ALBERTO MARTIN defeated LLEYTON HEWITT 1-6 6-1 6-4 7-6 round one

Q. Lleyton, there is a strong feeling around the tennis at the moment that your opponent got away with it there in the tiebreak by calling the trainer. How do you feel about it?

A. I had problems with my legs early on and I went up after I had the break - I was up a break in the fourth set at the time - and I went up to the umpire and I said, 'Can you call the trainer, but I'll wait till the change of ends', just because, you know, it's not the right thing to do at 30-30 in a game. I think it's a shocker what happened at 5-4. He was really struggling at 4-4 when he was running around there and he had to come up with a huge forehand lob at 4-4 in the tiebreak on his own serve. So you can read into it what you like, but you never know if I was going to get out of the situation anyway. I still had to win that set and get out of the break and then win another set as well, but it would have definitely made my chances a lot easier, I think, if we had played fair.

Q. Is there anything that can be done about it? A lot of players seem to use it as a bit of a ploy?

A. Yeah.

Q. What can be done?

A. I don't know. Obviously, I don't know how many referees and people we had sitting on the side of the court. What I saw, there was at least three or four people who saw what happened out there, saw him play the whole tiebreak fine, and then come up with that. Someone has got to put their balls on the line, I think, one of the refs or somebody, otherwise people are going to take advantage of it, like he did today.

Q. Lleyton, how did you feel affected by the chicken pox today and the lack of preparation?

A. Oh, I was struggling out there. You know, it's - hitting the ball, actually, I thought I hit the ball pretty cleanly there. I wasn't on my game as much, but it was just my movement and fitness out there today. I came out and I knew right from the start the way I hadn't played a serious match for at least a week and a half to two weeks, and I wanted to try and put him under the gun straightaway, and I was able to do that. Then I dropped - I actually started feeling a bit tired at the end of the first set, so then I started trying to step it up and just hit winners, and the balls on the court - it was a lot slower out there today than last year, and the balls are a lot heavier, so there has been big changes, and God knows why there have been that bigger changes, I think.

Q. Would it be from your legs just getting you to the balls?

A. For sure, yes. I think everyone knows with my game that I need to be quick around the court, and my legs and my physical strength out there are one of my assets, in my legs and the speed that I get to balls, which a lot of other players don't, and I didn't have that today.

Q. Did you sense right from the start, Lleyton, there was a very muted atmosphere in the whole place? It took a long time for the - - -?

A. What's that?

Q. There was a very kind of quiet, muted atmosphere on the whole court; it took a long time for the thing to come alive?

A. I don't know. I got goosebumps walking out there when they announced me before the match. I love playing on that court, I think it's a good atmosphere and it's a good atmosphere for me. The crowd could obviously sense that I was struggling, and maybe that's why they tried to pull one out as much as they could.

Q. Lleyton, was it a very different feeling to come out as the top seed today?

A. Not that big a difference, I don't think. I go out there and I play to win every time I step on court, and it was no different out there today. It's obviously great to have been the No. 1 seed in a Grand Slam. It didn't turn out as well as I'd like, but there are three other slams for the rest of this year.

Q. Will you make some sort of official complaint about what happened then?

A. No, I don't think so; enough people have seen it. If no-one is going to look at it or - I'm sure it's going to be played on every TV news tonight, but if no-one does anything of their own accord then there's not much point me going and arguing the whole time when I'm sure other people out in the back courts have had the same problem the past couple of days.

Q. Was it just your lack of preparation, or did you also feel the pressure of the whole nation on your shoulders?

A. I didn't have a whole nation, I don't think; I probably shared it with Flip, he's playing extremely well at the moment. I didn't feel the pressure much at all. I love playing in big situations, I love playing for Australia, as I've shown in the past, and for me out there today, you know, I'm not as disappointed as I have been in other matches because I know I went out there today and I wasn't 100 per cent. I went out there and I played for the crowd and I did the best I could, and you're going to have days like that and I can't do much about it now.

Q. What per cent were you if you weren't 100 per cent?

A. I don't know, it's hard to say. I was definitely struggling, though. For me not to last, even though I won the first set 6-1, at about 5-1 halfway through that next game I had to start stepping it up and trying to crack winners and it worked for that game, but then it lost me my first service game in the second set and then I sort of tumbled down, and that is due to my legs at the moment and that energy level, and I'm not Superman, I can't do much about it. I did the best I could.

