NASDAQ-100 OPEN

March 29, 2002

Lleyton Hewitt

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Lleyton.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, little bit. You know, I didn't -- I got off to a bad start as well, which probably hurt a little bit in the end. First game I had a few chances - 30-alls. Then, second game, I was up on my serve and lost it. If you can sort of get into the match, next game I had two break points to get back. Could have been easily up at least one break, you know, on my way. And it makes it a little bit easier from there. You go down straight a break straightaway, it's a long way home.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know. You know, in Australia with the chicken pox and that, that was a case of thinking you had energy when you didn't. But, you know, that's a bit different, too, out there tonight.

LLEYTON HEWITT: He's serving well, but I still had chances. I had a lot of 30-all games. As I said, I had a breakpoint -- few break points early in the first set in the third game. Then I had break points his first service game of the second set as well. So, you know, I had chances out there. You know, he's serving well and he's playing the big points well. In the end, if I played the big points well, could have been a different story.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I think he's getting more and more consistent every tournament. You know, he's had a pretty good start to this year, winning Sydney, playing a great match at the Australian Open, losing to Haas. Then, you know, at least making a final I think somewhere else as well. He's had a good start. I think this year could be a pretty big breakthrough year for him. Whether he's going to get up to top four or five, that's another question.

LLEYTON HEWITT: I didn't think he came in, you know, heaps. You know, he volleys well. He's an all-court player. I didn't feel like I had to, you know, change my game though a lot to go for different shots than I normally would on the pass. I wasn't passing probably as well as I have in the past, but, you know -- in some other matches. But I don't think that was the time to sort of change what direction or how I was hitting the ball.

LLEYTON HEWITT: That was me at the net though. So that's a bit different.

LLEYTON HEWITT: It's 50-50, he guessed the right way.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Got no idea. You know, we'll let them work that out on Sunday.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Not sure yet. We'll wait and see. Probably Monte-Carlo though.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't know. Still up in the air. So it's still up in the air. At this stage probably Monte-Carlo's a chance. Apart from that, I really don't know.

LLEYTON HEWITT: Not heaps, but I definitely don't want to play too little either going in. I have to sort of try to find a happy medium there. Last year I played Rome, Hamburg, Dusseldorf. I felt pretty good, maybe I got a little bit tired towards the end of the French. So I will definitely be taking the week off before the French. That's different preparation than I've had going into the French before, so we'll see how that turns out.