WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 16, 2005

Lleyton Hewitt

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, Lleyton Hewitt. Questions, please.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Serious enough to pull out of a match when I'm on court for the first time in my career. So, you know, I got it just before we left Sydney last -- the end of last week. So it wasn't a pleasant flight over. Didn't eat for about four or five days anything. So, yeah, it hit me pretty bad.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I felt a little bit awkward the last few days just training, getting back into the routine of things again. And, you know, I'm definitely a lot better than I was a week ago.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, not too bad. Got better as the match went on. Having a lot heavier conditions today than what we've been practicing in as well, so, for the last four or five days. So it was totally different. It was amazing how much difference the conditions, you know -- it's so heavy out there, whereas --

LLEYTON HEWITT: The balls were very heavy out there. It was hard to hit a lot of winners. And he works the ball well from the back of the court as well; he hits it extremely heavy. So that made life a little bit tougher out there.

LLEYTON HEWITT: The weather?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, you always prefer a bit better weather than we've had today. But this isn't really what, you know, we're all used to I don't think playing in Cincinnati.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, a little bit. It was probably better only playing one game than getting to 4-All or something in the first set. So in terms of that, it wasn't too bad. It was just refocusing on starting the match again basically. But, you know, it was still important to try and get that first set under my belt. I felt like I played the big points when I needed to towards the end of the first set a lot better than he did.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I played two Davis Cup matches as well straight after Wimbledon. So, yeah, it's important, there's no doubt about that. But right at the moment, you know, try and get as many matches this week as possible. And I always feel pretty comfortable when I get to Flushing Meadows. I really like the atmosphere and the court surface there. I think the whole tournament really suits my game and my attitude as well. So, you know, I always look forward to getting there, and hopefully I can, you know, make a few steps in the right direction this week.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No, no.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Not really, not in terms of defending what I did last year at all. More so I like coming back here because I've played well here in the past. Apart from my first-round loss two years ago, I've made two finals and at least one semi here. All the players that I've lost to have been pretty good players that have won this tournament in certain years. So, you know, I always feel it's nice to come back here. I like the atmosphere here in Cincinnati. I like the court surface as well. It's great preparation for the US Open.

LLEYTON HEWITT: When you have, you know, four or five days where you don't hit a ball and you don't eat much, you got to try and get -- it's just a gradual buildup more than anything. So the first couple of days that I started hitting again, it was a little bit of a culture shock, especially it was pretty hot here the first couple days that I started hitting. So it took a couple of days to get back into it. I feel a lot better than I did when I first started hitting. I feel fully over the virus or the infection. But, you know, it's just a matter of, you know, getting matches and getting that practice and getting in that routine again.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No, I'm not 100% sure. I thought it might have been food poisoning first off. It was just my stomach basically that was playing up so I just couldn't keep any food down. And, you know, they did blood tests and whatever and couldn't find a whole heap. It was just some kind of virus that was in my system for about a week or so.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know. I'm sure I did, you know. When you're not eating, there's not a whole heap going in.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, absolutely. I think it shows with, you know, last week. You play with niggling injuries and little stuff the majority of tournaments most weeks. But last week was a case where, you know, I was sitting in the doctor's office 10 minutes before walking out on court still tossing out whether I was going to actually be able to go out there or not. You know, it's never a great feeling when you have to pull out of a tournament. I thought maybe once I got out there, you know, something miraculous might happen, but it just got worse and worse for the first five or seven games that I ended up playing. So, you know, there was no point doing any more damage, that's for sure.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I think it just comes naturally for me. It's not something that, you know, I definitely don't have to work on, that's for sure. Yeah, it just comes naturally. In New York there's a great atmosphere there out at Flushing Meadows, whether you're playing in the afternoon or some great night matches that I've played there in the past as well. So, you know, I really enjoy going back there. And, you know, I've been fortunate the last four or five years to have pretty good success there as well.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I still doubt it with those top guys. Federer is in a class of his own. I don't think limited matches are going to affect him too much whatsoever. He's played enough big matches and his record in finals against Top 10 players over the last two years really speaks for itself. I don't think it's really going to cause him a lot of havoc. Even the guys -- pretty much everyone's here fully fit apart from obviously Andre, but he's obviously hitting the ball well going on last week. So guys are going to get matches, a lot of practice in hopefully hot conditions the rest of this week, and then everyone's going to be training pretty hard next week at Flushing Meadows. Come Monday a fortnight from now I think everyone will be ready to go.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No. Not a whole heap, no.