NASDAQ-100 OPEN
Date: 2006-03-27

NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 27, 2006

Andy Roddick
MIAMI, FLORIDA
The Moderator Questions, please.
Question Shall we have a progress report?
Answer Progress is being made.
Question How do you feel?
Answer I think the biggest thing is on my serve, you know, I started hitting aces and not double-faults so much and hitting pretty high percentage. I feel like my ground strokes clicked in a little bit against Martin in the first round. Not spraying as many, you know. Not as inconsistent. Kind of keeping it in between the lines when I'm trying to keep it between the lines, which is a good thing.
Question What about John? Is that going better all the time? Obviously, you've known him all your life. It's a different sort of John, isn't it?
Answer Yeah, I mean, it's fine. I really don't know what to give you on that one. It's pretty straightforward. He's the same guy I've always known. You know, it's good 'cause I'm not so patient with myself out there, and, you know, as evidenced by the last time I talked to you guys at Palm Springs. So it's nice to have kind of a -- someone with a little bit more even-keel head and bigger picture in mind sometimes.
Question Do you know anything about your next opponent?
Answer I know who he's beaten here, I know what he looks like now. You know, he's beaten three really, really tough players, all in, you know, tough matches. So he's in form, he's got nothing to lose. I'm going to ask around and try to get more of an in-depth scouting report.
Question He played Mardy?
Answer He did, at Delray, 3 and 3. Mardy lost.
Question Ask Mardy about it.
Answer Probably will.
Question When you get a guy, you haven't known him, none of us knows, is that the way you do it, talk to players?
Answer Well, I ask around.
Question John has been scouting?
Answer Yeah, yeah, John watched the match today. You know, you just want to ask around and double check that's things that he was doing today aren't just specific to playing Henman. You know, kind of try to figure it out that way, try to get maybe a tape of another match that he's played this week or, you know, find something, someone that's played him before and, you know, same type of thing you guys do. I'm sure you guys are going to try to find different things about him. It's kind of the same way we go about it.
Question What do you think about George Mason in the Final Four?
Answer That's unbelievable. I'm still pissed about Texas.
I guess four people on ESPN actually had picked it perfectly, the Final Four.
Question Really?
Answer I had money that every person who picked George Mason actually went to George Mason. That's my call.
Question There were four people?
Answer There were four people, that's the rumor I heard this morning. So that's pretty impressive. But, heck, I'm pulling for them now, know offense to Mr. Noah. That would be quite a story.
Question A question about Davis Cup. You have lost a couple of time with Massu and played several times with Gonzalez. What do you expect from them playing on grass?
Answer You know, we picked the surface because we feel like it suits us best playing against them. I've had a pretty good record over the last couple years on grass, and I feel comfortable on it.
You know, you can take the head-to-head records for what you want, but I think it's a totally different, totally different ballgame on grass.
Question And I remember you being at the Olympics, into the finals, saw the Chileans won. Would you agree with the fact that they rise their level when playing for the country?
Answer I think the most dangerous thing is that they're very good players. You can have guys who are terrible and if they play well for their country, they're still not very good.
But they're very accomplished players, as evidenced by the Olympics, they get up for the challenge of playing for their flag. So that's definitely, you know, a source of caution.
Question Is your confidence feeling like -- are you feeling exactly where you want to be right now?
Answer I felt good about my temperament the last two days, the last two matches. I was, I just tried to relax a little bit more, not try to win, you know, the match in every single point, if that makes sense.
You know, I've done a better job of that and not getting so worked up. You know, just kind of chilling out a little bit and not driving myself crazy, which is a good thing.
Question Is entering the doubles division something that your brother decided to implement in your strategy, or have you always wanted to do it?
Answer No, I mean, it wasn't from Houston. Robby asked and we were both out of Palm Springs pretty early and felt like it might be advantageous to at least get out there and get the feeling of a match a little bit. Neither one of us has been playing great lately.
I think it was more along the lines of just getting match practice in than any new strategy or anything like that.
Question Is he playing today? He was sick last night.
Answer Yeah, he's still pretty sick. We'll see. I don't know if it's looking great, but, you know, I think he has to think about his health first and foremost.
Question Last night he was really bad?
Answer He's still pretty bad from what I hear. I haven't seen him yet today. He's been in bed all day today. I told him not to stress out too much about doubles. I'm more focused on singles anyways.
But, you know, I haven't seen him.
Question Were you supposed to play today?
Answer Yeah.
Question Is that off definitely?
Answer I haven't seen Robby yet. I talked to his coach and he said he's not feeling well. I'm sure we'll discuss it. I, by no means, am going to put any pressure on him to go out, grind through, risk his health, feel terrible. The down side is a lot worse than the up side as far as that goes.

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