Interview with Roger Federer

Written by: Staff on 10th June 2010

Interview with Roger Federer |

The following is a press interview with Roger Federer following his 6-4, 6-4 victory against Jarkki Nieminen at the at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.

Q: Are you happy to be back on grass?

FEDERER: Sure, it’s always nice. I think that any surface change actually has something nice about it. Grass is the most special one because we only play one month on it. So, every day you get a chance to play on this surface is somewhat a special day, because it’s so rare and it’s so different to the other ones. I feel it’s something you want to savour as long as you are on the surface.

Q: Did you watch the final on Sunday?

FEDERER: No, I was practicing.

Q: Were you rooting for the Swedish guy?

FEDERER: No, the better one wins. My call was that Raffa would win in straight sets, which he did. He was the best by far this year on clay from the start in Monaco, or there were even Davis Cup matches in February. He didn’t lose a set as far as I remember. So, he completely deserved the French Open as well.

Q: The past 52 weeks you won two Grand Slams and made one final and the guy, who is No. 1, won only one Grand Slam. Do you think the ranking system is fair?

FEDERER: Well, I think it’s fair but tough. You can’t always predict how long do I want to be No. 1 in the world. It’s something that comes and goes very quickly. It’s tough on the player that rankings change so quickly and so drastically sometimes. We’ve gotten accustomed to me or Raffa, but especially me, is number one in the world, it’s pretty easy to stay at the top and it’s something that comes very naturally almost. But it’s not if you look how quickly things change. I’m still the holder of two Grand Slam titles and a couple of Master’s 1000 and so forth. Then you realize it’s not that simple. It’s great for the media because they make a big huge deal out of the rankings. Because, today he’s great, like Raffa last year. Everything before the French he was incredible. One and a half month later, he doesn’t have a French or Wimbledon title anymore and people start like, will he ever come back, will he ever play tennis again after his knee problems. But all he did is miss six weeks of tennis and they make a huge deal out of it. I think whoever is No. 1 in the world deserves it because it’s a ranking over 365 days and it proves that the press was wrong. They wrote him off, saying he was not playing well. But he must have some results in the system which were finals, maybe not titles but he put himself in a position that if he was going to win big titles again, he was going to make Number 1 in the world. Hope this makes sense.

Topics: Davis Cup, French Open, Gerry Weber Open, Grand Slam Titles, Grass, Monaco, Nieminen, One And A Half, Other Ones, Play One, Roger Federer, Straight Sets, Surface Change, Swedish Guy, Two Grand Slams, Victory