Day 10 - Lleyton Hewitt interview
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Q. Just a matter of coming up against someone who knows how to play on clay?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah. Yeah, he was too good. You know, there was -- you know,
I tried hanging in there. You know, trying a few different
things out there.
You know, I just didn't feel like I was hitting the ball as
cleanly as I've probably been hitting it over the last week
or so.
You know, against a guy like that, you know, he's very
confident at the moment, especially on this surface, I think.
And, you know, his movement's as good as anyone's on this
surface.
Q. How much did you learn this week or in the last few weeks on how to play
on clay yourself?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, I'd like to think that I learned, you know, a fair bit,
I think every time. But I think only time will tell. You know,
when I look back on, you know, there's not that much time now
to reflect before you're in another big tournament in a couple
weeks' time.
You know, I guess when you sit down and think about the whole
clay court season, I'm sure I'll reflect, you know, on the
positives and negatives. You know, I think there was a lot of
positives to, you know, come out of the last couple of months.
Q. They flashed a stat near the end of the match saying Gaudio made something
like seven forehand errors the entire match. Have you played a guy who has
been as steady off that side recently?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't know how many backhand errors he made. But, you
know, normally, his backhand is one of the best single-hand
backhands out there, and I think everybody knows that. His
forehand occasionally lets him down, but it's not a real
weakness, I don't think, and especially on this surface,
because he changes from defense to offense as well as anyone
I think out there. You know, even though he's sometimes, you
know, so far behind the baseline, he's able to somehow turn
that around.
You know, today was no different. He plays with great margin
over the net out there. He's not going to give you those cheap
errors.
Q. And how do you now switch back into grass court mode? What is your
preparation like for Wimbledon?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I don't know. You know, you've just got to get on the
grass. I play Queen's next week, then a week off.
Yeah, I've always been able to, you know, change pretty well.
You know, I've won Queen's at least I think three times. And
I've always played well there. But it's not an easy thing to
do. For some reason, I've been able to adjust maybe a little
bit better than some of the other people in the past.
But, yeah, until now I hadn't really, you know, started
thinking about grass.
You sort of hit me and I haven't even really thought about,
you know, thinking about Queen's or Wimbledon at this stage.
Q. In which way the quarterfinal here can help you for Wimbledon, apart from
confidence, of course? Is there anything you can learn from that two weeks
to go to Wimbledon?
LLEYTON HEWITT: No, I think confidence more than anything and winning matches,
winning four matches to get to the quarterfinals.
Obviously, it's a totally different surface. There's going to
be probably, you know, different guys in the quarterfinals
maybe, you know, at Wimbledon in a couple weeks' time. We'll
have to wait and see. But, you know, it's a big change from
playing on clay to grass, I think.
But, you know, obviously for me, I think I draw more
confidence and, you know, feel good I guess about going into
the grass because I've had a pretty good record on grass in
the past.
Q. Overall, how would you assess your tournament here at the French?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I played well. You know, I felt like I was hitting the
ball as well as I probably ever have during the whole French
Open, the whole tournament I think more than anything. You
know, I've played a couple of good matches here in the past.
You know, good sets here and there.
But I think in general, my four matches got better and better
as the tournament went on. You know, Verkerk and Malisse, I
had to play extremely well to win those two matches. And
today I just lost to a guy that was too good.
Q. After the first set, did you try to do anything differently for the next
set or even the third one?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Uhm, yeah, I tried, you know, coming into the net maybe a
little bit more now and then. You know, looping, you know, a
few balls up, try and get him on the defense, then try and
attack.
But as I said before, his defense was so good, especially
today. You know, he's very good at any time, but especially
today he was able to get that ball back extremely deep, so he
didn't give me a lot of chances to actually attack him out
there today.
He's a class player on this surface.
Q. On the line of what you were saying, the need for more clay courts in
Australia, you think they could make the transition from clay to other
surfaces is less difficult than other surfaces to clay?
LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I do. I know Fitzy is a big believer in it. I know
there's a lot of guys, you know, former players and stuff
from Australia who are strong believers in it.
But, yeah, you watch a guy like Coria, Ferrero, Nalbandian,
these kind of guys move on this surface, you know, it's
really a joy to watch, they move so well out there. You
know, Coria probably at the moment's the best. I would say
Gaudio is probably close behind him, I'd say.
I just think the game's changed in a lot of ways. There's not
those serve-volleyers out there nearly as much nowadays. Even
on grass, as we have seen in the last couple of years, and
when I won Wimbledon, you can win from the back of the court.
I think it's easier to adjust from clay to grass rather than
vice versa.
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