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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS MENFebruary 27, 2013Roger FedererDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES R. FEDERER/M. Granollers THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Serious question we should get over first: Did you have any input into the design of your pink shoes? ROGER FEDERER: Did I have any input? I don't know. I approved it. So in the end it's my responsibility, isn't it? (Smiling.) Yeah, I mean, I thought we'd do something fresh early on in the year. I haven't heard too many bad things. I think people quite like it for some reason. I'll probably wear different after tomorrow just to change it up a bit. Q. Certainly can see you coming, anyway? ROGER FEDERER: That's the problem: I come to the net and the guy knows. It ain't good, you know. Definitely not camouflage. (Laughter.) Q. Your timing seemed a lot sharper today. Was that down to calm conditions or your opponent's style of play or just... ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I think it's a combination. I think he plays more of a ‑‑ you know, I mean, yeah, he's a top 50 player. I don't want to say they all play pretty much the same, but we're talking about same speed of movement or shot, you know, of pace from the baseline and so forth. It's what I'm more used to probably; whereas the first opponent, it being the first match, it just threw me off a bit early on. Then it took me some time getting into it. Now looking back, the last four sets have been pretty good, you know, so I'm happy I bounced back after a rough opening first set here in the first round. No, I think I was sharper today. I had a more clear plan now. I knew what I could and couldn't do. So that automatically shaves out or carves out sort of the things you might want to attempt, but then you know they're not really working so let's just not really bother with that today. I think I was just serving a little bit ‑‑I was abit more confident overall. I don't know how to explain. I knew what I wanted to do and I was able to do it, so I'm happy. Q. Davydenko is next. Do you feel that he's not already the same guy as he was in 2011? ROGER FEDERER: Well, we'll find out. He's obviously still a great ball striker. He's always had little margin in his game where he could always play incredible forehand cross, forehand down the line, backhand cross, backhand down the line, and that's what made him so difficult to play against. He didn't really have a favorite pattern. He could take time away and take the ball early. Then he obviously was extremely quick and just tough point in, point out, match in and match out. He played a ton of tournaments. I think when he got injured he was maybe lacking matches, started to lose some confidence, and then obviously the margins are small with the best guys. If you're ranked 5 or 15, you're all of a sudden 45. Not much of a difference anymore. I think he's doing really well to get himself back into opportunities now time and time again. I'll never, you know, disrespect a guy like Nikolay. He's done too much in the game. That's why I know it's a dangerous round next match. And then it almost doesn't matter what has he done in the past. I know what he can do on his absolute best day because I was one of the guys that got crushed by him as well during that time. I expect him to come out and play that way. Q. His game is different than the two players that you've already played. Do you feel that you can adjust somehow to that? Do you need to change your game? ROGER FEDERER: No, I think it's ‑‑I think it's something similar like today, just that he has more power from the baseline. He plays flatter, especially on the forehand side. Then he returns a bit different, you know, to Granollers, especially on the second serve, and then he has a different type of serve. Hard to explain what it is. Yeah, he has his favorite serves and his least favorite. He's had a lot of ups and downs in his career with his serving, so it also depends a little bit how he comes out. He was serving quite different against me at the Australian Open, just making serves early on and then all of a sudden going for it and hitting the spots really well. He can serve really big, but he sometimes chooses not to, maybe because he's looking for rhythm from the baseline. I don't know what the idea is behind it, but it's definitely important for me to play aggressive, because the moment you give Nikolay time, obviously he puts you in a lot of difficult situations. Q. Just going back to the shoes and the attire, I mean, you're obviously a guy that takes a little bit of care about your appearance when you go out and stuff like that. Nike runs everything past you. Have there been many times where you said, No, I don't think so? And if you had to look back, what is your favorite outfit? I remember a few at Wimbledon, long pants and blazer and stuff. ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, at this point now everything that I wear gets run past me except maybe some practice T‑shirts obviously that come from other almost not tennis lines, different lines. But every shoe color, track suit, and so forth, every special item I guess, as well, that I receive like the jacket, for instance, all that stuff gets approved. It's almost a one‑and‑a‑half‑year‑in‑advance sort of planning, so it goes way, you know, way forward. Q. You're already thinking what you're going to wear at Wimbledon next year? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I know already. And then we're talking US Open and fall already. It's because the shops and everybody, you know, wanting to know what they're going to buy from, you know, the Rafa line, my line, and so forth. So it's incredibly ahead of schedule. Sometimes you really make sure you don't miss the deadlines that they tell you, you know, Feedback, please. And you linger around, and next thing it's like, Sorry, too late now. You're like (rapping knuckles on the table), My mistake now. So maybe there you go. You have the stuff you maybe didn't want to wear. Yeah, sometimes I have pushed back on ‑‑they give you initial ideas that you might not like the cut, might not like the collar, might not like the color itself. So, yeah, so we talk a lot at meetings, you know, throughout the year, and then I try to have fun with it, you know. My favorite ‑‑I liked the blazer. That was a big move. I think it was after my third Wimbledon maybe going into my fourth. That's when we wore the blazer. We thought‑‑ Nike thought we should do something fun. I mean, I never wore it to play, obviously, but it was just to walk out. I thought, God, how is that going to look in shorts? I don't know. All I'm trying to do is pay tribute to the former generations of players who have paved the way. At Wimbledon I thought I could do it. Then, you know, sometimes we did it other places as well but then for some reason we got into the routine of always doing stuff at Wimbledon. I thought I should mix it up again because people didn't always like what I did, because I think Murray came along, as well, and they used that to slash me down sometimes. I thought that was not so much fun. I thought, okay, you know what? We don't need to push too hard here. Let's just have some fun with it. We started doing like cricket‑style jumpers which are very nice, as well. We always try to come up with different ideas. It's good to mix it up a bit, I think. Q. You're something of a traditionalist. Would you like it if people just wore white? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I actually thought about that: what if I just wore all white for a year or something? Yeah, but then again we're talking about one‑and‑a‑half years away. Next thing, if I come to Nike and say, Okay, no more colors, all white, I don't know if ‑‑ if I want it and Nike wants it and if the fans would like it, I don't know. But I thought about it, because I read a piece about someone saying that it's a pity that the players don't play more in white. Yeah, it's so true. It's so pure if guys would all just walk out in white. I guess we can push the envelope a little bit in tennis. And I change my outfit 10 to 12 times a year. It's fun. It really is. Not like a soccer player who plays in the same shirts the whole year. It's really fun to mix it up. Q. You have always ‑‑I believe, anyway, you've always maintained the focus on you and sort of the top four. With that in mind, what do you make of the fact that a qualifier and a wildcard are in the last eight, Daniel Brands and Dmitry Tursunov? ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I'm not surprised. Just because he's a qualifier doesn't mean he can't play tennis. I have friends who play quallies. It's a small draw. Let's not forget that, as well. This guy can play top 50 potentially, easily both guys. And Tursunov was I think in the top 30, I'd say, at one point so he's coming back. And it's a quick court. So anything is really possible. I could even see them going a couple of steps further depending on who they play, you know. Even if they play some of top guys, on a good serving day everything falls into place, you can win. That's why where the depth of the men's game is really difficult, you know. Any wildcard or qualifier is a dangerous player to play against. I think that all the players are aware that sometimes the fans or the media like forget how difficult it really is. Sometimes the top four guys, you always feel they'll feel their way but not on a quick court sometimes, you know. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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