MODERATOR: Questions for Lleyton.
Q. Was that a case of Ferrero being too good today or was there
something else holding you back out there from playing your best game?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, there's no doubt that he's playing great at the
moment. He's going to be very hard to beat. But, you know, I felt like I
just had nothing in my legs today. You know, I felt like I got out there
and didn't feel too bad the first set. Start of the second, I just felt
dead. You know, that's no excuse, though. Obviously, I had a tough match
the match before, going five sets.
But, you know, it really hasn't helped, it's been this ongoing thing where
I haven't been able to do any off-court work for the last year now. So,
you know, if you look at it that way, it's been a good week. I've played
well, considering I haven't given myself the best chance over the last
year or so.
But, you know, then again, all credit goes to him. He was too good.
Q. Towards the end of the first set, you had a really long game on his
serve. After that, the match seemed to go away from you.
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah. It was a big game. Who knows, if I was able to -- it
was 4-3, I had breakpoint. I felt like I was taking it to him at that
point. I was forcing him into some loose errors. You know, I didn't take
advantage of that point. I felt like I had a lot of opportunities. Even
though obviously I was getting hit off the court, I still felt like I had
a lot of opportunities to break back here and there. I just couldn't play
those big points well today.
To his credit, he came out and played extremely well on the big points.
Q. You didn't seem quite as fired up as usual today. Was that because
of the way you felt physically?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I think so. You know, there's not much you can do. The guy
just hit me off the court. He played great. He didn't give me too many
opportunities to get pumped up out there.
You know, I definitely didn't feel a hundred percent, and I didn't feel
into the match like I wish I could have been.
Q. You said specifically about today. But on the whole, you're sort of
inching your way to success here. Is there something in particular you'll
bring back next year that might help you?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it's been a great week and a half for me, there's no
doubt about it. You know, I felt like the last month I've been playing
pretty good tennis on clay, after having about a three- or four-week break
after Brazil.
There's a lot of things, when I look back on this in a couple weeks' time,
there's a lot of good positives I can take away from this French Open, and
a lot of negatives, as well. I've got to take those weaknesses and try and
improve them for next year, hopefully be a better player.
I feel like I've made a big step in 2001, you know, being a better player
than I was here 12 months ago. Hopefully in another 12 months, I'm going
to be an even better player.
You know, clay is a kind of surface I didn't grow up on. You've got to
have experience and grind it out. I'm learning to do that slowly.
Q. Specifically, what are the weaknesses? Just lack of experience so
far?
LLEYTON HEWITT: You know, I think it's hard . Clay is probably the hardest
surface to play seven tough matches on, as well. When I went to Brazil, I
really only had -- I thought I was only going to play the singles there. I
was really only focusing on two matches at that stage. Obviously, a
doubles doesn't take as much out of you as singles. To be able to do it
for a couple of matches down in Brazil, it's a totally different situation
than having to do it day in and day out for seven tough matches.
To play, you know, particularly the last four or five matches, they're
going to be extremely tough matches.
Q. Do you have a prediction now for the tournament?
LLEYTON HEWITT: It's hard to say. I mean, it's going to take a helluva
player to beat Ferrero. Obviously, you know, you can never count Kuerten
out. There's no doubt about it. Last year I thought Ferrero had him in the
semifinals. He came back to win that.
I'd never bet against Kuerten here at Roland Garros. I definitely give
Ferrero a big chance.
Q. Where to from here? What suits your game better about the grass?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know about suiting my game better. I'm still
learning to play on grass, as well. Last year, Wimbledon didn't treat me
too well.
You know, I'm definitely going back to defend Queen's next week. It's a
great tournament, great place. I love the grass courts there. I'm going to
enjoy hopefully getting some confidence there on the grass straight into
it.
Normally, it doesn't take me too long to get back into the grass,
particularly we've played so many Davis Cup ties on grass back in
Australia. It shouldn't take me a week or two to get into it, at least.
Q. Then rest after that?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I'll play Rosmalen the week after.
Q. The intensity that you show on the court, sometimes comes out
verbally, it's brought you a lot of success. Has anyone ever said to you
that perhaps you're overdoing it a bit?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Not really. A few people I've had chats with in the past,
they think it's more of a positive than a negative, that's for sure. You
know, the way that I've played, I've been criticized in the past. The way
that I played at the Australian Open, no one had problems with it. If you
talk to the senior players who know a lot about tennis, Neale Fraser, John
Newcombe, Tony Roche, Rod Laver, they didn't see any kind of problem with
it in Australia.