Q. Lleyton, if this had been a regular tour event, would you have played this week?

A. No, there's no way.

Q. Were you a bit angry with your opponent when he decided to ask for the medical treatment?

A. We have spoken about that, mate; you can get the transcripts after.

Q. Lleyton, in the lead-up to the Open, your fans obviously wanted to hear how you were going and you chose to keep quiet and not say anything. Can you just tell us why?

A. I felt the way that I was going and what I was doing, it was better for me - I can understand people knowing, but also for my competitors as well, do you want me to come out and lie to you and say 'Yes, I feel great, 100 per cent'? I would like to think that I talk the truth the whole time, and for me to come out and say 'Yeah, I'm rearing to go. I can't wait. Ra, ra, ra', it would have been crap, and it would have made everyone come here and expect me to play my best tennis when it was a dog-fight out there for me today. I knew that one of my main strengths in my game wasn't there, and that's just the way that I preferred to go about it. But there is other things as well which - when I was doing my so-called media stuff that I did for the National Australia bank and stuff, I'll tell you the truth, I did not have a clue there was one journalist or a TV camera there, and that's what I was told. So for people to write all that stuff, it is weird because I'm telling you the truth right now, I didn't have a clue that anyone was there.

Q. Lleyton, when did you make the decision? Were you taking it day by day during the week?

A. A decision to play?

Q. Yes?

A. If I was covered in spots and I was still - I couldn't go near anyone, then I wouldn't have played, but I was pretty much going to walk out on the court no matter how bad I was feeling out there. It is the Australian Open, it is the Grand Slam, one of the biggest tournaments for me in the whole year. Of course I would have liked to have prepared better, but I was still going to give it a shot.

Q. What will you do now? Rest? Has the doctor - - -?

A. I don't know. I won't be picking up a racquet for a while. There's obviously issues that I have to look into.

Q. How well do you think you would have lasted had you got into a fifth set?

A. I would have stayed - I'm guessing that I would have stayed the same. The biggest difference that I found was the end of that first set, where I sort of felt like I hit a wall and that's normally what you feel like, you know, late in the fourth, maybe the start of the fifth, halfway through the fifth set normally, and it was just weird for me to feel that out there today. But I felt like I sort of levelled off; it wasn't a great level to have, but at least I wasn't going downhill too rapidly, so who knows? If he is talking the truth, he may have dropped on the ground a couple of games later if he was that bad with cramp. So I really don't know.

Q. Yours was cramp as well?

A. I don't know. I didn't feel it was that much cramp, but my legs weren't right and I felt like I had a - you know, I was getting pains in my upper thigh.

Q. Were you advised not to play, Lleyton, today?

A. No, nobody has told me, you know, we all thought I was healthy enough to play, but five sets is a tough thing to do, though, as well. If it was three sets - as much as I was struggling, I still had 4-4 in the third set, two break points to serve for the set and in the fourth set I still led a break and led 3-0 in the tiebreak, so as bad as I was going I still could very easily have won that maybe in four sets. It is not often that I have so many break points and so many chances and don't get one.

Q. Lleyton, was that the hardest match you have played in your career?

A. I don't know physically, I wasn't puffing or out of - it was just a weird feeling in my legs that I really haven't had before. But physically, the matches in Spain in Barcelona in the Davis Cup, they for me, playing those five sets with Costa in that condition, that took a lot out of me, but I was a lot fitter going into it as well. Today was just a sort of - it was a bit of a nothing thing. I went out there and I was fine at the start and then sort of hit the wall and tried to level off at that, but it can definitely be expected.

Q. Did you go into this tournament well knowing, without saying, that you couldn't win this because of your illness?

A. For me, I felt like the first two or three rounds were going to be the toughest in the tournament. Not looking at the draw, not looking at who I was going to play, but just physically. If I could have maybe got through those first couple of rounds without wasting energy, yes - the way I was out there today I would have struggled even if I had got out of that match today in my second round. But I was just hopeful that if I could get through those first couple of rounds and get into the second week and maybe I would just start bouncing back.
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