SONY ERICSSON OPEN
Date: 2007-03-23

SONY ERICSSON OPEN

March 23, 2007

Andy Roddick
KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question You served well.
Answer Yeah, it was surprising because it was really windy out there so the wind was swirling. It made for some awkward points. I'm glad that I served okay.

Question Not much about his game troubled you?
Answer Well, he's a little tough. He kind of worked the ball around the court a little bit. The first break in the first set, I don't know if he was nervous, but he kind of just dominated a little bit.
Then I was able to get the break in the second set. It always helps me to get a break at the beginning of each set.

Question It looked like you were pretty determined to come out there and set a tone early. Do you think you did that?
Answer Yeah, I mean, I just -- I don't know how experienced he is, and I don't know if he's -- I could be wrong, but I'm guessing he's never played a night match before.
So sometimes you can use that to your advantage. Like I said, especially with that wind out there making it awkward, the last thing you want to do is get to where it's real close and kind it leave it up to that.
So I definitely wanted to try to get my breaks and at least hold serve.

Question When it's not blowing like this, when it's relatively calm, how much less does the ball fly here than in the thin air?
Answer Oh, it's night and day.

Question How does that help your game?
Answer I instantly felt like I could hit through the ball a little bit more this week. It doesn't make the ball jump as much.
You're not hitting as many balls above the shoulders. I feel like I can flatten out and take a rip at some forehands, whereas last week I felt like they were maybe flying a little bit more.

Question Is there anything about Gilles Simon that you know of?
Answer Yeah, he's a small guy, really thin. He puts a lot of balls in the court, has kind of a French feel around the court. I feel like if I at least force the issue -- I'm going to have to force the issue against him. I can't play key tennis with him, that's for sure.

Question The way you were serving tonight, even when you're down breakpoint, full confidence, has that been fairly typical for you this year, or did you feel pretty typical tonight?
Answer Yeah, like we said, with it blowing around out there, I don't know if it felt good, but I looked up and I saw the serve stats and they were pretty good.
Yeah, I mean, it was a lot higher than I expected. When I glanced up and saw it, I don't know if it felt like I was serving that high. But I'll take that -- I'll take 76 percent pretty much any match.

Question Do you know really in a match how well you're going to serve from the first game on, or does it fluctuate during the match?
Answer Most of the time you can tell. I don't know if you go match to match. It might go week to week when you feel as if you're serving well or you're not serving well. But this year so far I've been pretty consistent.
I actually didn't feel like I served that well in Australia, and since then I feel like I've picked it up a little bit.
The Moderator Thank you very much.