It's something I just have to ride. That's me. I love getting out there
and competing.
Q. It's also possible that when you do show this intensity in a match,
you're not really aware of it at the time because you're so involved in
the match?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Maybe. You know, if I don't get a call which I seriously
believe I see it one way and the umpire sees it the other way, I'm
definitely going to put my point forward.
Q. When you look at the four Slams, did you always feel like you had as
good a chance on grass as you did on the faster surfaces, or is something
that's developing, as well?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Wimbledon?
Q. Yes.
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, at the start, grass and clay was a little bit of an
unknown, you know, factor for me. I didn't really know how I'd play on it
just because all I grew up on playing in Australia was hard courts.
If someone said, "What are the two Slams you would do best in,"
I would have definitely said the US Open and Australian Open, just because
it's something that comes natural to my game. I've had to work on areas of
my game. I'm lucky that pretty much my game suits all surfaces and I can
play well on all surfaces, but I've still had to work on little areas,
especially tactics to play on clay and grass.
Q. You say your aggression, there's more positives than negatives. Do
you not feel that you overstepped the mark by using terms as
"spastic"?
LLEYTON HEWITT: When I was out there in the heat of the battle, I didn't
realize I said it. If I did say it, it's something I'm not proud of,
that's for sure. I apologize to whoever it may be.
But when I'm actually out there in the heat of battle, I didn't realize I
said it, as I said yesterday. You know, I didn't want to offend anyone,
that's for sure.
Q. Is it something you'll try to go out against in the future?
LLEYTON HEWITT: For sure. It's hard when you're out there in the middle of
a court, you're not happy, you try and take it out on something or
someone. I could have smashed a racquet. There's things that I could have
done better, I'm sure.
Yeah, obviously I wasn't happy with some of the line calls yesterday. I
thought they went against me - or two days ago.
Q. Are you staying around to support Kim now?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I have no idea. Have to talk to Darren. I think she's
doing it pretty comfortably today.
Q. Can she win this, do you think?
LLEYTON HEWITT: She's definitely got a chance, the way she's playing.
Q. Do you get a chance in a Grand Slam to get a feeling for the city
that you're in or you're just too busy? If you do get a chance, what are
your impressions of Paris?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't get too much of a chance. The last couple weeks, I
flew in here late Saturday night, had a small hit Sunday, I was out on the
court Monday to play here, then played every second day. It's been pretty
tough. I haven't been outside the hotel much at all. You know, I've been
at the courts a lot of the time.
What I have seen of Paris over the last few years, I think it's a great
city. I really enjoy coming back here. Especially because it's one of the
Slams, as well. I don't know what the word is for that feeling, but
there's great feeling about coming to Paris to play the French Open.
Q. Does the feeling get better as you do better each year?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I think so. It always gets better when you stay in the
tournament longer. Yeah, I think anyplace, I like playing in Adelaide,
Sydney and Melbourne because I've done so well there in the past. I like
Queen's. You start getting your favorite tournaments where you feel
comfortable and you like the hotels and the stuff there, everything that
surrounds you.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports...
MODERATOR: Questions for Lleyton.
Q. I imagine they don't get much tougher than that.
LLEYTON HEWITT: He came out, I knew he was going to be tough. Surprised me.
He ran down everything. Didn't help that the conditions were slow and heavy
late last night. I think they put a lot of water on that court last night,
so it made it even slower. Struggled to put any balls away.
I felt like I got some rhythm going halfway through the second set. It was a
bit of a shame. I felt like I was starting to be the better player towards
the end of the second set. Lost it in the break, and you find yourself two
sets to love down. That's when I had to try to go up a gear. I tried to take
the unforced errors out of my game.
Q. How important was holding serve in the last game last night?
LLEYTON HEWITT: It was huge. You know, I knew we weren't going to finish the
match last night the way it was going. We were having a lot of long games.
It had been a long match. It was getting extremely dark out there. I went
for a couple of bombs at 15-30 down in that last game. It paid off.
