really do much today. There's still a lot of chances. It's this much (indicating). It really is. It's this much can turn things from playing ordinary to really well.
You know, so it's just a matter of getting out on the practice court and getting some repetitions in.

Question For so long you've been working on moving forward. What makes it that you dropped back today?
Answer I don't know if -- I don't know. That's why I'm so pissed. It's like all of a sudden you're playing points and you realize that maybe I haven't been doing enough in practice, I don't know.
All of a sudden you're playing points and you're realizing, crap I'm hitting big shots and they're not going anywhere. It's just a matter of having two or three days and doing it in practice and doing repetition and it should right itself.
But I can deal with the loss. The loss is going to happen in sports. It's terrible. I don't like the way I went about it and how I played.

Question There was a match before yours that went three sets. A lot of the fans left and sort of trickled back in throughout your match, so you didn't have the full stadium that you usually have. What effect did that have?
Answer Well, if I was them and I trickled in I would have watched about two games and trickled back out. I didn't really deserve to have them there today. I would have preferred to play at night because I've kind of grown accustomed to it and there's such electricity in the air.
They felt like it was better to play me during the day. It's unfortunate, but it's out of my hands at the same time.

Question Were you surprised that your forehand deserted you? Either hit stuff long or hit the tape, just wasn't really there.
Answer Yeah, it was bad. Yeah, but at the same time I feel like a lot it has to do with, like I said, trying to hit it from the wrong positions.
You know, I'm like a broken record here, but that's what I feel is the problem.

Question You don't have now the momentum that you usually have after this tournament going into the Open. Any thoughts there?
Answer Well, obviously you'd love to have won and played great, you know, had that momentum going in. But I feel like I've played pretty consistently this year. I had two good weeks in Washington. I feel like I hit the ball pretty well in Montreal.
I'm not in panic mode. I'm not going to get there. It's for everybody else to ask questions and try to make a story out of it and whatnot. I'll be fine. I have plenty of time to get a practice week in. Like I said, I'm just anxious to get the repetitions in. I'll be all right.