AUSTRALIAN OPEN

February 15, 2021

Alfie Hewett

Gordon Reid

Press Conference

HEWETT-REID/Fernandez-Kunieda

6-1, 4-6, 10-7

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Take us through your matches today and how you were feeling on the court.

ALFIE HEWETT: The day started pretty well. Obviously playing Shingo in the semifinals and came out there and played some of my best tennis and he's kind of had me the last few years that I've been here and to finally get a victory over him is something that I was really, really happy about. But then to back it up and obviously get on the court with Jo, it's been a place that maybe we struggled in the past, but last year we got the trophy and to get to another final is something I'm sure we're both very happy about.

Q. Alfie, congratulations. Can you tell me what do you think worked for you today to get the win over Shingo?

ALFIE HEWETT: To be honest, I don't really know too much about the match itself, like I was so in the zone at the time that all I was doing was trying to be aggressive and have a high intensity in the match and try and take it to him. I think the last couple of matches I've played have been a little bit passive, which isn't really like me, so I tried to just go out there and dominate and put my game on to him and thankfully today it worked.

Q. Alfie, just on your singles, the draw you told me that you played a bit of a spectator sport against Shingo last year when you played him. Congratulations. You came into the court, you didn't hide behind that baseline. What was it because you were 3-Love down and there was suddenly this switch and we saw Alfie play his game. What was it that made that switch happen?

ALFIE HEWETT: Probably just making balls on the court to be simple about it. I came out with quite a lot of energy and I was quite loud on the court and probably emotions were a little bit too high, so I needed to rein that in a little bit. Once I did that and found a bit of rhythm and, like I say, just depth in the court. But, yeah, I just felt that was the turning point at that stage in the match, and then afterwards just kind of grew in confidence and, yeah, just found my way.

Q. Gordon, can I ask you, were you aware what was going on on Alfie's court when you were playing or were you not on the courts next to each other?

GORDON REID: No, no, I was trying to focus on my own match, I think.

Q. I wasn't sure what you could hear or what you couldn't hear.

GORDON REID: Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't listening out for the anything on the other courts, to be honest. Yeah, I was just trying to focus on what was happening on my court.

Q. Do you think you had an opportunity to beat Joe today? Is there anything you could have done differently to get the win?

GORDON REID: Yeah, absolutely I had chances. I played a good first set. Obviously came out on top on that one, and then in the second set I was leading and I lost a little bit of energy, and to be fair to him, he raised his level to come back into that set and ended that second set. There were opportunities and there were chances and I thought if I had been a little bit braver on a couple of the opportunities inside the court or if I had served a little bit better, a little bit higher first serve percentage in those situations I maybe would have had a different result.

But overall I was really happy with the way I played. I thought it was a high-level match from both of us and he really raised his level in the third set and he deserved to win because he was the better player on the day.

Q. What is it with you two and match tiebreaks? I'm stuck at home and nerves cannot stand it, boys.

ALFIE HEWETT: Yeah, well, I mean, ideally we wouldn't go into a match tiebreak. We don't do it on purpose. But, no, we've got a lot of confidence in ourselves in that situation because we have come through so many of them in the last few years. So we really back ourselves and even at 7-5 down in the tiebreak today I still had confidence that we could turn it around and get the win. So, yeah, it's obviously just, it's really character building and just raises the confidence levels even higher coming through more matches like that.

Q. Compared to when you played Shingo and Gustie two weeks ago, what was the difference there, because obviously the result was slightly different when you played there.

GORDON REID: The first set and a half was probably identical. I think their game improved a lot in the second set. They're No. 1 and 2 in the world for a reason and they came only the court, they came out with that second set and started to play some really good doubles. I think our level maybe dropped a little bit in the second set. Me personally I probably switched off and got a little bit down around some points, but for that to a side and going into the third set match tiebreak was really, really good from both of us and when it comes to those moments we just really, really are clinical, we're consistent, we dig deep and we fight for each other, we take it point by point and we have got a good record, so I think maybe we just have that psychological edge at the moment over them. I don't know whether they know that or not, but I think from our perspective we definitely feel like we go into that feeling good. So, yeah.

Q. Alfie, you got Jo in the singles final, it's a replay of Roland Garros. I've asked Jo this question, so I'm going to ask you: Is it going to be slightly less dramatic less than Roland Garros was, i.e, are we not going to have injuries and broken chairs and things like that?

ALFIE HEWETT: I'll hope for an injury if it was the same result as last time. No, it will be a good final and Jo's obviously working hard off the court and his results recently have proven that. So it's going to be a tough final but I'm looking forward to it.