AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2025

Alfie Hewett

Press Conference

A. HEWETT/T. Oda

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Alfie, congratulations. It looked like quite an emotional response on court. What did this title mean to you today?

ALFIE HEWETT: Yeah, I didn't expect me to start blubbering on the court, to be honest, but I'm probably harboring a few feelings from last couple of matches that we've played. Obviously, they've been pretty big ones with them being in slam finals and the Paralympic final.

Anyway, it does knock you deep down, your sort of belief in the confidence sort of in the big moments. For me to do it today and prove to myself more than anyone that I can rise to the occasion against a player like him, yeah, it was very overwhelming.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. As you say, he has got the better of you a few times in the big matches. What do you think made the difference today?

ALFIE HEWETT: Definitely my mentality. You know, I've had a lot of practice with left-handers back at home. I think initially the issue was probably not feeling confident against the sort of style and the spin that he brings and the aggression that he brings to the court.

I'm sure there's been a lot of work done behind the scenes to try and just come up with a game plan to be able to beat him. Simple as that really, but it takes time. And, also, it's all good and well doing it on a practice court with no pressure and no one watching and nothing on the line.

To do it in a Grand Slam final or Paralympic final, which is recently the only time that we have been meeting against each other, it's a different beast entirely, and I haven't been winning that battle with myself.

He's been winning that, and I feel like I've been going into my shell and not being able to play my best tennis. The turning point for me was the Paralympics, actually, because it's the first time we've gone three sets. And I came off, even though I was devastated about the loss, to have a match point in a major final. It gave me a lot of confidence that actually I can do it.

I know it sounds crazy with all the success that I've had, but it's been quite one-sided in the matches that we've faced: Wimbledon, Roland Garros, some of the other ones as well. Maybe it was eating away at me a little bit, but ever since then I felt that belief and confidence when I go on the court with him.

Today I was just very hungry and motivated to try and showcase what I'm all about from point one.

Q. Alfie, did you expect to play as well as you did, and do you think you took him by surprise?

ALFIE HEWETT: I don't know. That's a question for him. From my side, I know what I'm capable of, and I know what the plan looks like. I think that's been the frustration when I've lost against him previously is I haven't done it. I haven't executed it to the best of my ability, for whatever reason, whether it's a physical one or a mental one or match management one.

There's always been a reason why I felt like I could have been better, and that's tennis. You have to learn and suck it up and go again.

Today I just felt like not the stars aligned a little bit, but I felt like things were going in my direction a lot more than they have done recently. I definitely don't think he played his best tennis today. He returned quite poorly to how he usually does. I mean, he still served pretty well, but I felt like I was getting on top of that and dictating the point from the first shot, which is what you have to do against him.

You know, you can't rely on rallying down the middle because it's not the way against him. You have to be brave. You have to be able to take risks, and that's a little bit out of my nature to that degree.

That's the biggest thing that we've been working on in practice is being able to be a little bit more risky and not reckless, but sometimes it borderlines that. Today that's the difference.

Q. You were also 5-2 ahead. He got back to 5-4 in the second. What were you thinking at that point?

ALFIE HEWETT: You don't want to know (smiling). Here we go again. That was my initial thought because he hadn't broken me the whole match, I don't think, anyway.

At 5-3 I was 30-Love up. Two good points, here we go. That's a good start to the game. I think he hit three return winners, and that's exactly what happened in the Paralympic final, I think, at 5-4. The difference, as well, was the energy from his side of the court was a lot louder than he had been the whole match, which is exactly what happened in Paris.

There was a lot of thoughts about potentially history rewriting itself. I managed to stop myself from getting too caught up in that moment and focusing on the past and stick to the present, and this time around I manage to do not make that happen.

Q. I noticed that you are using different racquet. Can you talk any story behind that?

ALFIE HEWETT: Yeah, I think I was analyzing a lot of my game after the Paralympics and everything technical, chair, physical, everything. It's important to sort of go through a bit of an M.O.T. with where you're at.

The racquet was something that I just wanted to try because I haven't actually experimented with a lot of other racquets than obviously previously it was Wilson. So we tried a lot of different racquets. The Yonex, the Ezone, was the one I really liked from the beginning.

Then, you know, it grew on me over time. I feel like this trip I've really come to love it even more so. It certainly adds a bit more pop and a little bit more speed to what I'm doing. It's sort of the design behind it being a bit more of a powerful racquet. I'm seeing that on court to the point where I have to change my string tension because everything was flying out.

So I think it shows what it can add to my game, and it's the small margins that do make a difference.

