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WIMBLEDONJune 26, 2013Lleyton HewittLONDON, ENGLAND D. BROWN/L. Hewitt THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. How do you sum that up? LLEYTON HEWITT: You know, frustrating obviously. Just couldn't really get my teeth into the match. You know, I didn't serve great. You know, I was just off balance a lot of times out there. Yeah, he played well, though. He's very unpredictable out there. He served well, especially when he needed to, on breakpoints. You know, 15‑30, 30‑All points. You know, I didn't quite get a look in. When I did, went up that early break in the second set, couldn't quite keep that break and keep some pressure on him. Q. You said you didn't know much about him. Did he shock you in a way with the way he played? LLEYTON HEWITT: No, I knew he was going to play like that. I watched a tape of his first‑round match. It was pretty much exactly the same. Yeah, all of that didn't really surprise me today. Q. How tough is it, you're playing a guy swinging from the hip like that, to get any rhythm going? LLEYTON HEWITT: It's tough. You don't know what's going to happen next. You have to concentrate on your game, block that out as much as possible. Yeah, you lose your rhythm a bit out there. Then I started pushing on my serve a little bit too much to try to get a cheap point. Yeah, just lost my way a little bit. Q. He was serving and volleying effectively at times. Showed good touch at net. Difficult to pass. Talk about his net game. Was that the difference in the match? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, well, his half‑volley pickups, dropshot half volleys, low volleys were pretty good. His hands, he had pretty good control on tough shots out there. Yeah, he's obviously got great reach. So it's very hard to obviously lob him. But hitting a passing shot as well. When the ball is skidding through a little bit, it's not easy, as well, because he does get pretty close to the net and obviously covers it well. Q. A bit more broadly on sport in Australia at the moment. Today here, Woodward said about Australian sport that it seems not to know which direction it's going, the various storms over the last few weeks. Now you're out of Wimbledon. Do you think Australian sport is losing its way? LLEYTON HEWITT: I'm out of Wimbledon. That's all I've got to say. Q. But more broadly? LLEYTON HEWITT: That's all I've got to say. Q. So when you won that tiebreaker, what was your sense? How did you feel you were positioned in the match at that point? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I still feel like I had a pretty good chance, only because I return pretty well, the second part of the tiebreak. From 3‑1 down to win it 7‑3. Yeah, it was important to keep holding serve first, though, in the fourth set. I was up in that game 30‑15, played a couple of loose points, yeah, got up the break, then it was always going to be pretty hard to chase him from that the way that he was serving. Q. You've seen a lot of tennis over the years. What does it say about the depth of the men's game today that a guy ranked 189 in the world can play like that? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, you got to be careful and wary of anyone you play against. Anyone on their day is good enough. If they can make the draw in a Grand Slam, there's no easy bits. Obviously his game style probably suits this surface more than others. But, yeah, there's a lot of guys that, you know, lose in quallies of the French Open that could go deep, as well, if they had the right draw. Q. Because there's so few serve‑volleyers in the draw, is it difficult to adapt when you come against one? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, a little bit more difficult nowadays than five, ten years ago. Q. What does the future look like of the young guys coming through for Australia? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, obviously they got to take that next step and get into the top 20, top 25 in the world. Bernie's obviously got the biggest chance out of that next group of guys. It's good that a couple young blokes qualified here. We had a couple more in the main draw. Q. Dustin is one of the more eccentric, recognizable characters on the tour. Can you assess what you make of him as a player, as a person, how you see him going forward? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't know the guy at all, so I can't comment on that. Obviously, as a player he's very flashy, yeah, different sort of style of player out there obviously. I wouldn't say orthodox. On this surface he's dangerous against a lot of guys. Q. What about going forward? LLEYTON HEWITT: Who knows. Q. You've been around for many years. From the start in your career, tennis has been a physical, demanding sport. You've had so many injuries. Talk about, is it getting even more physical? All the withdrawals today. Is that a problem, the sheer physicality of it? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it is tough. I don't think it's changed a lot, though, in my 10 years or so on tour. The last 10 years, you know, it's still as physical as it was then. Certain tournaments are more physical than others. Yeah, I wouldn't call Wimbledon the most physical tournament, you know, out of the four majors, that's for sure. Q. What's the number one most physical tournament? Who do you think the most fit player has been of your opponents over these years? LLEYTON HEWITT: Oh, I don't know. There are three other majors, obviously, and depends on heat, a lot of other variables come into it. Players, there's a lot of fit guys. Q. About the withdrawals, Azarenka said the court she played on was not in good condition, more slippery. You know these courts better than anyone really. What's your feeling? LLEYTON HEWITT: I didn't really notice any difference slippery‑wise. Yeah, the first couple of days of Wimbledon's, you know, it's pretty lush, the grass. There's been very little play on it at all. So, yeah, you're always going to see guys slipping over the first couple of days, I think. Q. Are you definitely going to be back here next year? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, definitely. We'll see. Q. Do you get the buzz every time you come to Wimbledon? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, always. Q. Some of the commentators were suggesting you'll go away, have a think about continuing. Is that how you see it? LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know, Mate. At the moment I'm just disappointed. Have to see where we go. Q. What were your expectations coming into the tournament? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, obviously I was just taking one match at a time. Yeah, I was happy with how I was hitting the ball coming in. Every match is tough, though. Q. I believe the last question of your press conference after you beat Wawrinka, someone asked you how deep can you go. You said you wouldn't speculate on that. As soon as you take a guy lightly you're going to be ushered out of the tournament. You didn't do that, did you? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I did my homework. Q. Do you have a sense about the next couple of months, your schedule, what you're planning to play? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah. Q. Can you share any of those? LLEYTON HEWITT: Going to the States, obviously the lead‑ins to the US Open. Q. A pretty full schedule? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, most weeks. Q. Back to the slams and the difficulty. We know the French can be grinding. The Australian heat. The Open in New York can be wretched. In a way is Wimbledon the easiest physically? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, depends on your matches, how many five‑set matches you have, too. It depends on weather. As I said just before, Mate, there's so many variables. If you play back‑to‑back matches. Every year is slightly different. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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