| Monday, 23 June 2008 Written by Paul Kiernan The opening day of the 2008 Championships didn’t throw up many upsets or surprises. But after the players had finished on the grass, they had a few interesting things to say in their press conferences. Roger Federer, Mr Wimbledon himself, didn't even have to wait for his match to end to have a chat. As his straight-sets victory over Dominik Hrbaty was coming to its conclusion, the Slovakian asked to sit next to the world No.1 during the last change of ends. Federer was more than happy to oblige: “'Yeah, sure you can sit next to me,' I said. 'Well, I mean, also I'm very happy that you appreciate playing against me.' You know, it's a match that was a great honour for him to actually not only play against me, but be my friend. I said, well, same for me here. It was nice to share that moment on Centre Court together.” Serena Williams seemed more excited about the new addition to her wardrobe than her straight-sets victory over Kaia Kanepi on No.1 Court: “You know, I absolutely love trench coats. I live in Florida. I probably have more coats than anybody. I just love coats. I'm always buying Burberry coats. I mean, I love coats … I have a wonderful white coat I can wear on the court and also, you know, in New York for those rainy days.” And Miss Williams was in a particularly chatty mood. Most people complain about the changeable weather at SW19 but Serena and Venus always looks forward to Wimbledon, to escape the heat of their home town: “We're so ready to leave Florida. We're like, we're going to do anything we can to stay at the tournament as long as we can, so we don't have to go back in that heat. That's pretty much our preparation.” Ana Ivanovic, the new women’s world No.1, is making quite an impression on British newspapers, who have taken a shine to the French Open champion, something she tries to ignore, with varying success: “It's obviously very flattering. Sometimes I take a peek at the picture, but that's about it.” The Australian Samantha Stosur explained why she felt so comfortable on Court No.3 during her straight-sets victory over Ioana Raluca Olaru: “It is a special event, and every time you go on that court you get that extra bit of a buzz. There's so many Australians here, as well, you almost feel at home. More similar to the Aussie Open than anywhere else.” And we got a unique insight into the mind of Novak Djokovic: “I still have a picture in my head of Pete Sampras holding this Wimbledon trophy. So this is one of the pictures in my head which stayed all the way throughout my career and which motivated me actually to become a professional tennis player.”
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Djokovic Survives Early Scare
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