Queen's June 10 2011 - Rafael Nadal

J. TSONGA/R. Nadal

           

6‑7, 6‑4, 6‑1

        

        

RAFAEL NADAL

        

            Q.  What are your thoughts on that?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  My thoughts was I didn't play bad at the beginning, no?  He was serving really well.  Second set I had my chances, in my opinion.

            Probably after losing second set mentally I lost my concentration.  First game mentally a little bit tired.  A lot of matches in a row.

            And after that, you know, with the break in the third it was a mountain for me to come back into the match.  Probably I wasn't there like usual, but certainly I think I need a little bit of break.

            Q.  You missed an easy volley at the net on game point.

            RAFAEL NADAL:  Not an easy volley.  It was a dropshot.  It wasn't a volley.

            Terrible mistake for that moment after he played a good return.  He played well.  He played well.  And I didn't play every point if was the last like I do usual, and for that reason the third set was tough.

            Q.  Is that because you're tired mentally and physically, as well?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  A little bit of everything, no?  I had a tough Roland Garros.  I had tough clay court season.  American season was two finals, too.  So I played all the matches possible this last four or five months, so is fantastic my result last five months, very happy for everything.

            Yeah, I came here.  I tried in all the moments.  So I tried in doubles, I tried in singles, I tried to practice hard.  Hopefully it was good preparation for me.

            Sorry for the tournament because I had my chance to be in the semifinals, but it wasn't possible today.

            Q.  How long will you rest?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  I don't know yet.  I just lost five minutes ago.  I don't know.

            Q.  Do you think you'll go back home for a few days?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  I'm sure.

            Q.  You must be looking forward to that.

            RAFAEL NADAL:  That's important for me, yeah?  Always be there with the family around, the friends and everything, having people close to me.

            So I need few days to be with them and hopefully come back full to Wimbledon probably next Wednesday or Thursday; Wednesday, I think.

            Q.  Is it concerning at all or is it also good that you got a couple of extra days off?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  Negative thing is I lost; positive thing is I have few days off and can stop a little bit mentally.  I can be a little bit more relaxed, because every day ‑‑ I play every day with pressure.  Wake up every day with that pressure that you have to play is not easy, and that's what happened for me last four months every day.

            Q.  Will you touch a tennis racquet when you go home?     

RAFAEL NADAL:  Do some physical performance.  I don't think so.  I don't have grass courts there.  Have maybe some serves, yes.  But rest of the things, nothing.

            Q.  What is the one thing, Rafa, you will look forward to doing most when you go home?  What will be the best thing about being at home for a few days?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  Be with the friends, be with the family, play some golf, relax, go fishing maybe.  That's relaxing, too.  You know, have a little bit of distraction mentally, think of other things, not tennis.

            Q.  Do you find it hard to switch off, to not think about tennis?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  You know, it's tough when ‑‑ is impossible when you have Wimbledon next week, that's for sure, but try to do different things to be ready for Wimbledon, that's true.

            Q.  Are you confident you can recharge your batteries?  Are you confident that you can recharge your batteries before Wimbledon?

            RAFAEL NADAL:  Yes.  I am very confident.  I didn't know if I will play well, but I gonna be there with high motivation and hopefully in perfect performance physically.

Queen's June 10 2011 - Andy Roddick

A. RODDICK/F. Verdasco

           

6‑2, 6‑2

        

        

ANDY RODDICK

            Q.  It has been one of those days, hasn't it?  You have to just get through it the best you can, and you did a pretty good job of it?

            ANDY RODDICK:  Yeah.  You know, you can't really act surprised when you get a day like that.  It is what it is.  But I was happy the way it went when I was out there.

            Q.  Can you talk about playing Andy?  Of course Wimbledon when you beat him, can you talk about that and facing him again?

            ANDY RODDICK:  Anything in particular or...

            Q.  Generalize it, about playing him again.

            ANDY RODDICK:  I mean, you know it's going to be tough.  I don't think there's going to be a lot of surprises either way.  I feel like, you know, we're probably in the two hands' worth of guys that really feel comfortable on this surface and feel like they can play well on it.

            You know, it's certainly going to be tough.  He's played a lot of matches.  He's playing well.  It's going to be a tough one for sure.

