Media Conference
Transcript - Lleyton Hewitt (Australia)
5/01/2010
Lleyton Hewitt
Courtside
Ladies and gentlemen would you give Lleyton a big hand. He has got Australia back into the Hopman Cup. Lleyton you faced a difficult opponent but you seemed to take this game apart quite well today.
Yeah I played extremely well. John is always going to be an awkward player for anyone. He’s pushed Federer before, he beat Roddick in 5 sets in a thrilling match in the US Open at the end of last year. I played him a couple of months ago so I kind of knew what to expect. Obviously he and Ivo Karlovic have a couple of the biggest serves in the game. I returned extremely well, I made him play a lot of balls out there and really stepped up my game.
How did you go reading his serve?
Pretty good. I was on it right from the start and was ready to go. I was really mentally prepared as soon as I got out here which was important. I got that early jump on him which was huge because that gave me the first set. That gave me a lot of confidence. Obviously he was always going to pick up his game in the second and he started serving a lot better and I was just happy that I was able to break towards the end.
Now your own serve was pretty hot today too, you must be pleased with that. Let’s have a look at the big screen at a couple of your serves from the second set. You ditched down a few aces.
Yeah it was nice to get a couple of my own. I was on the returning end of it, so it was nice to serve well today and play clean service games and then throw a lot more of the pressure back on him. Sorry about that to the lines lady. I don’t hit too many aces so I’ve got to be happy when I do.
And the pressure is off now for the mixed because you and Sam have both had good wins. You can go out there and enjoy yourselves a little and perhaps get good combinations going.
Yeah absolutely it’s good for us to go out there and enjoy it and to get to know each others games a little bit better. It’s hard to come and because I don’t play a lot of doubles at the best of times and mixed doubles is a totally different format as well, so it’s not easy for both of us to come out and snap straight to it. That’s what happened in the first day but obviously if we want to try and qualify then even if things fall our way, we’ll need to win the next couple.
Well go out there and enjoy it. We certainly enjoyed your singles. Lleyton Hewitt.
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