Q. It seemed to go pretty well at the start, and then it all went to hell after the start of the third set, particularly that third set.
Yeah, he played a perfect third set. But, I had a long game on my serve. Maybe if I had won that maybe it would have been a bit different.
I had the momentum there, and I didn't go with it. I've got to give a lot of credit to him. I played against him before and he hits the ball hard, but today he was hitting it huge.
And, you know, it's quite easy sort of sitting to the side to sort of look and think, you know, oh, you could have done this; you could have done that. The guy is hitting ball so hard. I mean, no one's hit the ball that big.
If that happens, sometimes you've got to say, Too good. But, you know, there's a couple of things, like I said, start of the third set I was disappointed with. I had a few chances there to hold serve and didn't take them, and then at the end of the match I played a poor, poor game and when I broke back, which is not like me.
Because I got myself back into the match there and played four bad points. It was a good week, couple of weeks.
Q. What was it in particular that surprised you about him?
Nothing surprised me. I mean, you know how the guy plays. I've watched a lot of his matches. He's been around a long time. Well, you can ask him when he comes up. I thought he hit his forehand great. He made very few errors off it.
Maybe I hit a few too many balls to his forehand. But, you know, his one‑two punch off his serve and the forehand today was pretty impressive.
Q. You knew you were going to have to deal with that forehand. Did you have any specific tactic to try andevade it or play it or play the backhand all the time? What was your mindset going in?
No, I mean, it's stuff that you can try and do. You can hit the ball short to his forehand side, because normally he's waiting on the backhand side to runaround and hit it.
If you look at some of the shots he's hit, he's hitting forehands from like a meter wide of the tram line on some points and hitting winners off them.
Even if you try to hit a ball to his backhand, then he makes his sort of mind up that actually I want to hit a forehand on this shot, and he runs around and spanks a winner. You can't do a whole lot with it.
There's obviously things that you try to do to help. But against all the good players, they can sometimes come up with great shots.
Q. Do you think you were beaten by a better clay‑court player today, or just a better player on the day?
His results on clay have been a lot better than mine. He has more experience and won tournaments on it. Yeah, I guess he's a better clay‑court player.
But I still think I had my chances and didn't take them, and he came up with some big shots when he needed to. That's why he won, and he deserved to.
Q. Can you just give us your verdict on the tournament as a whole? Clay court season?
It's been very good for me, a lot better than previous years. I stayed injury‑free. Physically I felt good on the court. I thought I moved better. You know, I had good results.
I mean, it's not like, you know, the Nadal results or whatever. But, next year I can improve a round or so each tournament, or, you know, not have one early loss and consistently getting to the end ofthe tournaments. That would be good.
I'm happy with the way the clay court season went. It could have been a lot worse, that's for sure.
Q. Your defense against him was really good the first two sets, and you got to a lot ofhis forehands. Does it wear you downwhen he keeps coming up, and is that the biggest forehand in tennis? Is it just relentless?
Yeah, his forehand is the biggest. I mean ‑‑ yeah, I think it is. I mean he, yeah, can hit winners fromanywhere on the court. That's why it's dangerous. Some guys can hit huge forehands when they're in the middle the court. Some guys hit huge forehand returns.
But he can hit huge forehand returns. He hits it great on the run. He can hit his forehand from anywhere on the court. That's why it's very dangerous.
But, you know, it's not like ‑‑ it didn't wear me down. Physically there wasn't any issues there. I just got myself back into the match in the fourth set and didn't quite take my opportunities when I had them.
I didn't hit my backhand particularly well today, which is normally one of my best shots.
Q. Everyone'stalking about what an open tournament it is now. But another guy, South American that we'restill not hearing much about is Del Potro. Do you think he is a legitimate threat to win this tournament?
Um, yeah, I mean, he's not got that much experience in the end of Slams, but he's obviously confident. He's playing well. He's got a very poor record againstFederer. I don't think he's ever won aset against him.
May be a huge struggle if he plays Roger. Roger struggled in alot of his matches here, as well. He's probably feeling, you know, the pressure of this being his chance to win theFrench.
Yeah, anything can happen. I think that's what's great about Slams. It has been slightly predictable the last few years, but I think tennis this year has seen a big change.
Q. You were relatively demonstrative emotionally at times. Do you feel like there were any moments whenyou were not as much emotionally in control as you would want to be? And when were those moments?
