Roddick Interview 1/21/07

Q. Five‑set rollercoaster. How would you assess the match?

ANDY RODDICK: I thought it was a pretty high level by both of us. If you look at the stats, I think I was 52 winners and 19 errors; he was 60 winners and 33 errors or something. Both had pretty high first‑serve percentages. I’ve played Mario I think five times now, and that’s definitely the best he’s played against me.

Q. Talk about the fifth set. Gave a semi gift game there, but you hung tough.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing is I didn’t get aced three times that game. I was able to at least get in the points and have a chance at him making an error. Just put the ball in the court, that helped. He missed a couple of volleys maybe he wouldn’t normally miss.

I was happy to put those returns in and at least make him work for it.

Q. You showed great patience. Even when you lost the fourth, a break back. Matter of taking those opportunities against him, given how well he was serving?

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think in the first game of the fourth, I could have probably really put some pressure on him, put the clamps down, if I would have gotten a break there.

When I got broken in the fourth set to lose it, I feel like he beat me in that game. I feel like he came up with the goods. There’s only so much you can do there. I don’t know if there’s a time when I was out there that I felt like I wasn’t hitting the ball that well. It’s a little easier to take the guy playing well and winning points as opposed to kind of blowing them out there.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good match.

Q. You and Mardy go back a long ways, but has taken you a while to play a match at this stage of a major.

ANDY RODDICK: Yeah, we haven’t played in a major, but we played in the finals of a Masters Series event, which is pretty big. You know, I think it’s always a little bit weird when we play each other just ’cause of our history. In high school, he was four steps from the door of my room, the door of his room. It’s always a little weird.

But I think we’re both professional enough to know that when we get out there, we both want to win real bad.

Q. Lendl tried to go from the baseline to the net. He was not able to do it. You seem to be making that transition pretty darn well. Am I accurate or inaccurate?

ANDY RODDICK: I mean, that’s your opinion on Lendl. He won eight Slams from the back. He was doing just fine.

I don’t know. I’m trying. I feel like I’m improving in that aspect. Today I don’t know how big a part of it was. I felt like I was hitting the ball through the court pretty good and he wasn’t giving me a whole lot of short balls to play with. It’s definitely something I feel like I can go to a little bit more if Plan A is not working.

It’s just a process of trying to improve.

Click here to read the full interview at Australian Open’s website.