Media Conference
Transcript - Samantha Stosur, Lleyton Hewitt (Australia)
5/01/2010
Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur
Press Conference
Ladies and gentlemen, the Australians.
How do you think you went today?
(Stosur) Yeah, very good. I’m really pleased that I was able to win going out there first up and I played pretty well. It was nice to be able to take a bit of pressure of Lleyton going in to his match.
You were serving was working well, what else do you like about your game?
(Stosur) Just that I was able to keep going this time. I had to leave the last match and didn’t finish it. That’s kind of what I really wanted to focus on today – that if I got ahead in the match to really close it out. I thought as I started that second set, I saved a few great points and didn’t let her really try and get into it. I was very pleased with the way I served and that kind of helped everything else along too.
Did you feel any extra pressure since the first game?
(Stosur) No not really, I feel like I was still hitting the ball well and was able to win. Every day is different out on the court so you had to forget about all the negatives that happened the other day and just go out there and remember what I can do. I just had to go out there and play and that’s what I did.
You talked about closing out a match. Is that purely a mental thing or is there more to it?
(Stosur) I think it’s all mental. It’s just one of those things. You slightly deviate from what you’ve been doing to get yourself to that point. You’re playing a girl that’s got nothing to lose, who’s just going out there free hitting and swinging and before you know it you’re in a battle and the match is even again. I think a lot is just mental and recognising what is going on out there.
Well Lleyton you must be pretty surprised? You got off to a great start in that match.
(Hewitt) Yeah I was ready to go right from the start today. I got a bit of a sluggish start a few days ago on my first match. It was important to get off to a good start against him and try and jump in early and I was able to do that. He was real sluggish at the start and I was able to put a lot of pressure on his second serve. I felt like I was reading his serve extremely well. But always in the back of my mind I knew he could obviously get back into the match to keep holding serve. He started serving better towards the end of the first set and his second serve was great. With that in mind, I was in a lot of his service games even when he was up 30/40 – 0. I was still able to get back to 40, 30 or deuce and put pressure on him. I was the one having those 0 – 30’s and a couple of break points out there so I was sort of just waiting for my time. I was playing clean service games on my side which was good.
Lleyton you had a couple of winning doubts after your first match but today, did that reinforce where you’re at in regards to the rest of the summer?
(Hewitt) I didn’t really have too many doubts the other day. I actually hit the ball reasonable well as the match went on and I think for anyone its tough, that first match of the year, especially because I hadn’t played for three months. Match conditions are totally different and today’s style of tennis was totally different compared to a couple of days ago.
Lleyton you had some strapping on your right knee, is everything ok there?
(Hewitt) Yeah it’s all good.
Is that what you jarred the other day in the first game? You said jarred your knee.
(Hewitt) Yeah just had a little jar there and its just precaution.
Just looking at mixed doubles now, obviously you’ve already got the tie win, but in terms of trying to get to that final it could be an important match. How are you guys feeling?
(Hewitt) Yeah well we’ll have to serve a lot better than we did a couple of days ago. We didn’t put quite as many first serves and it gave them an opportunity. We learnt a lot from a couple of days ago and mixed doubles is a lot different from when you play men’s doubles and I’m sure women’s doubles as well. It’s totally different dynamics out there and we’ll be better for the run than the other day.
John has sometimes troubled a fair few decent players with his serves, what do you think is the key to breaking his serves?
(Hewitt) I played him a couple of months ago actually in the last tournament that I played in - Shanghai in the masters’ series there. The first round I played extremely well to beat him in straight sets. I just felt comfortable against his game. The toughest thing with him is obviously the height that he gets off the serve and obviously the angle that he can produce. It’s really only himself and Karlovic that can serve like that. As I said I was just switched on from the start and with the second serves I was standing in and making him play a lot of balls.
What do you think was your best aspect of your game today?
(Hewitt) I didn’t do a lot wrong today. I moved extremely well, I passed extremely well and it was as well as I’ve served in a long time. Obviously I returned the serve if I was breaking a guy that big and that many times and give myself the opportunity to do it – I did that alright as well. I’m pretty happy.
You had him running around the court quite a lot. Was that a part of the tactics in terms of tiring him out so he didn’t have as much power?
(Hewitt) Um not really. It’s more about just keeping him off-balanced. A lot of these guys, even the bigger guys, love having a massive lash at the ball especially when they’re set in one position. They can all hit winners from that. It doesn’t matter how big they are out there, they can all hit a lot of big forehand winners. It was more of a matter of keeping him off-balanced as much as possible
Lleyton just on the tension between yourself and Tomic has it gotten out of hand and is it time to just sort everything out once and for all?
(Hewitt) For me I’m not going into it any more. It’s not something I worry about too much and I won’t lose any sleep over it. I’ve done all the hard work over the last couple of months for the Australian Open and that’s just another distraction that I don’t need at the moment.
Is it his father that is more of the problem? Not so much Bernard himself.
(Hewitt) Who knows?
He actually said today that he would like to resolve that conflict with you. Is that something that you would like to resolve?
(Hewitt) As I said, at the moment it’s not my priority. My priority is to give myself the best possible chance of doing well at the Australian open and that’s what I’m doing.
Looking ahead to future Davis Cup titles, is it important that it gets sorted out, if not now but at some point?
(Hewitt) Right at the moment, as I said, it’s not a priority.
Going into the doubles match this afternoon, are there some things you’re focusing on in particular?
(Stosur) I think like what Lleyton said before we’ll try and serve a little bit better than what we did the other day and get off to a better start. Its not always the best start to mixed doubles when you lose to the guys serve, that’s generally the one that you want to try and hold as many times as possible. Just try and start well and move around the net and enjoy it. That’s got to be number one. We have a bit of pressure off now, but we’ll certainly be going out there trying to get through it again.
Thank you very much.
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