Q. Is the primary emotion satisfaction at winning a silver or frustration that it's not gold?
ROGER FEDERER: No, no, I'm very happy. I am satisfied. I think this is as good as I could do during these championships. Andy was much better than I was today in many aspects of the game.
For me, it's been a great month. I won Wimbledon, became World No. 1 again, and I got silver. Don't feel too bad for me.
I am very, very proud honestly to have won a silver. Had a very emotional tournament from start to finish. I could have lost in the first round against Falla. Same thing obviously with Del Potro. I felt like I won my silver, I didn't lose it. So I feel very, very happy.
Q. Can you tell me something about how strongly you decide on Olympic gold to get your collection of trophies complete and will there be another Olympics in 2016 for you?
ROGER FEDERER: I mean, I hope so. I said it before the tournament that it's not impossible that I could take part in Rio. But right now, I mean, in the meantime I could retire and come back. It's that long of a break (laughter).
It's not front and center in my mind. But, of course, I'd love an Olympic gold in singles. But I am very happy with an Olympic silver in singles, and I already have the gold from Beijing.
So we'll see about Rio. It's a fascinating country. I've never been to Rio. Obviously, I'd love to be part of it. We'll see how it goes.
Q. Were you surprised at how well he passed when you came in regularly in this match?
ROGER FEDERER: No. That's his best part of his game. If he doesn't do those passing shots, he's not going to win gold and he doesn't win tournaments. He's got to come up with those shots time and time again. He does it so well. I've always said he can absorb pace incredibly well. He has great balance and anticipation. That three-way combination makes it obviously tough to attack him, particularly on a poor attacking shot. So he did very well today.
Q. Could this type of victory be a springboard for Andy to win slams now and be a big threat at the US Open coming up?
ROGER FEDERER: I don't think he needed this, to be quite honest, 'cause he is a good player. Don't forget that. He's an amazing player already. I thought he played a very, very good Wimbledon championship.
So for me what I was happy to see is that he didn't have a letdown, you know, after the Wimbledon finals. It's easy to come back, best -f-three, you know, go out third round maybe. You just feel more horrible.
But he didn't do that. He came, he won gold. I think this is how champions react.
Q. Can you remember losing nine straight games, four on your own serve, the last time?
ROGER FEDERER: No, I don't. And I don't want to remember (smiling).
Q. You've been through a bunch of these now. How should we view the Olympics and the Olympics gold medal compared to the majors? Where does it rank? How do you see it?
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, I mean, it's unique in so many ways, you know. It's supposed to be that way. I almost believe there should be no points at the Olympics, to be quite honest, because it's not fair for some of the players who can't play the tournament for the reasons you know. There's only four players per country allowed to play per country. Plus we have a tournament running at the same time in Washington that almost gives the same amount of points. So it's a bit odd. That's why I'm almost in favor of not having any points at the Olympics.
But the importance to me it's as big as tournaments that are out there. Similar to a World Tour Finals, where unfortunately we don't play the best-of-five-set finals there anymore, or a Grand Slam. It's as high up as the big tournaments. And obviously making it best-of-three in the early rounds, you know, makes the margins more small, particularly on grass.
The grass has been different this time around because of the seeding. It was slippery in the beginning, then dry again. The played very different.
Q. After that extraordinary semifinal you played against Del Potro do you think this could have some effect in your relationship to him, make you closer to him because of this experience?
ROGER FEDERER: Yeah, those are matches that sort of remind you of some great battles, becomes personal almost to a degree in a nice way. So we could look back at this and have something in common.
I didn't know who won until I lost my match today. So I was looking. I saw the Serbian flag in the room I was waiting. No Argentinian flag, so who won? I thought Novak won. I came out and I saw Juan Martin. I said, Wow. Great effort. I'm so happy for you after the brutal loss.
Q. You talked about how this was an extremely emotional tournament for you. Why was it so emotional?
ROGER FEDERER: Well, I mean, look, Olympics don't come around every year. So this is obviously just a different feel to it. Crowds were different. Early on I could sense that right away when I came on court against Falla. I really badly wanted to come through in the early rounds to get into the tournament. Then you sort of install a certain way of acting and being during the Olympics, you know. So I think all of that made it, for me, very special. Every Olympics has been a life-changer for me, to be quite honest, in Sydney, in Athens, and Beijing. Good or bad, I think I took away a lot of positives, from the Olympic spirit, from the way, I don't know, you appreciate other sports, appreciate winning, losing.
I love watching sports because of the reactions of the people at the very end. How do they take wins? How do they take losses? All these things.