            Q.  What are your memories of that match, the Wimbledon semi?

            ANDY RODDICK:  You know, it was obviously a great result for me, especially on the heels of the way he was playing at that moment.

            You know, I remember people were talking about the Murray/Roger final already.  You know, I had to play well to beat him, though.  I had to play one of my best matches, and, you know, that's a credit to his level where it is consistently.

            Q.  But tactically you really appeared to have it all worked out that day.

            ANDY RODDICK:  Maybe.  I mean, if there's a point difference and we're in the fifth set, you know, that didn't go my way, we're talking about how I might need to change my tactics.

            You know, a lot of us know how to play a match.  You know, you guys can probably see how to play a match.  The difference is we're able to execute it sometimes, you know.

            The difference between the top guys is there's ‑‑ you know, you make it a numbers game and you kind of decrease ‑‑ the person has to be perfect in that certain percentage of opportunity.  You know, the top players, I think they give you less of an opportunity and you have to come up big when you do get it.

            Q.  How would you describe your rivalry with him?

            ANDY RODDICK:  I mean, I don't know.  We haven't played in a couple of years, so, you know...

            Q.  I mean, he was saying earlier that you had a fairly fiery one in your younger days.

            ANDY RODDICK:  Oh, sure.  Yeah, I mean, I think we get along fine.  You know, I certainly respect the work that he puts in.

            You know, if you've gotten into it and been intense on court, I mean, I don't ‑‑ I don't even pay two minds to that.  That happens with a lot of guys.

            Q.  If you look back at the 2006 match at Wimbledon ‑ I know you played him once, twice before ‑ would it be right to say that's the first time you really appreciated what a major talent he would be?

            ANDY RODDICK:  No, I think I had lost to him before that.  Normally when you're in the losing end you can appreciate the talent.

            No, I mean, I think the buzz was already out there.  It seems to be the guys that end up in the top, you know, 3, 4, 5 consistently, they're very good when they're ‑‑ they're already putting up results when they're 18 years old.  You don't see a lot of them developing late.  Andy was certainly a case ‑‑ I mean, he had a good sense of the court from a very young age.

            Q.  Talking about tactics, have you had to adapt a little bit on grass because it isn't perhaps the benefactor for your kind of game that it used to be?  You have to think different ways and play it different ways if you're going to succeed even on a grass court?

            ANDY RODDICK:  Yeah, well, not so much ‑‑ I don't have to do it as much.  You know, there's a lot of talk that it is pretty much impossible to serve and volley on the second serve, but that's not something that I've done a lot.  My chip stays down still.  No matter how slow it is, it still bounces low.

            You know, there are some adjustments to be made.  You know, you wish it was, you know, played a little bit more like a fast court more often, but you know, some of that is weather‑dependent, too.  We haven't had a real warm week.  It's naturally going to make it a bit slow, I think.

Queen's June 10 2011 - Andy Murray

ANDY MURRAY

        

      

           Q.  What have you done today?  Have you hit at all?

            ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I hit for about 50 minutes outside, and then I hit indoors for about 20, 30 minutes and then did some ankle exercises, saw the physio, and going to leave as soon as I'm done.

            Q.  I guess you would have preferred to play?

            ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I would have rather played today, obviously, got another match on the grass.  It wasn't to be.  I just have to take this day as a rest day, which in some ways is probably a good thing.

            Yeah, get ready for tomorrow.

            Q.  When did you hear he pulled out, at what stage?

            ANDY MURRAY:  I was warming up indoors and he came and hit on the court next to me for like two minutes, and then he came over and just said, like, I'm not going to be able to play.  I hurt, he said to me, his knee yesterday.  He had quite a lot of tape on his knee.

            I think he slipped on the grass and said it was really sore today just when I was warming up.

            Q.  I thought they said it was his ankle.

            ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I don't know.  Knee and ankle, I think.  He did slip.  He said he went over on his ankle and also hurt his knee, too.  So I don't know what his reason ‑‑ I mean, he hurt his leg.  That was it.  It looked like he was struggling to move, and even walking looked sore.  So good decision.

            Q.  With respect to what's happened today, you and Rafa have had good runouts, but obviously Novak and Roger haven't been playing.  Is there a chance they could turn up at Wimbledon slightly undercooked?