Q. What are your thoughts for the next match?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Ferrero, he's obviously hitting the ball great. I'm going to
have to go out there and I'm going to have to be aggressive right from the
start. You know, I believe if I play my best tennis, you know, I match up
pretty well.
The only time I played him on clay was the Davis Cup final last year where,
you know, I felt like I lost a tight four-setter. But I felt like I had a
lot of chances in that match.
Q. Do you have usually a special way to concentrate before a game?
LLEYTON HEWITT: No. Pretty quiet, to myself.
Q. You prefer to be on your own usually?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, on my own or just with close friends and my coach.
Q. A game like today, it's difficult to start, to play a few games?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it's very hard. We had such a dogfight out there
yesterday for nearly four hours. To come out, it's like a hundred-meter
sprint to finish the match and see who is going to come out of the box
quicker today. That's a tough situation. That's part of being a professional
tennis player.
Q. Could you explain, you're from Australia, how could you still be such
a good clay courter?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I'm not sure. You know, I play pretty much from the
baseline. Clay does suit my style of game. You know, it's taken me a couple
of years on the tour to really mature as a clay court player. I feel like
every match that I'm playing now I'm getting better and better. I'm learning
new stuff about playing on clay. Really a lot of it has come with experience
now.
But I feel like, you know, I've still got a lot to learn about playing on
clay.
Q. Do you enjoy this surface?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah. It's a hard surface to play on. There's no easy
matches on clay. You've got to work for every point. You've got to grind it
out.
Q. You didn't appear to think very much of the umpire at stages last
night.
LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, there was one call where he overruled -- he called one
of mine out -- one of his in, sorry, which I saw it totally differently.
Then I hit a good serve, unreturnable. I couldn't see it. When I looked at
the mark, looked pretty good. Afterwards when I walked around the other side
of the net, God knows how he could call it out.
Q. Was the visibility anything to do with that? You played ever so late,
got kind of dark.
LLEYTON HEWITT: With the umpire?
Q. Yes.
LLEYTON HEWITT: No, that was pretty much early in the match. That was in the
first couple of sets. He obviously saw something totally different. I've
been playing the game for a while. I think I know how a ball mark goes.
Q. In the game nowadays, we're used to seeing bigger and bigger players,
more powerful. Yourself and Ferrero have in common that neither of you are
what you'd call bulky, both sort of lithe players. Do you find the match-up
is just about right with the pair of you?
LLEYTON HEWITT: He's not a big guy, but he hits the ball hard. Especially at
the moment, he's got his confidence going. I think he feels like he's just
about unbeatable out there.
You know, I think it's a matter of -- on clay it's a totally different
situation. You don't have to hit that ball that hard, more strategy and
tactics come into play. Obviously at the moment he's doing that pretty well.
Q. This is the first time you've come back from two sets down, isn't that
right?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yes.
Q. Against a guy who runs down everything, if you let him get ahead of
you, he's the top, sort of tenacious. You must be very, very pleased to have
actually now been able to say, "Not only did I come back from two sets
down, but I did it on clay"?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, for sure. I was disappointed after I lost the second
set because I knew he's had a couple of tough five-setters. I knew if I gave
him a start, he's going to try and finish me off quickly.
It was important to get on top of him early in the third set. Two sets to
one feels a little better. You're starting to edge back into the match. I
got a bit fortunate, got the break early in the third and the fourth and the
fifth. I was able to capitalize on it straightaway.
Q. In the closing stages of the fifth set this morning, were you starting
to get a little bit tight, nervous at that stage?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know about nervous. You know, it's a strange feeling
coming out, my first service game of the day and I'm serving for the match
in the fifth set. You know, it was a weird feeling out there.
I get to 40-Love up. He gave me a couple of cheap points early in that game,
then he went back to his usual game, which is he's not going to make an
error, he's not going to give me anything. I had to work for the points. I
rushed a little bit, I think, on those times, you know, went for it maybe a
shot too early.
Apart from that, I felt like when I came out today, particularly the first
game, I thought I played great.
Q. With the way that Ferrero is playing at the moment, are there any
weaknesses at all?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it's hard to see. You know, at the moment he's playing
great. I'm going to have to -- I'll sit down with my coach, with Darren, try
to work out a game plan. But at the moment, you know, just looking at him,
he's moving unbelievable, his serve's gotten better over the last year and a
half. You know, it's hard to see where you're going to break him down.
