PACIFIC LIFE OPEN
Date: 2006-03-14

PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 14, 2006

Lleyton Hewitt
INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA
The Moderator First question for Lleyton.
Question What went not quite right for you in that match?
Lleyton Hewitt He played extremely well. He was swinging out there. Yeah, he hit a lot of great shots, off both sides as well. It was very hard to get him behind the baseline on the court.
Yeah, I had a lot of chances in the first set. I was up an early break, had 15-40 a couple of times, Love-30, and didn't take those. When he got confident the end of the first, it got tougher.
Question Do you think not being able to capitalize on those opportunities is more because of the way he was playing?
Lleyton Hewitt You know, a couple of points, I couldn't do much about. 15-40, he hit two huge serves to get out of that game. Yeah, it was another chance I had. I got into a rally. I was on the back foot, but I shanked the forehand passing shot. If I could have made him play, maybe I would have been up the break and serving for the first set.
Against the better players, you've got to take those half chances out there.
Question Do you think that at any stage, he was playing very well, but that he just started to go off the board, maybe go away a little bit, especially the way you broke back in the second set?
Lleyton Hewitt Yeah. You know, I needed it a little bit earlier, though. Yeah, early on he made a couple of errors. I got the break early in the first set. But then there was a patch through the first set, halfway through the first set, where he hardly missed a ball. He was serving big out there. I just felt like I couldn't dictate play.
He's got a lot of firepower and he moves extremely well for a big guy, as well. I came in on him a couple of times. He hit some great passing shots as well.
I didn't serve as well as I needed to. That's something that I've got to try and work on, get the percentages up there and get the cheap points. That's when I play my best tennis.
Question Where does this put you vis-a-vis Miami, your preparation, where do you stand?
Lleyton Hewitt There's a couple of areas I want to work on, get more confident with. That's just a matter of doing it in practice. But you still got to go out and execute it next week in Miami.
There's no doubt I would have liked to have done better here. It wasn't to be. Got to try and draw on some positives and work on the negatives out there.
Question Your thoughts on Guccione, based on what you heard of him, for Davis Cup? Do you think he could step in, things like that?
Lleyton Hewitt Yeah, well, obviously he stepped up in the Davis Cup tie. That's a huge moment for him. I think from what I've seen, he's handled the Davis Cup tie situation pretty well. He's a good guy that we've been able to hopefully blood into that next group coming through. He's still got to get on the main tour week in and week out. That's obviously the next step and the next goal for him.

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