Queen's June 11 2011 - Andy Roddick

A. MURRAY/A. Roddick

           

6‑3, 6‑1

        

ANDY RODDICK

        

            THE MODERATOR:  Questions, please.

            Q.  Is that the best he's played against you?

            ANDY RODDICK:  Oh, yeah, yeah.  I mean, he played great.  I felt like I hit the ball well.  My serve ‑‑ I have my serving stats.  I haven't seen it, but I had to be close to 70%.

            I remember missing one second‑serve return.  I felt like I missed a bunch of chips and stuff by an inch or two.

            It certainly does nothing to my confidence level going into Wimbledon.  I mean, I just thought he played too good today.  Everything he touched turned to gold.  Yeah, it's just ‑‑ he was too good for me today.

            Q.  When someone is playing like that, do you just get a feeling halfway through that there's nothing you can really do?

            ANDY RODDICK:  No.  I mean ‑‑ yeah.  You also say, Okay, you're halfway through, but if he's going to do this, let's make him finish it out like that.

            You know, we have seen a million times guys start off hot.  It's tougher when the top guys do it.  They have more substance behind it.  But you just stick it out.  I mixed it up.  I tried going in at different sides.  You try different things.

            He was too solid today.  He just played better than I did.

            Q.  What has he particularly improved the last two years, would you say, in his game?

            ANDY RODDICK:  Well, let's calm down.  He won two years ago before I played him.  You guys were having the same exact article you're gonna write tomorrow.

            Let's not act like ‑‑ he played great today.  He played great today.  He played really well.

            He played a lot better today than when we played two years ago, but, you know, let's not act like it's, you know, a completely night‑and‑day type thing.  The guy was still 3 in the world two years ago.

            Q.  Is the court the same as it was two years ago?  It just didn't seem the pace...

            ANDY RODDICK:  I thought it was actually quicker today, to be honest.  He's one of the best in the world taking and controlling paces.  He's very good at, you know, slow, slow, slow, and then he's able to strike.  And he had ‑‑ he had really good ball control today.  I felt like he was working it wherever he wanted to.

            Like I said, I felt like I played fine.  I felt like I hit the ball fine.  Yeah, he played really well today.

            Q.  If or when Andy Murray wins a Grand Slam, where do you think it will be?

            ANDY RODDICK:  I don't know.  Guys, I'm not in the business of predictions.  That's you guys.  I don't ‑‑ it just didn't ‑‑ I don't know.  I feel like I'm cheating the process if I start throwing out stuff like that.

            Q.  Can you confirm what you said in the last game to the crowd?  Was it "Keep it social"?

            ANDY RODDICK:  It was.  Good ears.

            Q.  Would you say that grass is as good as ‑‑ if you're playing him, grass is as tough a surface as any to play him on?

            ANDY RODDICK:  Guys, he's made two finals in Australia on a hard court.  I know you guys are looking for an angle here.  He played great today.  That's what I can comment on.

            As far as comparing percentages between a hard court and a grass court and if and when and how, I don't know.  He played great today.

            Q.  What did you get out of the week yourself?

            ANDY RODDICK:  I mean, it's night and day I think coming in and leaving.  I felt really good when I got here, but after having not, you know, played/played well for two months or so, getting that to translate wasn't always an easy thing.

            I thought I played well.  Got four matches, which is really important, and I feel ‑‑ I feel prepared going into the practice week for Wimbledon, so it was a good week for me.

            Q.  Lendl got to a point in his career where he didn't play the French because he wanted to really be up for Wimbledon.  Can you see where he was coming from and could that ever be you?

            ANDY RODDICK:  No, I don't think so.  I think his was a little different.  I think that was the one that he hadn't won.  I certainly have options.  (Laughter.)

            You know, I don't think that's the case.  For me, not playing the French this year was ‑‑ it was a matter of priority.  You know, I said, Okay.  Am I going to take a six‑day, seven‑day injury and turn it into potentially six to seven weeks with Wimbledon around the corner, with Davis Cup against Spain in my home town, which I tried really hard to get?  I want to make sure I'm 100% healthy for those.  What's my best chance of being healthy for those?

            I think I made the right decision.  Obviously it's tough when something's got to give and you don't want it to, but that was my reasoning.  I don't think I was along the lines of Lendl in my decision‑making there.

            Q.  Andy said yesterday he thought grass was your best surface.  Do you agree with that, or do you prefer hard?

            ANDY RODDICK:  I like both.  I think grass is my favorite surface just because we never get to play on it.  So I really, you know, enjoy when we do.  I enjoy the city that the grass courts are in.

            You know, I think all that makes it probably one of my favorite months of the year being over here. But, you know, I feel comfortable on a hard court, as well.

            Q.  You have a lot of support out there, as you always do because you're a big favorite here.  When you play him on a court there, when you play him at Wimbledon, do you get the sense that he has yet caught the British imagination in the way that Henman did?  Or is that...

            ANDY RODDICK:  You guys gave Henman a hard time up until he was three years retired.  You're forgetting you're trying to tell me a story, but I was actually there for the Henman years.

            Q.  I'm talking about the public, not us.

            ANDY RODDICK:  You guys are kind of the connection between this room and the public.  I mean, you know, a lot of times you guys help form the opinions, you know.  You know, I certainly look out on Henman Hill when he was playing, when Murray was playing, and there's great support.

            I mean, there is certainly a hunger for a Wimbledon title here.  It's amazing how when it comes to quarters and semis how he captures the imagination more and more and more.

            He's quite a talent.

            Q.  What about yourself?  Would you...

            ANDY RODDICK:  I'm quite a talent, too.  (Laughter.)

            Q.  Do you feel that there are quite I few things you still need to work on, or is it just a matter of touching up and fine‑tuning?

            ANDY RODDICK:  I think fine‑tuning more so than inventing the wheel next week.  Again, I think he did a lot right today.  I don't think I did a whole lot wrong.  Maybe just execution on a couple balls, but I can think of two or three maybe, you know, so I feel good going into the off week.

            Q.  At this stage in your career, what's the difference going into a tournament like Wimbledon as one of the seeds outside of the top 4?  Does that affect your mentality at all?

            ANDY RODDICK:  More counting?  Counting to 4 is easier than counting to 8 or 9?

            I'm not sure.  For me, it's similar.  I mean, there is more of you here talking ‑‑ or there's less of you here talking.  I might not get called for a pre‑ Wimbledon press conference this year.

            You know, stuff like that.  But nothing that really matters once I think you get inside the lines too much. 

           

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.