Lleyton Hewitt - 13.1.2013

TENNIS - Australian Open 2013, Tipsarevic b. HEWITT 76 75 63

Q.  I think we could tell by your reaction afterwards, that was a hard one for you to swallow.  Give us your impressions of how it went for you.
LLEYTON HEWITT:  Yeah, I could have easily been up two sets to love.  I fought really hard through the first set.  I had 65, Love30.  In the second set I had 3Love, served for it at 54.
Yeah, against quality players, you got to take those chances obviously.  But, yeah, to his credit, he raised his level and played some great points.  The start of the tiebreak, I didn't do a whole heap wrong.  He served big when he needed to to get out of trouble.
Yeah, towards the end of the second set, it was more just trying to weather the storm and hang in there more than anything.  Even the start of the third set, went down an early break, fought back.  He played a couple of good points to break me late in the third.

Q.  From the double break in the second set, to what degree did you drop a little bit or did he come up with stuff?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  Yeah, it wasn't a lot of me dropping.  I think he was sort of borderline just going for everything at 3Love.  He came off to get the first break back.  Then at 54, he just got confident and got hot, you know, for three or four points there.  I was 3015 up.  Yeah, he played three or four good points in a row to get the break back.

Q.  May be a little bit of an irrelevance, but were you unhappy when he delayed on a couple of challenges?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  There was only one.  For one, he played the shot anyway on a return that wasn't by no means too fast for him.  I don't think it was just a reaction straight to the umpire to challenge.  He'd missed the shot and then decided to challenge.

Q.  Do you feel you gave everything you had during the match?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  I gave a hundred percent, so...

Q.  He's 27, 28.  Why do you think he's taken that long to get to the top 10?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  No idea.  I don't know.  I don't know him at all, so I wouldn't have a clue.

Q.  What did your level today leave you feeling for the rest of the season?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  As I said, I was happy with my ball striking.  My movement was good.  Yeah, the quality of baseline points out there tonight felt pretty high for the most part.

Q.  Could you share something about one of the Chinese male players Wu Di who you played against in Davis Cup two years ago?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  Yeah, he's a good little player.  He hits the ball well.  Yeah, obviously did well to win the Asian wild card playoff.  I think it's just taking him a little bit of time.  Because of his height, he's disadvantaged a little bit.
His ball striking is as good as a lot of other players in the top hundred.

Q.  He told the Chinese media you're one of his favorite players because he's not as tall as some of the other players.  Can you share some experience on how to be aggressive as a nottootall player on court?
LLEYTON HEWITT:  I think it's confidence for him.  Like I said, his ball striking is very nice from the back of court.  He moves extremely well for his height.  He has to work on his serve a bit.
But all in all, he's a nice, compact player.  I think it's just matches and belief against other players.