Nole defeats Stan at Indian Wells, clears the air in post-match presser (well, maybe)

After defeating Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6) in the fourth round at Indian Wells, Novak Djokovic provided some interesting insights and commentary on a few hot topics during his post-match presser.

The defending champ discussed another quarterfinal meet up with Andy Roddick, their first since his controversial retirement from their match in Oz, his racquet switch, and the upcoming Serbia Open where he's partial owner.

Q. Let me bring you forward now with Roddick to Australia, where the match before you played him you finally appeared to hit a very good level. You play a good first set, excellent tiebreak, and then physically things got away from you. Just think about that time period and how disappointing it was, not being able to finish there.

ND: Well, it was very disappointing. Unfortunately, there were some side factors that affected my loss there, and I was a little bit disappointed with the scheduling there, as well. But, you know, I couldn't do anything about it.

I think there was no reason for me to play a day match when I had finished at, you know, 2:30 a.m. two nights before playing against Baghdatis. So I expected a night match so I can get more time to recover, but it didn't happen. So unfortunately I had to finish the Australian Open this year the way I finished it with the retirement. And, of course, there was a lot of speculations after that, which was very unfortunate for me. But, look, this is sport, and you just have to deal with it.

Q. You've talked a little bit about your racquets this week again. Sorry if this has been asked already, but why did you change them when you were doing so well in the first place? What was the reservation?

ND: Well, you know, there were a couple of reasons. Probably one of the reasons was, you know, the business change probably, the financing specter.

On the other hand, I already played with a Head racquet, so there were some things already in Wilson racquet that I played last year that I wanted to change. I've played well, but I think there were some more things that I could add up. Head stepped in and really made a good work and made a promise that they going to try to make as best a racquet as possible. We worked on that for really four or five, six months. Changing a racquet in tennis is probably the most difficult and most dangerous decision, especially in this time for me. But I have played, as I said, with Head already for a couple of years in my career.

There was just a matter of time mentally when I can really adapt to a new racquet.

Q. Futuristic question. What's your vision for the tennis tournament that your family owns now in Serbia and its development? How do you see it?

ND: Well, first of all, I'm very happy and privileged to have the tournament in Serbia after so many years. I think we deserve it because we have so many players, and we had the great success in the last two years. So we have, for now, the 250, lowest category of ATP events. But, again, we have tournament in our hands, so hopefully we can show to the world that we can be great hosts, and then next couple of years, you know, improve it and get the better event.

Q. Do you think you'll get better scheduling for your matches there than in Australia? (laughter.)

ND: I'll make sure I'll be present for scheduling.

Ah-ha! I knew there'd be some advantages (or conflicts of interest?) to owning a tourney you're competing in - like configuring the scheduling of your matches. Seriously, if Nole doesn't win the inaugural Serbia Open he should ask for his investment funds back.

And, with regards to the racquet change, it was pretty obvious it was a money-making move and I'm glad he finally put it out there. He seems to be slowly rounding into form so maybe he won't have regrets. We'll see.

(image via getty)