HYUNDAI HOPMAN CUP XXIV – Transcript Lleyton Hewitt (Australia)

Written by: Staff on 7th January 2012

HYUNDAI HOPMAN CUP XXIV - Transcript Lleyton Hewitt (Australia)

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia gestures during the session 6 men's singles match against Richard Gasquet of France at the Hopman Cup tennis tournament in Perth, Australia, 03 January 2012. EPA/TONY MCDONOUGH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

5^th January 2012

Does it feel good going out on a good note winning those two matches tonight?

Yeah obviously the singles was good to get out of it in straight sets. He’s a tough competitor and I knew it was going to be tough because I had seen him play in Davis Cup a couple of times before. He’s actually a lot better player than his ranking by a long way. He doesn’t travel out of China I don t think too much. It was good to get out there; we had some pretty tough rallies out there. Obviously he moves extremely well and he really makes you go out there and beat him. He doesn’t give you too many check points.

You pushed Verdasco and Gasquet all the way and you had a win today – overall a successful tournament for you?

Yeah it was good. Obviously that was the focus – to come here and get plenty of court time and just test the moving out and try to get my ball strike as close to where I want it going into Melbourne. The three matches have been perfect for me.

And fitness wise how are you feeling?

Fitness I feel good. Yeah my fitness has been good which is a positive.

And your big toe?

Oh it’s hanging in there. It’s going alright.

So are you confident it will hold off you know going into the Sydney International and the Australian Open?

I hope so, I hope so.

Is there much pain when you’re out there moving about?

Not too bad.

Sydney – you’re looking forward to that? You’ve changed roles this year?

Yeah I’m the ambassador of the tournament so I’ve tried to help out a little bit obviously behind the scenes and just with a few different things. It’s been good. I think the tournaments got a solid base but it’s a lot of room for improvement to become a bigger tournament worldwide – obviously it’s one of the greatest cities across the world as well. Hopefully it can go from strength to strength.

How exciting is it to be back on the tour again?

Yeah it’s alright. Right at the moment I’ve just sort of been doing my own thing and focusing obviously on just these four weeks really, not the fulltime tour yet, the grind. These are the easier weeks because I’m in my backyard, in my home country. But then again you obviously have a lot more pressure and expectations going into matches in your country.

With the Grand Slam coming up, obviously you didn’t get to play in many last year, but was it exciting knowing that there could be four coming up this year if your body stays fit?

Yeah well I’m just focusing on the Aussie at the moment. That’s the priority and then we’ll worry about the others later on. I still play the game, for the big tournaments, you get an adrenaline buzz every time you step out there in a Grand Slam.

Things like the Olympics – do you look that far ahead or is it purely just the Aussie Open?

I’d like to play the Olympics but right at the moment, as I said, it’s on a totally different surface and I enjoy playing on grass so if the opportunity comes up then I would love to.

Competing as wild card at the Australia Open, that’s different as well, you must be glad that you’re playing there?

Yeah it doesn’t make any difference to me. At the end of the day you go into a tournament, and last year I wasn’t seeded either, I drew Nalbandian first round, so it’s exactly the same situation. You can draw anyone from the first round and obviously those top guys are going to be tough first up, but even if you can get a lower seed and take their position in the draw, it can open up like that. I won’t be looking too far past my first opponent.

Lleyton I have a couple of questions about mixed that you’ve played in the past actually. You played a few times when you were really high in the men’s single ranking; you played mixed doubles at Grand Slams which is very unusual for a top male to do. What made you decide to do that?

Not sure. I only played it a couple of times and made the Wimbledon final once. But as you said if you’re going deep into the singles by 5 sets, it’s extremely hard to play. Even trying to play doubles as well – I won the doubles at the US Open, made the singles semi, and that was tough to do.

With the Olympics coming up a lot of players are talking about playing singles and mixed which is now an event – do you think that’s unfeasible for people to do?

Everyone’s different I guess. I think for women’s players its fine; you know playing best to three sets, it’s totally different. A lot of the best womens players, you know the first three or four rounds they get through quite comfortably. On the men’s side it’s important to have that day off sometimes.

And also you’ve played mixed with player’s you’ve been in relationships with – Kim Clijsters. How is the dynamic different when you’re on court like that?

It’s not that different. We were fortunate we were both good players at that time.

So the communication is not different?

No not that different.