US OPEN

September 5, 2003

Lleyton Hewitt

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No, he was great. You've really got to take your hat off to him. You know, I felt like I went up another notch from yesterday. I felt like I hit the ball a lot better, especially my backhand. Backhand cross court didn't quite -- you know, backhand down the line, I probably didn't hit that great today. But, yeah, he played well. He mixed up his serve extremely well. You know, he's getting tougher and tougher on these kind of courts.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I got, you know, just -- actually not sure what it is. It's at the top of my sort of hip flexor area. I just couldn't serve, basically. It was hurting every time I went up to push off serving. It was grabbing. I wasn't sure if it was cramping or not. The trainer, Doug Spreen, just -- it was tightening up on me every time I'd gone out to serve. I had the problem once before at the end of the Ferreira match in Los Angeles, and hadn't had a problem since. So it was a little bit disappointing in that regard. It was very tough to hold serve from then on, especially against a guy who's working the ball so well from the baseline.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Oh, I knew I was gonna be struggling. I was trying to battle, but also trying to play a different style of game to what I'm used to as well. You know, trying to go for a lot of winners, I guess, which off the wrong balls, where normally I'd try and work the point a little bit more. Yeah, I take nothing away from him, though. He was too good.

LLEYTON HEWITT: A little bit. It was mainly the serve, to tell you the truth. My serve was the biggest worry. And once you start getting that feeling, then you don't go after -- you couldn't go after your serve either. That's the problem. Your mind is telling you there's pain there and you don't want to push up and get that pain. So it was hurting a little bit on my backhand out wide now and then. But, you know, I don't want to take anything away from him.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't think so. Unless Fitzy and Wally want to put in Wayne or Scotty or Todd for the singles.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I hope not. You know, I didn't expect anything to hamper me here either. So it could be a little bit of a suck-it-and-see, and hopefully it doesn't happen. But my plan is to play Davis Cup and give everything I've got, and I'm sure Fitzy and Wally are going to put me in no matter how I'm probably feeling.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I wasn't really sure. My hip had tightened up a little bit. It could be coming from my back as well, so I'm not sure.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Not really. I'm a little bit disappointed only -- it's just frustrating. Last night I felt like I had to do a lot of running against Paradorn and didn't have a problem. I felt great the whole match. (Inaudible) back up two tough matches, you know, those two and a half sets, three sets, was serious running out there for both players today. Whether I happened to play a guy like that straight after a tough match last night, whether that's just throwing my whole body out of whack a bit with my back, I'm not really sure. That's probably the most disappointing -- well, aggravating thing a little bit.

LLEYTON HEWITT: It was tough, you know. But it's tough for everyone. That's the try (sic) of mindset that I tried to have, I guess. We're all in the same situation. It's not too often you get this, and especially in a Grand Slam. You've always got, obviously, that day or two off between every match. Yeah, you got to be very mentally tough, though, and take it and not let it worry you too much, I guess. The tough thing is sitting around all day and just not knowing those three or four days if you're gonna get on or when you're gonna get on, when to eat. The schedule is getting changed left, right and center. It was just a tough situation for everyone.

LLEYTON HEWITT: It's a hard one, I think. You know, probably not, if they could squeeze it in. It makes it extremely tough on the players, I guess, especially the men playing five sets four days in a row. It's a big ask for anyone - especially in these conditions. You know, today and probably the next couple days, it can warm up a bit. Playing in the afternoon can get pretty hot. So, yeah, it's a tough ask, but obviously TV and everything has times and they want the finals on on those times. You got to try and please everyone, I guess.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, women's tennis is different than men's tennis. I could see where Jennifer is coming from. Her match last night probably, I don't know, lasted 50 minutes or something. So the other girl only played I think just over a set yesterday. For women's tennis, I don't think that's too bad.

