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ROGERS MASTERSAugust 9, 2007Novak DjokovicMONTREAL, QUEBEC THE MODERATOR: Questions for Novak. Q. Any preference tonight on your opponent? You have Roddick, obviously, the higher seed. Fun for you to play him. NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I never played against Roddick, so it would be probably a new experience, interesting match. But first, of course, he has to overcome the very difficult opponent: Marcos Baghdatis, who we all know played finals of Australian Open and semis of Wimbledon. So he had a couple of really great results. He's already a couple years on the tour. He's very talented, very good groundstrokes player. It's going to be interesting to see their match today. But, you know, whoever wins, for me it's going to be difficult, for sure. But I'm feeling really confident right now playing on the hard courts, which is obviously my favorite surface, and the most successful surface. Today I played some really impressive tennis. First match was also good, but still I was trying to get used to the conditions. You know, I tried yesterday, I won my first-round doubles match, and I had a day off for singles. I was trying to practice and improve on some things, and get all the things together for today, which I managed to do. I'm really happy about it, and looking forward to the next challenge. Q. Seems like you like the surface here. Some of the players have said it's one of the faster courts. Are you starting to like it, get the feel of it, high bounces? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Yes. As I said, you really need to always get couple of days of adaption and conditions and service. Even though it's hard court, as well, as it is in Indian Wells, Miami or Cincinnati, US Open, every of those tournaments, every court is different. These courts are pretty fast - one of the faster ones. You don't get to see any more so much fast hard courts. It's mostly slower ones with the higher bounce. And here, it's pretty fast, and the ball bounces, you know, still -- you know, still bounces high. I can say that it fits to my game. It's really good. I mean, you can play from the baseline and get a good rally, and still it's getting really fast. So I'm feeling comfortable. Q. You have a pretty nice ranking right now. Do you believe you can improve it? When? When do you believe is going to be the first Grand Slam? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, you know, it's a difficult task to talk about, you know, when I'm going to win my first Grand Slam. Q. When do you think? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I don't actually intend to think about me winning a Grand Slam in next, I don't know, 12 months or, I don't know, two years. Just try to go slowly, you know, step by step and try to get all the things together, get the best possible team which is around me so I can get my game to the perfection and improve on some things. Which, I know what I need to improve on, so it's a positive thing for the future. And I am still I'm 20 years old. I reached the third place of the world. Now I'm the No. 4. But I'm still there on the top. You know, I really didn't expect to rise so fast. But now, since I'm here, I know that I have enough quality to be there, and I know that I deserve to be there. Q. Your coach is from Slovakia. What kind of influence does he have on your game? How does he help you? Do you fight sometimes? Did you play some matches with him? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, obviously, we don't work for such a long time. We just work something more than over a year. For this short period of the time, we managed to do some great things together. You know, in the time I started working with him, I was around 60, 70 in the world. And after a year, now I'm No. 4 in the world. I was No. 3 last week. So, I mean, it's a fantastic success and achievement for both of us. If we don't have a good relation between each other, I don't think that I would make -- I would be so successful on the court. So he was a great player himself. He was around 30 in the world. He was on the tour for a long time, 10, 15 years. He used to work with Hrbaty and Kucera. You know, he has experience as a player and as a coach. So he probably had quite a lot of influence on me. Q. Your friend, Ana Ivanovic, won here last year. It was a breakthrough for her. Obviously you're not in the same situation because you're already a top five player. Since you're saying you play with a lot of confidence right now, are you looking to make it two in a row for Serbia in Montréal? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Why not (smiling)? Let's keep the tradition going. Again, it's not a same situation. But, you know, it would be very nice to see that I'm the new champion here. But it's still a long way to go. I'm three matches away. Opponents are getting tougher and tougher. Q. Did you feel also that confident or the same level of confidence when you won in Miami? Do you feel as good or even better at that point of the tournament compared to the Masters Series you won earlier this year? NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, I did feel really confident there. I didn't lose a set since the start of the tournament. That was the best tournament of my career. You know, I can start to compare it a little bit because my start here, my first two matches, were really impressive with the way I played. I feel really confident and very comfortable with all those conditions. As I said, the courts are really suitable to my game. So, you know, I hope I'm going to finish the way I finished Miami. But, you know, as I said, it's still long way to go. End of FastScripts |
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