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BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL PRESENTED BY SUNCORPDecember 31, 2013Lleyton HewittBRISBANE, QUEENSLAND L. HEWITT/T. Kokkinakis THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Talented young man? LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, he's obviously got fair bit of firepower out there. Didn't see any of his matches in quallies. Heard pretty good reports though from a lot of the coaches as he was getting through. Yeah, this week is probably a big step up for him qualifying for a tour event and beating the No. 1 seed in quallies in straight sets. Yeah, it was an awkward match out there tonight for me as well. At the Brisbane Davis Cup tie here when we played Korea I tried to help him out quite a bit on this court actually. I was out that tie with a foot injury, so it was sort of a weird feeling out there tonight playing against him. Q. Was a good tie for you, good first round? Second set he gave you a bit of a work out. LLEYTON HEWITT: No, it was good. I'll only get better from now. As I said, it was just an awkward situation really to play him, and something that I just had to hang tough and make him play a lot of balls out there. In the end, I think my experience sort of told. Q. Do you think he's got what it takes to be a really important part of the Davis Cup team in the future? LLEYTON HEWITT: Oh, yeah, he'll be playing not that far away. We saw that year. No one would have predicted Nick to get the opportunity to, one, be in the four‑man squad, and, two, actually play a live rubber as well. Thanasi is probably at the moment one of the next in line. James Duckworth is another one on ranking who is probably the next guy as well. It's hard it saying because Thanasi is obviously a lot younger. James' ranking is still a bit higher, and he beat Thanasi only a month or so ago as well. Q. With Nick obviously battling that injury, there is a chance there may be a wildcard available for the Australian Open. Would you like to see Thanasi get it? LLEYTON HEWITT: I would think Thanasi would probably get one anyway. I haven't spoken to anyone. I don't decide the wildcards. But if they were to come and ask me, I would be surprised if he didn't get one. Yeah, obviously would have been nice if he won the playoff. Then he would just get it himself. But I'll leave that all to the selectors. Q. Do you dare to dream at all about the next match? LLEYTON HEWITT: That's still a tough match. He's going to be really tough on these courts. They're playing a lot quicker this year, as quick a hardcourt as I've played on in a long time, and his game suits this kind of court perfectly. No, it's not going to be easy by no means. I'm going to have to return really well. He's obviously a big lefty, so I'll get, Big Red Guccione out there tomorrow to hit a few serves at me. Q. Did you watch any of his game today? LLEYTON HEWITT: No. No. I had my feet up watching Bernie in Perth. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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