Q. When you've got such a rivalry with someone, how hard is it... and sounds like maybe you do this in your own practice ... to avoid your training becoming all about him and not let it be about you, or are you happy with that? You're, like, I'm training to beat him?

ALFIE HEWETT: I've got to be respectful because there's a lot of other amazing players out there that have beaten me. So it's not like I focus 100% of my time on trying to beat him, but I felt like I wasn't getting the balance right in terms of the amount of lefty action I needed because majority of the tour, apart from Gordon, are right-handers.

When maybe 80% of the field are right-handers, how much do you want to spend on that? Normally in a week I'll play right-hander, right-hander, right-hander, and then you play in the final against a left-hander.

All my hitting partners are right-handers. My coach is right-handed. This trip I brought someone out who was a left-hander, because I felt like in previous tournaments I've been hitting with a right-hander all week. I'd get to the final, warm up with someone that was left-handed. Great, you have half an hour beforehand, and everything was still a little bit different.

So we ramped up the training with left-handers and got different left-handers in. Then this trip I wanted to hit with a left-hander every single day, because I know that I practice enough with right-handers. Got enough of that in the bank. Let's see if it can make a difference so that when I'm facing him in the final potentially, I'm a little bit more comfortable and used to the serve that's kicking up in a different direction and the forehand to the backhand, which is obviously different, because it changes things tactically.

I felt like it worked, so yeah.

Q. Who have you been hitting with? Who is your lefty?

ALFIE HEWETT: Funny story how it came about. It's a guy called Phil Howes and a guy called Mark Ruffle, a couple of guys from back home.

But I was doing a sponsors thing with British Gas, and he was a guy that came along just for the day. It was like a bit of come try wheelchair tennis. The majority of people that were there were just people. Non-tennis players, put it like that.

Then he got in a chair and just whacked this forehand. Oh, crikey, you can play. He said, Yeah, I'm a coach at David Lloyd Bicester. Cool. I was like, Can you just hit me a topspin serve? No problem. He hits me this kick serve. Oh, my God, that's the one. Tokito, his topspin serve is very lively.

Is there any chance you're around? Then we met the first week of December, and a month later he's got a ticket to Australia.

Q. So he had never played wheelchair tennis?

ALFIE HEWETT: Never played wheelchair tennis. He watched on the TV and stuff, but yeah, he just came for this sort of wheelchair tennis exhibition sort of thing, a come trial thing through British Gas. Yeah, I will say, a month later...

He ticked all the boxes. It's crazy how things can work. For him it really was like an incredible experience just that day, and then we practiced the following week for two hours. Went well. Then the following week after that four hours.

Well, he actually asked the question. He is, like, Do you need anyone to go to Australia? At the time it was just me and the coach. Funny you mention, actually. I'm sort of looking for someone to travel with me. Yeah, the stars aligned in that department.

Maybe he's the secret weapon.

Q. Alfie, you're clearly very, very happy at the moment. Where does this win rank among your slam titles?

ALFIE HEWETT: Well, my coach just said it was bigger than Wimbledon, which I don't know if I can quite agree with that, because that was a special moment. It's certainly up there for different reasons.

You know, more because he knows the demons and the battles that I've faced, especially against this one player in this sort of occasion, and to manage the match as well as I did today.

And it's a long build-up as well. We finish the season first week of November. You have the whole November, preseason, three weeks out here to sort of think about this tournament, this match, this week. It's a long build-up.

To go home tomorrow, you know, that long old flight back to England, knowing that I did what I came out to do, it's a really nice feeling to know all that work - smaller Christmas dinners and not celebrating massively over New Year's and missing out on family time and all those sacrifices, which us guys make around this time - it's nice to know that it all paid off.

Q. Alfie, for all the kind of frustrations, it sounds like you enjoyed trying to solve this puzzle of how to beat Tokito. Do you feel like it's sort of taken your career to a different level?

ALFIE HEWETT: Oh, absolutely. I see it in myself, but I also see it in a lot of other players as well how Tokito has come on tour and made us all just be better because we have to be. Otherwise, he will dominate.

I look at my match from last year. I do laugh at it, because I feel like I've developed so much since that from a physical perspective, from what I'm doing, tactical, my mental strength. All of it has completely had to change because of what he's bringing to the tour.

So it's something that I like. Of course, in the moment it's painful when you lose and you are wondering that it's going to be a long road ahead. He's so young, as well.

You have to be challenged. You have to be pushed to your limits. We have a good relationship, and I'm glad that he's pushing me, and I'm sure I'll be pushing him, and he will say the exact same. That's a bit of, like, a Federer-Nadal situation, wheelchair version.