No, I always felt like I was in control of my emotions. But sometimes, at the beginning of the second set ‑‑ sorry, beginning of the third set, I didn't really say a whole lot.
Then I tried to fire myself up early in the beginning of the fourth. Like I say, I managed to start playing better, but I don't think it was anything to do with emotions why ‑‑ or whether I would have won or lost the match.
That's something that hasn't been any issue. It's all for the last year or so.
Q. Usually a Brit would be the first to ask a question about Wimbledon, but I'm just wondering, when you go there after you play on clay, what's your impression when you change from the grass to here?
Normally I have a lot longer to prepare onthat than I had this year, so I might find that a little bit tougher, you know,at Queen's or what not.
But, no, the thing that's different is just the height that the ball bounces at is the main thing,obviously, here. Some of the kick serves and stuff are getting up like way, way, way, way above your head.
On grass, it's always coming through nice and low. It's kinda sore on the hamstrings the first few days. I don't know, it's just something you ‑‑ you have to hit it ‑‑well, you don't have to, but I try and hit a flatter ball, obviously, on grass.
That's the one big change. You don't hit a whole lot of flat shots onthe clay.
Q. Good clay court season like this, does this set you up, give you more momentum going into the grass court season than perhaps you had before?
Well, I mean the year as a whole has been by far up to this stage my best so far. I've won a lot of matches, a lot more matches on clay this year than I had in the past probably ‑‑ I probably won double the amount of matches that I had won in my life on clay before this stretch.
I don't feel likeI'm going to be rusty at all going into the grass, because obviously I played alot and still feel confident. It's not like a match like this is going to, you know, I'm going to sort of get downabout it or anything.
I'll just go and improve and work on somethings the next week or so, and hopefully be playing well on the grass.
Q. Were you aware that you could become No. 2 in the world in this tournament?
Yeah, I knew ‑‑ I didn't know the exact ins and outs of how I would have got there. I know if I won the tournament I would have gone to 2, and that was the one thing you try and focus on.
It's sometimes quite easy to sort of wait for guys to lose and stop focusing on your own matches. I was just trying to win my own matches. I had the chance, but obviously not now.
Yeah, he played a perfect third set. But, I had a long game on my serve. Maybe if I had won that maybe it would have been a bit different.
I had the momentum there, and I didn't go with it. I've got to give a lot of credit to him. I played against him before and he hits the ball hard, but today he was hitting it huge.
And, you know, it's quite easy sort of sitting to the side to sort of look and think, you know, oh, you could have done this; you could have done that. The guy is hitting ball so hard. I mean, no one's hit the ball that big.
If that happens, sometimes you've got to say, Too good. But, you know, there's a couple of things, like I said, start of the third set I was disappointed with. I had a few chances there to hold serve and didn't take them, and then at the end of the match I played a poor, poor game and when I broke back, which is not like me.
Because I got myself back into the match there and played four bad points. It was a good week, couple of weeks.
Q. What was it in particular that surprised you about him?
Nothing surprised me. I mean, you know how the guy plays. I've watched a lot of his matches. He's been around a long time. Well, you can ask him when he comes up. I thought he hit his forehand great. He made very few errors off it.
Maybe I hit a few too many balls to his forehand. But, you know, his one‑two punch off his serve and the forehand today was pretty impressive.
Q. You knew you were going to have to deal with that forehand. Did you have any specific tactic to try andevade it or play it or play the backhand all the time? What was your mindset going in?
No, I mean, it's stuff that you can try and do. You can hit the ball short to his forehand side, because normally he's waiting on the backhand side to runaround and hit it.
If you look at some of the shots he's hit, he's hitting forehands from like a meter wide of the tram line on some points and hitting winners off them.
Even if you try to hit a ball to his backhand, then he makes his sort of mind up that actually I want to hit a forehand on this shot, and he runs around and spanks a winner. You can't do a whole lot with it.
There's obviously things that you try to do to help. But against all the good players, they can sometimes come up with great shots.
Q. Do you think you were beaten by a better clay‑court player today, or just a better player on the day?
His results on clay have been a lot better than mine. He has more experience and won tournaments on it. Yeah, I guess he's a better clay‑court player.
But I still think I had my chances and didn't take them, and he came up with some big shots when he needed to. That's why he won, and he deserved to.
