05/05/2011 19:46 CEST - INTERVISTE

Federer (5.5.2011)

Q. Was it tough to come back on the court such few hours after last night’s match and concentrate on a new one?
A. I thought mentally it was fine, it was more physical, just a quick turnaround. Had a quick dinner and go to bed, treatment and stuff stretch again, eat again and go out on the courts, not much in between. Just ready to play a different type of game, right handed during the day so mentally you have to shift a little bit so my expectations weren’t extremely high I just wanted to put in a good performance and try to play a good match which I was able to do so I'm very happy with today’s performance and like you said it was a quick turnaround.

Q. You don't know your opponent yet for the next round, whether Robin or Jo. A few words about those 2 players and their form now please.
A. On their form? I'm not sure how Soderling has been playing lately, he didn’t play Monaco and I don't know how he played. He didn’t win a tournament otherwise I would know. The same for Tsonga, I don't think he's played that many matches lately so it’s going to be the same situation but the guy whose going to get to the court, I'm sure his going to be in decent form and both have a big game which on a quick court like here is clearly dangerous. Regardless any court you play them on, the match is also a little bit in their hands because they got a big serve and a big first shot. They are quite similar in regard, I would probably give a slight edge to Soderling just because the history on clay in the French Open and do so forth. Maybe I’ll try to get watch a bit of the match and get an idea of how things are going because I haven’t seen Soderling play in a while actually so I have to maybe watch a bit of that.

Q. For you personally what is the best clay court condition, obviously you don’t like it really, really slow although you did well earlier. What would you say...
A. I don’t know honestly if its super slow, the wet, the dry, the quick, the altitude. I always say you have to play on all conditions on clay and then like you saw last night it probably was better to play López in yesterday’s conditions when it’s maybe a bit slower, it felt nothing like it was slow. I think it depends who you play against and under what  circumstances like I feel it was a bit unfortunate to play Soderling last year in the rain at the French for instance just because I thought it gave him the perfect ball to belt the whole time, that kind of thing and the ball wasn't flying so he didn’t have to think much. But then against someone else it would have been the perfect conditions so it always depends a bit who you play and what the situation is. I don’t know maybe nobody likes to play in the rain but it’s part of clay. Also there I can use my slice well and my drop shots and so forth, I just have to be in the right mind set I think more than anything.