AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Date: 2007-01-25

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2007

Andy Roddick
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question Have you ever played anybody so hot like that before?
Answer I don't know. He played well. You know, I made more errors than I should have in the first. After that, there's no doubt he was coming up with some shots tonight.

Question What was it like for you just being there at the end of that?
Answer It was frustrating. You know, it was miserable. It sucked. It was terrible. Besides that, it was fine.

Question What did Jimmy say to you straight after the game?
Answer He gave me a beer.

Question You seem really disappointed. Did you think you had a real crack tonight, a chance?
Answer Yeah, I was playing well coming in. There's no reason to think -- if you would have told me this beforehand, I probably -- I didn't foresee it.

Question Is that the best you've seen him play for a while?
Answer Yeah. I mean, he played really well tonight. I mean, that's for sure.

Question Can you just take us from 4-All on. Up to 4-4, you're in the match. Then you got broken.
Answer Yeah, I got broken. Then I got broken three more times. Then I got broken two more times in the third set. Then it was over 26 minutes later. Is that what you saw, too?

Question I saw that. On court, what changed from 4-All till the end?
Answer That first game, probably the second was pretty crucial. I said it before. I mean, when he gets a lead, you know, he's a great front-runner, there's no doubt about it. He kind of ran it out at the Open, too.
Once he gets his lead, just gets that much more confidence, I mean, it's tough coming back. There aren't a lot of instances where people have forged a comeback on him.

Question How do you go forward from here? How do you counter a game like that?
Answer Well, you know, I just got to keep doing what I do. I wake up every morning. I put in as much as I can every day. I mean, I don't know if you'll find someone who questions that.
You do your best not to get discouraged. You try to take it like a man. I caught an absolute beating tonight. There's no doubt about it. There's no two ways about it. You deal with it and you go back to the drawing board. You act like a professional, and you try to keep working hard.

Question How do you rate Haas or González' chances against him?
Answer Slim.

Question Is he getting better? Is he getting progressively better?
Answer I don't know. I mean, better than what? You've been around the last three years, haven't you?

Question Yes.
Answer So it's been about the same.

Question You said this week that you thought the gap between you and Roger was closing, or at least wasn't getting any wider.
Answer Yeah, not tonight.

Question The next time you feel that, will you keep it to yourself?
Answer No. Have I ever not answered a question honestly? That's honestly the way I felt. I'm not going to keep it to myself. You ask me a question, I'm going to give you an honest answer.
What do you want me to say? Do you want me to come in here and kick my ass on a daily basis? It's not going to happen. I'm going to try to keep fighting. I'm going to try to keep working. That's what I could on a daily basis. I wake up and work my butt off on a daily basis. I'm going to continue to do that.
I'm going to try to take this like a man as much as I can. He outplayed me. He played a lot better than I did tonight. He deserves all the praise that he gets, not only for how he plays, but how he handles himself. Get up tomorrow, look forward.

Question Beating Safin and Ancic, was this a good tournament?
Answer Yeah, I thought it was a good tournament. But I've proven to myself that I can get to the semifinals of Grand Slams. I'd love more than anything to get past that, to get over that hurdle for sure.

Question Obviously he played great. Did you feel like you needed to play much better?
Answer Yeah, I think I left a lot out there on the table tonight. I don't feel like I played like I have for the rest of the tournament. You know, I've come in here at times and said I played pretty well. You know, he just beat me. I think it was a combination tonight.

Question Did you think about trying to slow things down there in the second set when he started to get a run?
Answer Yes.

Question How much would you have paid in order not to come too this press conference tonight?
Answer That's about the best question that's been asked.
Well, I mean, I can't really say an amount because I would have gotten fined, what, 20 grand. Obviously, it would have to be less than that, right, if we're thinking logically? It really wouldn't be about the money; it would be about running away and not facing it.
I would pay a lot of money if everyone would just make up stuff that I said and pretend like I was actually here. That would be fine. My dad didn't raise me to run away from it, so here I am.

Question What next? Davis Cup preparation?
Answer Yes.

Question What does that involve? A bit of experience on clay?
Answer Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure the exact schedule, but I'll probably maybe try to get down to Florida sometime next week and start preparing. I think the team, we all leave on Saturday of next week.

Question What did Jimmy say? US Open final experience, you played him tough, got on a roll. Did you talk about that before the match, if Roger gets on a roll, try to do X, Y or Z, slow it down?
Answer Yeah, there's a lot of strategy talk. It's not so much like, If you're down 6-4, 6-0, 2-0. We didn't really talk about that. Oops.

Question Will you try to maybe totally forget about this result and just put it aside?
Answer Yeah, it would probably be a lot easier when I'm on that plane flight tomorrow not reading about it.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how much you forget it or how much you remember it. I don't know what's better in this situation, to be honest. But it's there. It happened. You deal with it. You try your best to move forward.
I mean, you can't -- I'm not going to sit here and try to be in denial about it. You know, so I'm just still trying to figure out the best way to move forward.

Question Do you then study it and learn from it, force yourself to work out what to do next?
Answer Well, one would think so, yeah. Yeah, you'd think so (smiling).

Question Some people don't read the papers when they lose the next day. Will you read it, or you prefer not?
Answer Probably not. Probably not. But it's kind of tough, though. I read the sports section every day of my life. I'm going to kind of have to like maneuver my way around it somehow (smiling). Like get an oversized coffee mug, kind of like smoke and mirrors or something.

Question How would you write it if you had to write it?
Answer What?

Question That match.
Answer How would I rate it?

Question Write it.
Answer That was a 10. What a great question.

Question How would you write it? I was talking fast.
Answer I was thinking slow.
How would I write it? How could you write a match? How would I write an article?

Question Yes.
Answer Probably something similar to what you guys are going to do, I'm sure.

Question Sort of two steps forward, one step back, but you're moving in the right direction?
Answer Yeah, that's probably a good way to write it or rate it (laughter). That's probably what I would write.

Question Your performance here is better than on court.
Answer My performance here is better than on court?

Question Right.
Answer No shit (laughter). If there were rankings for press conferences, I wouldn't have to worry about dropping out of the top five, I hope.

Question How do you see the Haas/González game going? What do you make of Fernando's performance at this tournament?
Answer He's played great. There's no doubt about it. He's played consistently great, which is something maybe that hasn't been easy for him in the past. He's been real impressive. No, he's playing great, so we'll see.

Question Do you rate him perhaps as a chance against Roger under the circumstances?
Answer Yeah. I mean, I think Roger's the overwhelming favorite, though.

Question After a night like this, do you sleep well?
Answer Do I sleep well?

Question Yes.
Answer It depends on how much I drink tonight.

Question Where are you going after this?
Answer No idea actually.