US OPEN

September 2, 2002

Lleyton Hewitt

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it's good, especially it's 12:30 now. Obviously, you know, I was meant to be a night match anyway, just kept getting pushed down and down in the courts. So, you know, I was still planning on playing going on 8:30, I guess anyway. Wasn't a huge difference for our match rather than some of the other matches that had to hang around all day.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, well, I was in my hotel room the whole day basically, just basically preparing to play on Stadium tonight. Jason called me and said they're thinking about moving me to Armstrong. We didn't know what time. They were going to give me not before 8 or 9 o'clock. Next thing, I hear a rumor going around they were probably going to call off my whole half, which seemed to me pretty sensible at the time. They're not pushed for that many days at the moment. Then I found out that I'm going on Grandstand. So it was a bit of a shock. But I was prepared to play a night match anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No. It's tennis. You can't do much about it. You know, I would have liked to have played on Stadium, but it's no big deal to me. I knew -- I'd actually played Jiri two years ago in the third round here when I played the semis, I played him out in Grandstand. I wasn't that disappointed about going back out there.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, we could do that. Be like Australia. Be a good idea.

LLEYTON HEWITT: That's why I think the Australian Open and the players and organizers, sponsors, I guess, and TV is perfect. It's so easy, especially now we've got two. It's a dream down there. You know, I'm lucky enough that most of my matches are going to be on those two courts. I'm going to know I'm going to play at least when I'm scheduled to play. Sometimes it's a bit of a disadvantage if you go indoors and other guys in your half don't get to play, stuff like that. At the end of the day, TV is a huge thing for tennis. No offense to all the old matches and stuff, when you got to watch it four or five times, it wears you out a bit (laughter).

LLEYTON HEWITT: It was pretty good. You know, I was -- first few games I felt like I wasn't quite hitting the ball well enough. I was feeling him out, I felt like. I was getting in good rhythm. I was able to step it up. I felt like I started playing pretty well. In the third set he sort of raised his game a little bit. He was on a bit of a downer the whole second set pretty much. He was able to stand up. He's a very underrated player. His serve, when it's on, he's tough to break. He hasn't got a huge serve, but he hits the corners well and returns well. He's putting pressure on your service games every time. I felt like I served really well tonight, which was a huge thing against a guy like Novak.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I block out most things out there. I just don't know what I'm thinking, my mindset, sort of out there -- I don't, you know, when I get fired up, obviously I like to feel the emotion of the crowd. Very rarely do I hear much of what anyone says - even if my parents or my coach or whoever, comments in the corner, people are saying "Come on" and stuff. I sort of hear it vaguely, but I can't really -- I'm in that much of a zone out there that it doesn't affect me too much.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Don't even care about it.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, it's different I guess because, you know, normally, you know, I guess the further you go in the tournament it's gonna get more and more hype. Obviously the third round against James was a pretty hyped up match, I guess, beforehand. And, you know, it was probably, you know, obviously playing on Grandstand and tonight at 12 o'clock was not the best atmosphere out there with a full house. So it's different, but, you know, you still know. That's when the great players, I think, pick up their level and try and block it out and just get the job done and get off and into the locker room and worry about the next round.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I felt pretty good going into the match. I played him three times before that, once I think when I was maybe 17 years old, 16 or 17. Then the next time I played him it was US Open, and this year I played him in Hamburg and played pretty well, I thought. Pretty convincingly beat him there on clay. So I was feeling reasonably confident going in. I felt like my game matched up pretty well to his as well. I felt like I could chase down enough of his balls to sort of make him go for sort of the wrong shot here and there.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, he's that kind of player, though. I don't -- as I said, I don't think he matches up great against me.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I'm not sure. But, you know, I think I served pretty well here last year, especially in, you know, the latter stages, the quarters, semis, and final. I don't know number-wise, but it was definitely up there. I felt like I had, for most of the match, pretty good rhythm.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it's probably going to be a small advantage, I guess. But then again there's only one guy from my half's gonna get through to use that maybe to your advantage. So, you know, at the moment I'm just worried about Ferreira or El Aynaoui. I'm not concentrating on the other half at all.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I've practiced with him a bit the last few weeks. He's a bloody tough player. He's good at everything. Surprising that the last couple years he has sort of one good result here and there, winning Stuttgart. He beat me two years ago in the final there. Apart from that, he's had a lot of average losses for him I guess. It's no real surprise, I don't think to the players, to see him come out and have an opportunity of making the quarters.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I've played him three times. I think I lead 2-1. Beat him on grass and clay and lost to him on hard court.

LLEYTON HEWITT: He's a tough player, very flashy, huge forehand. Little bit like Novak. He has a big first serve but he hits the corners very well. You wouldn't say he has a Roddick or Sampras kind of serve but it's tough to return. You know, both got big forehands, that's their strengths. Obviously got to open up their backhand as much as possible with both guys.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No, I haven't seen any of him. He hasn't spent too long on the court for me to watch it.

LLEYTON HEWITT: In some ways, but I guess Andre's done that a lot of times though. He's probably the best guy at rolling over guys very quickly, I guess. Once he gets his nose in front, he's extremely tough to get back in the match with. You know, I probably would have thought that Gambill would have given him more of a match though. Apart from that, his first three matches, I couldn't see those guys doing too much against him. But Gambill, even though his record wasn't great against him, I thought Jan-Michael was going pretty good.

LLEYTON HEWITT: We'll see when I get there. If we both get there, then it will be a good match.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Not really. I probably played a little bit negative for the first couple points. Then, you know, the last couple of points he just slapped winners off my serve. The last one I hit a pretty good first serve out wide. He picked it up, slapped it up the line. Wasn't a lot I could do about it. He sort of went out with the "all or nothing attitude," I guess, in that last game. You know, it was good, though, that I was able to try and block it out and still break the next game and hold easily.

LLEYTON HEWITT: It was strange.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I wasn't sure if he didn't expect me, because I went for a slice out wide, I think he was just expecting a kicker to his backhand to start the point. I don't know. Was a bit strange.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I feel pretty good. I've got through my matches pretty quickly apart from the Blake match. Sometimes it's nice in the first few rounds, I guess, to have one of those tough matches and get through it. It realizes, you know, how hard in some matches you got to work to get through those tough ones. Sometimes those surprise packets in the first few rounds help you, it's a little bit of a wakeup call when you go into it. Obviously I knew it was going to be an extremely tough match though, in the third round. I'm pretty happy. It's nice in these conditions and waiting, you know, seeing a round of play tonight, getting done, you know, nice to have a straight sets victory.

LLEYTON HEWITT: No. Wednesday, I guess. That's what I'm thinking. But if I get through one of the times, it's gonna have to be a two-day break there. I don't know what they're thinking.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, pretty good. Yeah. I feel pretty strong at the moment, so...

LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know. I'm sure maybe a satellite. I don't know.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah. Didn't happen at Wimbledon. Yeah, I don't know.