            ANDY MURRAY:  I wouldn't have thought so.  I mean, I prefer to try and play matches beforehand.  You know, like going into Australia the last few years, I've always gone in there having played only at the Hopman Cup, you know, which is an exhibition.

            Novak did that, as well, at the Australian Open.  Obviously played some of his best tennis there.

            I don't think ‑‑ I'm sure they'll play some matches and some exhibitions to get themselves better, but it's good to get a few competitive matches on the grass first.

            Q.  And Roddick?

            ANDY MURRAY:  Obviously tough match.  He plays very well on grass.  His best surface, I think.  I think he's played pretty solid.

            I think he had a good win today.  I didn't really see any of it, but 2 and 2 against Verdasco is a very solid score.  I have to play well to win against him.

            He obviously serves very well, so it will be important for me to serve well myself and not give him too many opportunities.

            Q.  Did you get a chance to see any of James Ward's games or have you spoken to him?

            ANDY MURRAY:  No.  He was just finishing warming up when I went on to warm up, so we'll see what the schedule ‑‑ it's changing quite a lot.  We got moved onto Court 1, and I was going to go on immediately following his set, so it could have been 20, 25 minutes after him.  So I was warming up while his match was going on and didn't get to see any of it.

            Q.  Were you quite impressed that he managed to finish that off?

            ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, it was good.  You know, obviously ‑‑ well, it's always tough coming back the following day.  You know, it's never easy.

            I think he was in quite a good position last night.  I don't know.  I heard that Querrey hurt his arm last night.  I don't know if there was something wrong or not, but then, yeah, I was told it got called off pretty early, too.

            So it was good that he managed to come out and finish it off and has a good opportunity I think in the next match.

            Q.  Last time you played Roddick was in the semifinals at Wimbledon.  Looking back at that, it was a very close match wasn't it?  Two tiebreaks to settle it at the end.  In your career, how bad was that defeat?

            ANDY MURRAY:  He was playing some of the best tennis of his life.  I felt like I still could have played better.  It was disappointing, obviously, but he was playing unbelievably well.

            He served great I think in that match in particular.  He served a really high percentage of first serves.  Served very well.

            Yeah, like I say, grass is his best surface.  He always normally always plays well at Wimbledon.  He's had three finals, I think.  So he's one of the best grass court players in the world.

            Q.  You came in wondering if you were going to play this tournament.  You would have signed for the semifinals?

            ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, I wanted to play matches.  So, yeah, the first two matches were tough, as well.  They weren't easy grass court matches.  They both ‑‑ both guys, Malisse and Tipsarevic both play well on the grass, so it was good to come through against those two.

            Obviously now will be a good test to see where my game is at against Roddick and look forward to it.  I felt like I played better in the last round.  Ideally I would have liked to play today to get another match, but look forward to tomorrow.

            Q.  Roddick is a big step up, isn't he?

            ANDY MURRAY:  Yeah, it is.  Like I say, he obviously serves very well.  I mean, he's been around the top of the game for a good ten years now probably.  Very, very tough match.

            Q.  Some people watching your matches against Roddick in the past feel there is an extra edge between you and him on the court.  Is that something you feel, or is it just another opponent and another match for you?

            ANDY MURRAY:  I have never felt it.  Maybe early on in our careers a little bit.  I'm sure he would ‑‑ well, I think both of us were probably more fiery quite a few years ago.

            But yeah.  I mean, I've always got on well with him off the court.  Used to practice with him quite a lot.  Maybe when I was working with Brad it was probably a bit more intense, because he obviously worked with Brad, as well.  But, yeah, last few years I haven't felt that at all.

            Q.  What do you think about Serena and Venus coming back, and how well do you think they'll do?  Serena, especially.

            ANDY MURRAY:  I mean, you'd expect Serena to do well.  I think that she's always played maybe better than Venus after layoffs, I think.

            But yeah.  You never know.  You never know.  I don't know what shape she's in.  I don't know what shape Venus is in.  But they've always played probably their best tennis on the grass.  They both serve very well.

            Yeah, I don't know.  I don't know how they'll do, but it will be interesting.  I think it's always good for the game when they're playing, and they're always interesting to watch.