Q. You mentioned no Australian winning here since '69. Is that part of
the reason driving you on or is it completely secondary?
LLEYTON HEWITT: No, not really. I'm going out there to give my best anyway.
I'm going out to give a hundred percent every tournament that I play. This
is a Grand Slam. This is one of the major tournaments of the whole year. You
know, you don't need extra motivation going into these tournaments.
Q. Back to the umpire. You were warned for calling him a spastic during
the match yesterday. That was the second time you've done that this week.
LLEYTON HEWITT: I wasn't calling him a spastic.
Q. It was picked up on the microphones.
LLEYTON HEWITT: That's not what I got the code for.
Q. You deny that?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I did not get the code for that.
Q. What was it for?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I'm not sure. It wasn't for that.
Q. Either way, you were heard calling him a spastic. You did that on
Monday, as well. Is this something you regret later? Is it something you're
trying to work on? Do you see that it's bad for your image?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I didn't call him one. I can't recall calling him one.
Q. You certainly are known for your intensity out there on the court. I
just want to ask, where does that come from? Does it feel good? Does it help
your game?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I'm very intense on the court. You know, I love
competing. I love getting out there and playing the big matches. You know, I
think that was just born in me. I love getting out there, even if we're
playing any type of game outside, you know, I want to win. That would have
been the same in anything that I did.
Q. Does it help your game?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I think me personally it does, yeah.
Q. Looking back to that Davis Cup final, having played him and losing to
him in four sets, how much more motivation does that really give you for
this round, and what's different that you're going to have to do in this
quarterfinal compared to last time?
LLEYTON HEWITT: You know, it obviously hurt in Barcelona to lose the last
match of the Davis Cup final. There's not too many worse feelings I think in
tennis than that. You know, he was too good on the day. I felt I gave
everything I had, considering two days before I had a tough five-setter
against Costa. In those conditions, I thought I put up a pretty good fight.
You know, I obviously gave him a two sets to love start, as well. That's
something I'm going to have to try and work on tomorrow.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports...
French Open rd one Lleyton defeats Mathieu
MODERATOR: Questions for Lleyton.
Q. Staying out there that long, having that hard a match, a good thing or a
hard thing at this stage?
LLEYTON HEWITT: It's hard to say. Definitely didn't do me any favors about
when I had to play, that's for sure. You know, they definitely looked after
their own players out there today with having me having to go out there first
match after, you know, playing a pretty tough week last week, four good
singles matches, a doubles match.
You know, I'm happy to get through it. It's nice to be into the second round
now. I think that guy was a great player and I had to work extremely hard to
beat him.
You know, I think fitness held in the end.
Q. What do you think it was that made it difficult for you today? Did you
feel you were on top of your form?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Not really. I didn't feel like I hit the ball great. As I
said, you know, it's hard playing an event last week, you know, playing a lot
of matches, then coming in first match of the whole tournament on the first
day. You know, it was hard to get up. You know, the legs were a bit tired
still after playing on Saturday.
As I said, I'm just happy to get through now.
Q. You get to this portion of the year, what do you do practice-wise? You
play so many matches. Have you these events back to back. Do you continue
practicing or is it a warm-up? How do you feel about the fact that you're not
practicing like you do when you have more time?
LLEYTON HEWITT: You know, it's impossible to put too many practice hours on
the practice court now. You know, we're going back to back tournaments every
week. I'm playing through to Wimbledon. After Wimbledon is my next break. I've
been doing it the last three weeks.
You know, that's something, when I get a day off, I want to put the feet up
and relax. In The Masters Series events, you don't get too many days off. I
was playing singles and doubles in one of them. You know, especially here, in
the days off that I'm going to be having, I'm just going to put the feet up.
I'll only go out and hit for half an hour, 45 minutes max. Apart from that, I
warm up for my match a good 15, 20 minutes, that's it.
Q. Do you prefer that to practicing?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Hard to say. In the big tournaments, that's all I do. That's
what I'm used to. That's how I feel confident. That's when I play my best
tennis.
