THE BEST QUOTES FROM THE WORLD TOUR FINALS; FEDERER, DJOKOVIC, MURRAY AND MORE BY RICKY DIMON

Singles matches were not always the most dramatic at this week’s World Tour Finals, but players delivered the goods in the press room (including Novak Djokovic’s traditional handing out of chocolates) on a consistent basis. With the tournament over, let’s enjoy some of the most memorable quotes from the press conferences.

 

Roger Federer, who is 21-3 lifetime against Andy Roddick, won their first four meetings, and won 15 of their first 16 meetings: “In the beginning I struggled against the likes of Henman, Nalbandian, Hewitt, and Roddick. So for me those were really interesting players to play against.”

 

Marin Cilic on if he was more angry, sad, or embarrassed that he did not hold serve once against Djokovic in the second set: “None of those.”

 

Tomas Berdych after losing 6-1, 6-1 to Djokovic: “It was my worst match of the whole season.”

 

Stan Wawrinka on his relationship with Berdych: “We are not close friends…. But we are good friends.”

 

Wawrinka on his Australian Open title inspiring guys like Nishikori, Cilic, and Raonic: “Good for them. I’m sure Roger inspired them more.”

 

Wawrinka on beating Berdych 6-1, 6-1: “I’m trying to show (Federer) that I’m going to be ready for the (Davis Cup) final.”

 

Djokovic on being called a veteran: “Veteran? Thank you. I don’t feel like a veteran, but I’m a father, okay, I should call myself veteran. I hoped I would not reach this stage to call myself veteran this early in my career, but okay.”

 

 

Djokovic on Grigor Dimitrov: “He’s got a lot of talent. He’s good‑looking. He speaks good English. He has Maria Sharapova for a girlfriend. What more can you ask for?”

 

Kei Nishikori after losing to Federer: “I never feel that he’s 33 right now. He looks still young and playing amazing tennis. I think the age doesn’t matter.”

 

Andy Murray after beating Milos Raonic: “Normally you feel happier when you win than when you lose.”

 

Murray when asked about Group B possibly coming down to a ratio of games won tiebreaker: “I can’t predict the future.”

 

Berdych after beating Cilic 6-3, 6-1: “Let’s put it this way: with the way he played, he would never win a U.S. Open.”

 

 

Berdych on his thoughts about playing Djokovic: “I’m going to try to, you know, maybe three, four games.”

 

Djokovic after beating Wawrinka 6-3, 6-0: “Was a really amazing performance.”

 

Wawrinka after losing to Djokovic: “Apparently Novak is playing really well.”

 

Wawrinka on the match vs. Djokovic going pretty quickly after the Swiss led 2-0 in the first set: “Really quickly, not ‘pretty’.”

 

David Ferrer on his coaching change: “Well, is difficult explain to you in English.”

 

Nishikori on being asked it someone has to give up sweets in order to become a pro tennis player: “Well, that’s tough question for me because I love sweets, too. I think little bit is fine. If you don’t eat in front of your coach, I think that’s fine.”

 

Murray after losing to Federer 6-0, 6-1: “It was not ideal from my side of the court.”

 

Murray after his loss to Federer on how far he is from the level of Djokovic, Federer, and Rafael Nadal: “Well, after tonight that’s quite clear: quite a long way from that level.”

 

Federer on leading Murray 6-0, 5-0: “Not so cool. At the end I was happy I didn’t win the second to last game to be quite honest. It’s uncomfortable. I don’t know. I don’t like it.”

 

Federer on possibly playing Wawrinka in the semifinals: “I just hope he beats Cilic.”

 

Federer on the fans possibly being disappointed about so many fast, lopsided singles matches: “Doubles is fun.”

 

Berdych on the possibility of Wawrinka melting down against Cilic and sending the Czech into the semifinals: “No.”

 

Berdych on Federer being so good at 33 years old: “He is not from this world.”

 

Djokovic after clinching year-end No. 1 on how close we were to “not having this conversation” by virtue of almost losing to Federer at Wimbledon: “If I would win one or two (more) sets in Roland Garros, maybe we would have this conversation again.”

 

Nishikori on Djokovic: “When he’s playing well, I don’t think anybody can stop him.”

 

Djokovic on signing the camera with just a dot after beating Nishikori: “I felt like that was something I wanted to do today. My new signature.”

 

Djokovic on the incident when he mock cheered the fans after they applauded a double-fault: “I cannot blame the crowd. The crowd has a right to do what they want, to cheer for whoever they want. Some individuals that were going over the line throughout the whole match, some provocations that I usually don’t react on, but I did. It was my fault. I lost the concentration. I lost the break because of that. I allowed myself to be in the situation to lose the set, maybe even lose the match. So, yeah, generally it was my fault and I should know better. I should have let it go. But, you know, when you tolerate once, twice, three times, four times, we’re all humans, you react.”

 

Federer after beating Wawrinka 7-6 in the third when asked to compare his rivalry to that of their coaches, Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker: “It’s too late for me and it’s too much thinking at this point, to be quite honest.”

 

Bob Bryan on hitting his brother, Mike, in the head with a serve: “That was going to be an ace, by the way.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike on the brothers’ longevity as a team: “We’re not going to give up on each other. We’re brutally honest. I mean, he hit me with a serve in the back of the head, then said it was my fault.”

 

Murray on being asked to play an exhibition against Djokovic after Federer withdrew from the singles final: “I was playing Mario Kart on my sofa when I get the call. I was winning at that. It’s better than my tennis.”

 

Murray on Federer’s withdrawal: “I have to apologize. I obviously pushed Roger so hard on Thursday.”

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp World Tour, Berdych, Bryan Brothers, Cilic, djokovic, Federer, Ferrer, London, milos raonic, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis, tennis quotes

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