Q. Can you just give us your verdict on the tournament as a whole? Clay court season?
It's been very good for me, a lot better than previous years. I stayed injury‑free. Physically I felt good on the court. I thought I moved better. You know, I had good results.
I mean, it's not like, you know, the Nadal results or whatever. But, next year I can improve a round or so each tournament, or, you know, not have one early loss and consistently getting to the end ofthe tournaments. That would be good.
I'm happy with the way the clay court season went. It could have been a lot worse, that's for sure.
Q. Your defense against him was really good the first two sets, and you got to a lot ofhis forehands. Does it wear you downwhen he keeps coming up, and is that the biggest forehand in tennis? Is it just relentless?
Yeah, his forehand is the biggest. I mean ‑‑ yeah, I think it is. I mean he, yeah, can hit winners fromanywhere on the court. That's why it's dangerous. Some guys can hit huge forehands when they're in the middle the court. Some guys hit huge forehand returns.
But he can hit huge forehand returns. He hits it great on the run. He can hit his forehand from anywhere on the court. That's why it's very dangerous.
But, you know, it's not like ‑‑ it didn't wear me down. Physically there wasn't any issues there. I just got myself back into the match in the fourth set and didn't quite take my opportunities when I had them.
I didn't hit my backhand particularly well today, which is normally one of my best shots.
Q. Everyone'stalking about what an open tournament it is now. But another guy, South American that we'restill not hearing much about is Del Potro. Do you think he is a legitimate threat to win this tournament?
Um, yeah, I mean, he's not got that much experience in the end of Slams, but he's obviously confident. He's playing well. He's got a very poor record againstFederer. I don't think he's ever won aset against him.
May be a huge struggle if he plays Roger. Roger struggled in alot of his matches here, as well. He's probably feeling, you know, the pressure of this being his chance to win theFrench.
Yeah, anything can happen. I think that's what's great about Slams. It has been slightly predictable the last few years, but I think tennis this year has seen a big change.
Q. You were relatively demonstrative emotionally at times. Do you feel like there were any moments whenyou were not as much emotionally in control as you would want to be? And when were those moments?
No, I always felt like I was in control of my emotions. But sometimes, at the beginning of the second set ‑‑ sorry, beginning of the third set, I didn't really say a whole lot.
Then I tried to fire myself up early in the beginning of the fourth. Like I say, I managed to start playing better, but I don't think it was anything to do with emotions why ‑‑ or whether I would have won or lost the match.
That's something that hasn't been any issue. It's all for the last year or so.
Q. Usually a Brit would be the first to ask a question about Wimbledon, but I'm just wondering, when you go there after you play on clay, what's your impression when you change from the grass to here?
Normally I have a lot longer to prepare onthat than I had this year, so I might find that a little bit tougher, you know,at Queen's or what not.
But, no, the thing that's different is just the height that the ball bounces at is the main thing,obviously, here. Some of the kick serves and stuff are getting up like way, way, way, way above your head.
On grass, it's always coming through nice and low. It's kinda sore on the hamstrings the first few days. I don't know, it's just something you ‑‑ you have to hit it ‑‑well, you don't have to, but I try and hit a flatter ball, obviously, on grass.
That's the one big change. You don't hit a whole lot of flat shots onthe clay.
Q. Good clay court season like this, does this set you up, give you more momentum going into the grass court season than perhaps you had before?
Well, I mean the year as a whole has been by far up to this stage my best so far. I've won a lot of matches, a lot more matches on clay this year than I had in the past probably ‑‑ I probably won double the amount of matches that I had won in my life on clay before this stretch.
I don't feel likeI'm going to be rusty at all going into the grass, because obviously I played alot and still feel confident. It's not like a match like this is going to, you know, I'm going to sort of get downabout it or anything.
I'll just go and improve and work on somethings the next week or so, and hopefully be playing well on the grass.
Q. Were you aware that you could become No. 2 in the world in this tournament?
Yeah, I knew ‑‑ I didn't know the exact ins and outs of how I would have got there. I know if I won the tournament I would have gone to 2, and that was the one thing you try and focus on.
It's sometimes quite easy to sort of wait for guys to lose and stop focusing on your own matches. I was just trying to win my own matches. I had the chance, but obviously not now.
