WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS
Date: 2007-08-14

WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 14, 2007

Lleyton Hewitt
CINCINNATI, OHIO
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question Pretty easy, huh?
Lleyton Hewitt Yeah, it was a tough one. Another long match in the heat. But that's what you need heading into a Grand Slam. You know, three-set matches where you finish in the tiebreak is never easy.
It's a little bit of a toss of the coin in the end. You got to be able to play some big points well in the tiebreak, and I felt like I was able to do that today.

Question The double faults I'm sure you wish you could take some of those back.
Lleyton Hewitt Yeah, just didn't quite hit the spots on a couple of them. I hit a bad double fault when I was up 3-1 in the tiebreak. Apart from that I played pretty good tiebreak breaker.
That was my only real unforced error in the breaker. I would have liked to have had that back at the time, but I focused and got on with it and got out of it.

Question Where are you with your game now? Are you satisfied? How satisfied are you with where you are right now?
Lleyton Hewitt I have some good days where I feel like I'm hitting the ball well. I guess Federer last week I felt like the ball striking in that match was pretty good by both of us. There was only a few points here and there.
I had a lot of breakpoint opportunities and he came out and served extremely well. If I could have taken a few of those chances it could be been different. Yeah, since Hamburg I've been playing pretty well, making the semis there. The guys that I lost to in other tournaments since then have had to play extremely well to beat me.

Question Were you just relieved when you hit that volley winner and the match was over?
Lleyton Hewitt Absolutely. 6-5 in the tiebreak, I think so.

Question What were you thinking as you saw that opportunity for that winner on match point?
Lleyton Hewitt Don't miss it. I played a good point. I structured the point well. I had him moving, but he's a dangerous guy. I came in a couple times on his backhand pass earlier in the match and he had a couple of big winners up the line when I came in on pretty good approaches, so I was a little bit weary of that.
I just hit enough on the backhand cross-court approach shot that he couldn't quite get a good hit on it. So you just have to basically get it back in court and I took the initiative and put the volley away.

Question Did you notice your shirt was similar to the linesmen's?
Lleyton Hewitt Yeah. It was last year as well.

Question When you hit the ball out of the stadium, understandably excited, how excited were you? This is an early round match when you look back on things.
Lleyton Hewitt It was probably a bit more relief to get out of it and get to the next round. Obviously had to save a lot breakpoints at the end of third set there and came up with some big serves and got out of a few tough situations. I was relieved it get out of it against a dangerous opponent.

Question How much does is that help you for the later rounds, surviving a third-set tiebreaker?
Lleyton Hewitt As long as it doesn't hurt you physically. I have to play another guy tomorrow, Gasquet, who gets a bye. That can either help or hinder you. So it really depends on how I guess my body pulls up.
I feel physically fine at the moment and hopefully it won't be a problem. I got a match under my belt, so hopefully it'll help me.