Q. You haven't had a heap of experience on clay compared with, say, hard
courts. How do you feel here this year compared with last year?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I think every match that I play is getting better and better
on clay. I'm still learning a helluva lot of things. That's one area of my
game which experience is going to help in the future. Two, three, four years
playing here down the track, I'm going to be a better player.
At the moment I've got to go out there and work on my game as well as
practice. I don't think I played great out there today, but I'm still going to
take things away from that match that I can improve for the rest of the
tournament.
Q. What do you know about Davydenko?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't know a whole heap about him. I think Bjorkman
was a bit sick out there today. He probably didn't give him a good run.
You know, I really -- never seen him play. I know Pat played a hard match
against him this year at the Aussie Open. I'll probably speak to a few of the
boys in the locker room, hopefully find out as much as I can.
Like today, I knew nothing about the guy I was playing either. That's a hard
situation.
Q. Do you anticipate that your form will improve in time for Wednesday's
match?
LLEYTON HEWITT: You know, I've been playing well. I played great, I think,
against Safin a few days ago.
You know, no time to press the panic button, I don't think. You know, sport,
you have good days, you have your bad days. The good players, when they have
their bad days, find a way to get out of it. That's what I did today.
You know, if I'm not playing great, I've got to go back to my basics, go back
to my strengths, just dig deep.
Q. Can you sum up how you've actually developed experience as a clay court
player, what you've learned, in what way you're a different player on clay
than you were two years ago?
LLEYTON HEWITT: A lot's got to do with movement, you know, just sliding,
getting that feeling of grinding out there. That's probably the main area. I
never grew up playing on clay, so it's a totally different situation for me.
The other thing, you know, is just strategy. You're expecting to hit a winner.
If you hit some shots on clay that you hit on hard court, they're going to be
a winner. They come back that extra time. It's a totally different strategy
and tactics playing on clay.
You know, you learn heaps at such a young age playing these big tournaments,
playing great clay court players week-in and week-out. You learn little bits
about their game, as well.
Q. Did you see shades of yourself in Mathieu today? Never gave up really
all day, did he?
LLEYTON HEWITT: No. He's going to be a good player, no doubt about that. I'd
never really seen him play before. I think he was a top junior. You know, he's
going to be very good. He's got a good serve, he's got good groundies. He
missed a few volleys out there. That's something he's going to be able to work
on.
Overall, I think experience and probably not being able to play best-of-five
tennis before has probably hurt him.
Q. The new T-shirts, is today the first time? Did you have any sort of say
in them?
LLEYTON HEWITT: No, this is the first time I wore the color. It's a bit
strange out there actually (smiling). No, I just -- they showed me probably a
few months ago, and I said, "Yeah, I'll give it a go. " Paid off.
Glad I didn't lose in it.
Q. Do you rate yourself as a player capable of winning this or are you
still talking about what will happen in two or three years? Do you still feel
a little bit away from being at that standard?
LLEYTON HEWITT: You know, it's hard to say. I think if I play matches that
I've played, you know, the last few months, for example, the Safin match, the
Squillari match in Hamburg, the Haas match in Rome, the Brazilian Davis Cup
match, if I can put those together for another six matches, then I'm going to
be hard to beat.
But then to be able to do it back to back for another six matches is a totally
different thing. What I did in Brazil, it was great, but it was two singles
and a doubles. To be able to do it for seven singles matches, that's going to
be the hard thing.
Q. On the scheduling that you were referring to before, is it a case where
you would expect the organizers to obviously see that you'd played a final on
the Saturday, perhaps do something about it? Is it up to you to have some
input? How does it work and how should it work?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, you know, I just think coming -- I only got in late
Saturday night, very late. To come out and have one day's practice here at
Roland Garros, then come out. That's not the point. My half was drawn to play
Monday. I've got no problem playing Monday. I would have thought maybe third
or fourth match would have been a bit more sensible, especially considering
I'm No. 6 seed here, as well.
Q. In the time that you've played at this level on clay, has the game
changed at all? Is the way it's being played on clay now over the past couple
years changing at all what the guys are doing out there?
LLEYTON HEWITT: I've only been around two or three years at this level,
playing on clay. You know, for me it hasn't changed much. It's only been
probably the last year and a half that I've really been competitive with the
top guys on clay. You know, it's hard for me to say if it's changed at all.
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