LLEYTON HEWITT: It's tough for everyone. There's a few days there I didn't get a hit at all. They opened up a couple indoor courts. I had a 15-minute hit there one day. I don't think I played that day either. Then I warmed up on Grandstand, on a wet Grandstand court yesterday morning, and had to go out at 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock or something last night and play Paradorn. So, yeah, it's frustrating for everyone. It's a tough situation whether you've got enough hitting in or whether you've rested enough or rested too much. I don't know what's the right way, what's the best way.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Towards the end of the third set at about 4-3 in the third set I think.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I was feeling it on every serve after that.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I feel good. You know, I'm definitely not as disappointed as, you know, obviously Wimbledon or, you know, other times when you lose matches - only because I felt like I made a huge step up last night playing Paradorn. I played a great match, I felt. Especially coming back from a set down. You had to be mentally tough in that situation last night. Then today I felt like I even played a lot better than I did against Paradorn. I felt like I hit the ball great. If I can continue hitting the ball like I have and make the improvements that I have over the last couple of weeks, then it's a step in the right direction, yeah.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing next year at this stage. I got no idea what I'm doing at this stage. But my preparation, working on how many tournaments I play before the majors will be , hopefully, that I'm peaking for all four majors. So my scheduling before that, you know, before the Slams will, you know, end up, you know, how I feel like I'm gonna be 100 percent and giving everything in the majors.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, you know, you play a lot if you're winning tournaments or doing well in tournaments, I guess. The last few weeks, I obviously haven't had that amount of success that I've had over the last couple of years. But, you know, I don't think that was a problem here at the US Open. I still felt like I was hitting the ball well. I got to the second week. You know, I went up a gear, and I wasn't quite good enough today. Obviously, you know, I took a fair while off after the Davis Cup in Sweden. That was more just I felt like I needed a break more than anything. I just really didn't want to play that many tournaments, especially on clay, leading into obviously the French and then staying over and playing Wimbledon.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, I felt like he played a pretty bloody good game in Shanghai, as well. Obviously, in the end, I was a bit lucky to get over the line being down a break twice in the fifth set. I felt like I played an incredible match in Shanghai to win that. Probably not a lot's changed. The standard we were playing there for three sets today was pretty good. It was definitely up with the standard of Shanghai. In Shanghai I felt like I played great two sets and then, you know, got a little bit tired, I think, in the third and fourth, and somehow was able to find something late in the fifth.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Not a whole heap different. I felt like he was playing pretty well at the end of last year.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Got no idea at the moment. Don't know.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, probably. It's only a couple of days.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I knew it was gonna be an uphill battle, the way that I was feeling. Especially playing a guy like that, who's so fit. Very rarely do you see him lose a match due to fitness. So even if I was two-sets-to-one up, there was no guarantee I was gonna be able to win one of the next two sets. You know, I was still somehow trying to get out of that set. At 5-4 there, came up with two aces on the two wide far lines. You got to just say "too good" to that. In the breaker, I fought back. He played a pretty incredible breaker. He hardly missed a first serve. Smacked a couple huge forehands on to win. Even his backhand up the line at 6-5 was a gutsy shot to go for.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I've got no idea. I haven't spoken to anyone about scheduling or anything, really - in the locker room, no other players or anything. So I don't know what the feeling of everyone else is. I'm sure everyone was, you know, pretty frustrated with the situation. But however it was dealt with, I guess they're all willing to accept it. I'm sure there was a few people that maybe wanted a Monday or Tuesday final or whatever, just to give them a bit more of a break.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Juan Carlos is obviously fitter than Andre, I think, at the moment in their careers. So I couldn't see it being a huge problem. But then again, you know, I think Andre won in straight sets, you know, pretty comfortably today. He didn't have to play yesterday. So, you know, it's a huge swing, you know, in Andre's favor, I'd say. I wouldn't write off Juan Carlos. I haven't seen a lot of their matches. I saw the one in Shanghai last year. He played an incredible match there against Andre. On those courts, Andre's probably got a slight advantage. But he's going to be a very tough competitor, Ferrero.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No, at the moment it's Davis Cup and Slams. You know, I'll schedule my other tournaments. I feel like if you're gonna be No. 1, you got to play a hell of a lot of events unless you can go out there and win two or three majors. I'll schedule my other ATP events just around trying to prepare as well as I can for the majors.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, a little bit. There's also a feeling I could be hurt for playing a grass court final in Australia, Davis Cup, which I hope's the case.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, I didn't really feel it, you know, too much. I didn't feel it in my next match against Bob Bryan. Was only two days later, I think. You know, it wasn't the kind of match -- probably I got through it pretty comfortably. Yeah, it's something I've got to look at. I'm not really sure the cause of it at the moment.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No, I'm not gonna talk about it right now. Thanks.