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ROLAND GARROSJune 2, 2015Roger FedererPARIS, FRANCE S. WAWRINKA/R. Federer THE MODERATOR: Questions in English. Q. How good a display was that by Stan? Have you seen him play better in a slam? ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, he obviously played unbelievable at the Australian Open and some other matches where he's played very well. I don't think this is the first for anybody who has seen Stan play this way. We know he can do this. It's just nice for him now, even talking for him, to string it together on a big occasion like this at the French where I always thought he'd have his best chance to do well. The Australian was a surprise for many, but the French people always thought this is where he would get closer to winning potentially. For him it's obviously great to be in the semis now. Like you said, I thought he played really good tennis out there today. Q. How tough was it to play with this wind today? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, it was tough. Even more so, it's impressive the way Stan was able to play. Q. At one point you were trying to hit the ball really high. Were you trying to slow down the game? ROGER FEDERER: I tried many things. One of them was trying to put it up high. Another one was trying to chip it shorter. Another one was trying to hit through the wind. Obviously I was not going to, you know, leave the French Open without having tried everything out there. So it was tough, you know. Would have loved to have won the breaker, would have loved to come back in the first set, but wasn't so. Stan was clutch on the big points and really didn't give me much, so it was a credit to him for playing so well today. Q. Were you feeling comfortable with your game on this court, or were you maybe lacking your timing, you usual timing, because of the conditions? Because you didn't really look like you could at some point take the lead on to it. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, Stan made it tough, you know. It's partially to do with everything. When you lose there is always a bunch of things, you know. The opponent, the conditions, the court, whatever it is, you know. But it's the same for both guys. In tennis, always one guy has to win and one guy has to lose.  One has got the press conference he dreads; the other one just wants to get through it and do something different. Now it's my turn to explain myself, and sometimes you don't know what to say. It's just better to just let him have a good press conference and forget about me and move on, you know. (Smiling.) Q. Is it difficult if you play a guy, a friend, you know, that you know so well? You have beat him 16 times. Still today you feel that something is missing in your game or is it difficult, as well? ROGER FEDERER: No, I mean, I think I have played a better week than I played here last year. I played more positive tennis. I was feeling the ball better. It wasn't terrible today, but of course I know I can play much better, as well. Like I said, it's a combination of many things where it didn't go well, but mostly it's because of Stan's quality of shot making, forehand, backhand, serving big when he had to. You know, for me it was trying to hang on, trying find a way of making sure the match doesn't go away too quickly. Gaël plays totally differently. He allows you to play a bit more from the baseline. Stan doesn't quite do that, especially when he's red hot like this afternoon. Q. That 3‑All point in the tiebreaker, it looked like you wanted to replay it and the umpire gave the point to Stan. Can you talk about the difficulty of making that call? And also, Serena Williams and Azarenka had a similar situation. They talked about having some kind of a replay for close calls like that. Do you have any thoughts on that? ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I guess I would have to see it again on replay. I hope it wasn't a mistake. And if it was, you know, it was obviously a costly one and a big one for me. But it really doesn't matter how he hit the shot if I was going to miss it anyway. There was a call, and, you know, as I'm hitting it, you know, does it throw you off or not? I don't know. But that's the rules of the game, that if it was during the shot just before that it's being replayed. I hope it was after, for the sake of it. But if not, clearly it's a tough one. But then again, you know, I made 30‑something errors today. He maybe made one maybe. So who cares really right now. Q. I know perhaps it may be a bit too early to look ahead, but do you head into the grass court season with the thought that Wimbledon is your best chance of winning another Grand Slam title? ROGER FEDERER: No, it's never too early. I'm already think what I'm going to do the next few days, because Wimbledon is going to be a big goal for the season. That's where I want to play my best. I'm looking forward to what's coming ahead now. This year is a bit different because we have an extra week. There is nothing really positive about losing today because I don't need the extra days, but I will use them with my family and have a great time with them and recover my body. Looking forward to Halle and then clearly Wimbledon. Big goal for me. I want to win it, and I feel like my game is good. It's been solid, it's been positive, and I have just got to keep it up now. Q. Even if you say that you lost for a combination of facts, do you think return mostly was your weak point today, together with his serve? Because you didn't have any break point in the second and the third. Do you think that is one of the reasons, maybe you were returning a little short or something? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, absolutely. Didn't have a big of enough impact on his second serve. Very disappointing part of the game today. But that also goes hand in hand with him somewhat dominating the baseline. So just couldn't quite get it going there. Conditions were tough, like I said. Maybe it had something to do with that. Factors are many. But I know exactly how Stan serves, so there is no excuse there. I just wasn't good enough today. THE MODERATOR: Questions in French. Q. How disappointing is this loss? It's a quarterfinal match, after all. ROGER FEDERER: You mean to what point is it disappointing to lose? Q. Yes. ROGER FEDERER: Well, there's nothing positive. That is, well, if you look at the whole match, I'd say ‑ which is what I said in English ‑‑ I said, Well, you know, it would have been ideal to win today, which is what Stan is going to do now. He's going to have two days off to be ready for the semis. No, Stan is going to do this, not me. I have other things to do now. As far as this is concerned, you know, of course you're disappointed when you lose. Being a tennis player, losing, I don't know about you, but it's like writing a paper which is a very poor ‑‑well, to say the least‑‑ a very poor paper. And then everybody is going to kill you afterwards. It's the same when you lose one. You know, I would say there is nothing really pleasant in losing. Well, except if people say, This is a wow type of match; we really liked watching it. Then you might say, Okay, that's good. People enjoyed watching the match. That's important, as well. It's important to please people. I think to me it's very important to please them. So, yeah, no, it's a pity. It's a pity I couldn't do better than that. That's what I thought immediately. Then it goes away. Q. I don't know if this is the right time, but could you tell us more about Novak and the match? ROGER FEDERER: Superb match for the tournament. Everybody hoped we would see that. It's a good thing they were really close in the draw, the best opportunity for them to go through or deep, even to the finals. But then, you know, it's six matches, two weeks, you know, we know what can happen in Grand Slams. You can be sick, you can be injured. Many things can happen before. It's a good thing the match is taking place now. I hope it's going to be a good match here for Roland Garros and for both of them. Q. Will you watch this match? ROGER FEDERER: Don't think so. Maybe. No idea. I don't know where I will be tomorrow, tomorrow afternoon. I think not watching TV, but who knows? Who knows? Maybe. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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