AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Date: 2007-01-21

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 21, 2007

Andy Roddick
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
The Moderator First question, please.

Question Five-set rollercoaster. How would you assess the match?
Answer I thought it was a pretty high level by both of us. If you look at the stats, I think I was 52 winners and 19 errors; he was 60 winners and 33 errors or something. Both had pretty high first-serve percentages. I've played Mario I think five times now, and that's definitely the best he's played against me.

Question Talk about the fifth set. Gave a semi gift game there, but you hung tough.
Answer Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing is I didn't get aced three times that game. I was able to at least get in the points and have a chance at him making an error. Just put the ball in the court, that helped. He missed a couple of volleys maybe he wouldn't normally miss.
I was happy to put those returns in and at least make him work for it.

Question You showed great patience. Even when you lost the fourth, a break back. Matter of taking those opportunities against him, given how well he was serving?
Answer Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think in the first game of the fourth, I could have probably really put some pressure on him, put the clamps down, if I would have gotten a break there.
When I got broken in the fourth set to lose it, I feel like he beat me in that game. I feel like he came up with the goods. There's only so much you can do there. I don't know if there's a time when I was out there that I felt like I wasn't hitting the ball that well. It's a little easier to take the guy playing well and winning points as opposed to kind of blowing them out there.
All in all, I thought it was a pretty good match.

Question You and Mardy go back a long ways, but has taken you a while to play a match at this stage of a major.
Answer Yeah, we haven't played in a major, but we played in the finals of a Masters Series event, which is pretty big. You know, I think it's always a little bit weird when we play each other just 'cause of our history. In high school, he was four steps from the door of my room, the door of his room. It's always a little weird.
But I think we're both professional enough to know that when we get out there, we both want to win real bad.

Question Lendl tried to go from the baseline to the net. He was not able to do it. You seem to be making that transition pretty darn well. Am I accurate or inaccurate?
Answer I mean, that's your opinion on Lendl. He won eight Slams from the back. He was doing just fine.
I don't know. I'm trying. I feel like I'm improving in that aspect. Today I don't know how big a part of it was. I felt like I was hitting the ball through the court pretty good and he wasn't giving me a whole lot of short balls to play with. It's definitely something I feel like I can go to a little bit more if Plan A is not working.
It's just a process of trying to improve.

Question How much better were you today than when you played Safin?
Answer I'm not sure. It's a different sort of match. I think the Safin match was probably a little bit more physical from the standpoint of rallying. The second set I played against Marat, I probably wasn't real happy with. But the fourth set I felt like I played some of my best tennis against Marat.
It's tough to compare the two. I'm just happy to be through 'cause it's not an easy third- and fourth-round draw.

Question Was that as tough of a first week as you've had at a major?
Answer No. I've lost in the first week of a major before (laughter).

Question But when you've come through, quality of opponents. Dicey first round or two.
Answer Maybe. I'm not thinking of one off the top of my head that was tougher. I was down two sets and a break to Youzhny here a couple years ago in the fourth round. That was tough, as far as just every match kind of being tough. Even the one I won in straight sets, I thought Gicquel played pretty good.

Question How are you physically after a couple of big matches?
Answer Yeah, I feel fine. I felt real good out there. Probably better than the I did the other night against Marat.

Question Are there parts of your game improving to the point where opponents might find those parts of your game unfamiliar now?
Answer I don't know. That's a question you'd probably have to ask them. I definitely feel a lot more comfortable with the basic strategy that was probably implemented by most players against me. Maybe isn't as easy to execute now. So that's a good thing.
I'm not sure. I think that's a question for somebody else.

Question At what stage do you give yourself the luxury of saying you're in pretty good form so far this year, look down the tournament?
Answer It's probably not going to happen, to be honest. The first part, I've been in pretty good form with the lead-up and now this event. But right now I'm worried about Mardy. It's not going to get past that, unless it actually is.

Question Mardy seemed to say he thinks what separates you two is your hunger and intensity. Can you talk about what you think has separated you two.
Answer I don't know. I've definitely noticed a change in Mardy since he's come back from his injury. I think this is just kind -- this isn't a knock on him, but I've noticed him kind of gain a sense of professionalism. He was with him in Tampa. He's really working really hard now. I think maybe it gave him a new lease on his career, you know, having it taken away for a little while.
As a friend, I guess that's good to see. Maybe he could forget about it for one day (laughter).

Question Is Jimmy the sort of coach that tries to tweak stuff mid tournament? Are you working on anything in particular at the moment or does he let you go through?
Answer I mean, it depends. He's going to tell me something if he thinks I'm not doing something right. He's not one who is going to take me out for two hours and kill me on the practice court during a Slam. If you're already in a Slam, something needs a major overhaul, I'm afraid it's a little bit too late.
But definitely little hints here and there during a warmup, during a day off. We'll work on it a little bit. Or if he wants to work on something, we'll take five minutes at the end of practice, kind of hit a couple. He's not going to kill me after a tough four-setter and five-setter.

Question Lot he had to tell you after the Safin match about mistakes you made or what?
Answer I mean, I don't know how to define "a lot." I think it was about normal. He's pretty concise. His isn't really -- his style isn't really like sitting down for a half hour after a match and dissecting each point. He kind of gets his point across over a two-day span, kind of throw it out here and there. As you're maybe walking to dinner or something, he'll kind of throw something out there.
He's not really big on kind of like the War Room type, half-hour, sit-down, heart-to-heart type thing.

Question Not like Brad?
Answer I don't know.

Question Can you be precise what he said after the Safin match?
Answer Mostly along the lines of, Well done. Well, no. He kind of wants -- I wasn't making many forehands. He wanted to know what I did to correct it, share that with each other in the future. He kind of harped on the fact that I kind of stepped it up in the third and fourth sets, but that's the way I need to start matches. That was kind of his biggest thing.

Question Mardy said that, like brothers, you've had some arguments over the years. What is it like on court when you play him? Temperatures get hot?
Answer We have. It's true. When you're around someone that much in a competitive environment, you have two guys who are pretty outgoing, forthright, we've gotten in each other's faces numerous times, especially when we were younger. But it is like that. If we do, two days later we'll be fine. We do kind of have that sort of relationship.
I think in a match like this, I think there's something bigger. I wouldn't really expect anything. I think we're both just looking forward to it.