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MASTERS SERIES MONTE-CARLO

April 21, 2007

Roger Federer

MONTE-CARLO, MONACO

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You're playing better and better. But you were a little bit in trouble in the first set when you were down 3-1 and he had three breakpoints to go 4-1. Why?
ROGER FEDERER: I think I played okay the first couple of games actually. I mean, I didn't miss much. We were kind of feeling each other out, how aggressive one and the other can play, because we can both play very aggressive.
But he was holding back I thought and just putting the ball into play. I was playing okay, and then I just had a couple games where I started to miss. He went up 3-1 and I was in trouble in the other service game.
But I didn't feel like I was totally out of the match. I just felt like he was playing really steady. It was going in the a direction I didn't like because the ball was just going cross court all the time. It was quite simple, the games.
I tried to mix it up a little bit more after that: Use my slice, come to the net a bit more, play more aggressive and use my forehand, and I was able to play really well after that.
I got on a roll where I won maybe six games in a row or something.

Q. Seven.
ROGER FEDERER: Seven. So I was playing really well from then on. It was a tough match, because Carlos on clay, he's a fantastic player, so it's a big result for me today.

Q. How satisfied are you the way your game has come on this week up until now?
ROGER FEDERER: Good. I think I'm playing good in defense and offense. I'm returning pretty good. Usually for me for some reason that's the hardest part on clay. Should be the easiest because the surface is the slowest, but I've always had issues early on in the clay court season where I just feel that my returns weren't good enough.
But I feel good and I feel like I have options to play on clay. My serve is coming along nicely, too. So, yeah, I'm happy the way I'm playing.

Q. If you go to the final tomorrow with Nadal, what do you feel? Are you sure you're going to play again?
ROGER FEDERER: I didn't --

Q. If you play against Nadal tomorrow for the final, what do you think about it? Do you think -- are you sure he's going to play against you this final again, or you think it's more you --
ROGER FEDERER: Okay. I kind of understand. But, no, I think he is playing excellent, what was to be expected from him on clay. I think the big question was for me last year if he could do it again. After his great season in '05 if he could do it again in '06.
After he proved how incredibly tough he is on clay for me to see that it's not surprising that he's going to play well again. I think it would be interesting to play again. We had some great matches last year. Three phenomenal ones on clay, finals all of them.
It's always fun to see the No. 1 and No. 2 play against each other, and I hope we can live up to the expectations and play a good match. But he first has to win because he has a tough opponent.

Q. Were you unsettled by some noise early on?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, the terrace, they were eating, it's no problem. But it's just that over 7,000 people are watching the match so I just think it would be nice if they showed some more respect to the other fans that are watching the match and also the players.
You can ask once or twice and the third time it's just not so nice anymore to ask all the time. It took a while for them to settle down. Actually they never really did settle down, so that's a little disappointing.

Q. Does it affect your concentration?
ROGER FEDERER: Early on it did maybe a little bit, but I don't want to blame it on that. I was down, you know, but if you're down and you have the noise then it's even more upsetting. It's not because of that though.

End of FastScripts

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