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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY SUNCORPJanuary 6, 2015Lleyton HewittBRISBANE, QUEENSLAND S. GROTH/L. Hewitt THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Incredible watching some of those serves. What was it like facing him today? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, no, he served well. I don't know what his percentage was, but it was only really one game he gave me a couple of second serves, you know, that game that I ended up having two break points. He hit two massive second serves on both those break points. Wasn't a lot I could do in his second service games to put him under pressure. Yeah, even when I made a couple good returned off his first serve he he still volleyed pretty well. I think normally he gives you a few more cheap points on his service games and then you can try and build pressure, but I can't remember him hitting a double fault tonight either. He served really well. Q. Did you think he might go off the boil at some point? LLEYTON HEWITT: No. The first set, yeah, I just didn't play solid enough games those early games of each set. It was a lot heavier conditions out there tonight as well from what I been practicing in during the day. His power and strength he can still hit through the court, whereas I felt like the ball wasn't coming through for me quit as much to put him under more pressure. Yeah, but all credit to him. Even when he chip‑charged or tried to come into the net, he didn't miss a lot of approach shots. Q. Had you practiced with him at all? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, not a lot. He was at the last Davis Cup tie. Did more doubles practice and stuff. Bit of a mixture. A lot more drills and stuff. And it was on grass. It was totally different. Yeah, I practiced with him years ago. I've hit with him a few times, but not heaps. Q. You touched on his serve and net game. Were you surprised at how well he played from the back of the court tonight? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, he's a flashy player from the back of the court. You don't really know what you're going to get, and that's what makes it tougher. You go out there and you could play a guy like Marinko who hits the ball so clean from the back of the court you know every shot how it's going to come off. He's going to hit a lot of winners. Whereas Sam, a couple could hit the back fence and then the next five or six could be clean winners. So it's hard to go out there and get that rhythm, and that makes him more dangerous. Q. Change anything for you in your plans going to Melbourne? Play Sydney? LLEYTON HEWITT: No, no, I'm playing two exhibition matches next week anyway. No, I'm happy with those matches. I would have liked to have got more matches this week obviously, but I'm still ‑‑ Guccione and I are in the doubles here as well. For me, I was really happy wit how I played in the doubles last night. All my practice sets have been first class, so, yeah, I've got to still try and ay as positive as can be. Then again, I won here last year and then lost first round in the Open, so be nice if I go and do a bit better in the Open and lose first round here. Q. Is there anything you would do differently, or did you feel it was just more about him tonight? LLEYTON HEWITT: Mostly it was all about him. Yeah, higher percentage of first serves obviously. But with that said, you know, unless I broke him that game, I didn't have a look in, so I would've only got to tiebreakers anyway. There is not a whole heap I could have done apart from hold the few couple of service games early in each set. Yeah, you just don't know. Possibly if I was able to hold early and then build some pressure, then I might've got a couple double faults or a couple of cheap errors. Wasn't meant to be. Q. How do you see the guys that are in the up and coming group? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, now they're playing really well at the moment obviously. It's been good, because obviously Nick has taken a lot of the spotlight. And now Thanasi, we've all known was going to break through at some stage. That was a really good win for him yesterday. And Ducks, I like him. He's a hard worker, and I'm really glad ‑‑ to beat a guy like Simon, that's a quality win. Johnny Millman, he's a battler. He's nearly given up a couple times, so that's great for him to get an opportunity against Rog. Think that's about it at the moment. It's good. Obviously Sam is a unique one because he's a later developer, but he also had his time away from the game through injury as well. Q. Just on that, Tomic has been talking about his newfound maturity and focus. You hit with him before this kicked off. Any insight site into what you've seen? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, he and I had a great hit the other day. Hit for a couple hours and both hit the ball really well. Yeah, I watched most of his match last night. Thought he played really well. Yeah, he was a little bit tentative at the start, which Querrey stepped up and played well. But then from, yeah, 5‑3, 5‑4 in the first set he played great for the next set and a half. Yeah, Bernie has been serving a lot better I think since he came back from his hip surgeries, which helps his game a lot. He is getting a lot of cheap points because he reads the play so well. On return of serve he makes a lot of balls, so he puts you under pressure that way. If he's able to hold serve, then he's tough. Q. Just with Roger, you have your relationship off court. Seem to do a lot of stuff together. LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah. Q. How is that? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, we get along great. Obviously we used to be rivals for a long time. Yeah, I think we have a mutual respect for each other. We grew up in juniors together. It's great what he does for the game obviously. I'm thrilled to be able to play him in Sydney next week. Just to have him in another major city in Australia, it's good for Australian tennis. Q. Paul Annacone has come onboard with Tennis Australia. Just your thoughts on that. LLEYTON HEWITT: It's really good. Paul is a great guy. Met with him a few times last year. Yeah, he's a good consultant to have for Pat to bounce ideas off of, and a lot of people in Tennis Australia‑‑ you know, he's obviously been in the systems in the USTA and the LTA. He's worked with some of the best players going around. He's good. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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