22/01/2011 05:14 CEST - AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Robin Soderling (22 Gennaio)

Q. Your ninth in a row, yet to drop a set here. How do you assess your performance so far? Are you just cruising along very confident?
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, I played three matches here, and, of course, as you said, I haven't lost a set yet.
I'm playing pretty good. But there's still a couple of things I need to improve, I think. I know I can play much better. But overall it's been pretty good.

Q. Do you need a four or five set match to test yourself?
ROBIN SODERLING: No. I don't think. I played many matches this year already, so I'm pretty happy I won three matches in straight sets.

Q. Does that weigh in your favor, that you haven't gone outside three sets in that first week?
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah. I think, you know, physically I feel very good. I haven't spent too many hours on court yet and I'm already in the fourth round, which is very good.
So I think for me it's a little bit of an advantage, yeah.

Q. There's been a lot of attention on Roger and Rafa in the past couple weeks. Do you feel you're sliding under the radar in terms of media attention and that sort of thing?
ROBIN SODERLING: Well, yeah, I think there's always going to be a lot of attention on Roger and Rafa, of course. You know, they're No. 1 and 2 in the world. I think in every tournament they play, they will be the favorites.
But I think there's many guys who can actually compete against them and have a chance to win the tournaments like this when they're playing well.

Q. Do you feel like you're ready to compete against those guys in the final of a Grand Slam and perhaps to go that step further?
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah. I already played two Grand Slam finals and I beat them both in Grand Slams. But, again, of course they will always be the favorites, and we are the guys who need to play really well if we're going to have a chance to beat them.
Every match, you know, I will always have a chance.

Q. Do you ever hear from Borg at all, best wishes? You've play better here than he ever did.
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, sometimes. We meet sometimes, and sometimes he calls me, sends me texts. It's nice.

Q. You may play against Tsonga. You never lost a set against him.
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, we played many times. Even though I haven't lost a set, we had tough matches. He's a great player. I always played very well against him. Hopefully, you know, if I play him now, I will play well again.
But you never know, he's a tough player, and he obviously likes it down there in Australia, being a finalist a couple years ago.

Q. But you play well against him because you like his game?
ROBIN SODERLING: I'm not sure. You know, I always play well, as I said, against him. But he's a tough player. I don't think anybody can say they like his game because he's very good and it's always tough against him.
But I've been lucky to play good against him.

Q. Now you work a little more with your new coach, can you tell us a little bit about the relationship you have?
ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah. You know, so far it worked very well. We haven't lost a match yet together, which is not many players can say that (laughter).
But still it's very fresh. We had a couple of good weeks at the off season. But of course it's very different, you know, working together when you have the time at home, really practicing, than when you're at a tournament.
But we worked on a couple details in my game which I feel I already improved. But hopefully, you know, the time goes on and we have more time to work on it. Hopefully it will keep improving.

Q. What kind of details?
ROBIN SODERLING: I'm trying to play a little bit more aggressive, come to the net a little bit more. Of course, my net game, we worked on a lot, how to move at the net. Also my serve, I'm trying to mix it up a little bit more than before. And, again, you know, it's working fine so far.

Q. When Europe is freezing and you come to Australia which is very hot, how do you adapt?
ROBIN SODERLING: It's nice to get some tan (laughter).
No, I always like to come down here during the winter when it's cold back home in Europe. But it's not very difficult. You know, we travel a lot. We play on different places all the time.
This year I choose to come here pretty early. I played in Brisbane and I had a week of practice in Melbourne just to get prepared. And I think, you know, it worked well.

Q. Roger and Rafa are the players who play always on the Rod Laver Arena. Sometimes you go other places. What do you prefer, to go on the center court or to play near to the crowd?
ROBIN SODERLING: You know, it's very different. There's always courts you like better and there's courts you don't like as much. But sometimes it can be the center court, sometimes it can be an outside court. It's very different.
But I try not to think about it too much. Just focus on my game. Here all the courts are very similar, so it's not a big difference.

Q. Not a big difference for you?
ROBIN SODERLING: No, I wouldn't say so.
 

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