Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

An email conversation with Lleyton Hewitt: 'Stepping on to a grass court I get a big smile on my face'

Playing on the best courts in the world at Queen's; Why he believes he can win another Grand Slam; Falling to Federer on the grass at Wimbledon; What Andy Murray means to British tennis. By Paul Newman

Paul Newman
Monday 29 May 2006 00:00 BST
Comments

You've had a very unlucky run with injuries over the past year. How confident are you about your current fitness? Even though I haven't played a lot of matches I'm pretty confident going into the French Open and then the four weeks in London. I enjoy this time of year, especially playing on grass. If you have a positive outlook it makes you feel a lot better about your body and your form.

Do you put the fact that you've won only one title in the past 21 months down to the injuries? A bit, yes. It's obviously tough when you can't get on the court. The tournaments that I have played in have been all the big ones and the matches that I've lost have been to exceptional players. I've had some tight matches. I've made the quarter-finals or better in seven of the last eight Grand Slam tournaments that I've played. If you keep putting yourself in that sort of position you have to hope that things will turn. I certainly don't feel that I've been that far off the pace.

You're playing doubles as well as singles at the French Open. Is that in order to practise your volleying in time for the grass court season? That's not the only reason. There are a lot of factors. Playing every day might help me in the singles as well in that I can get some matches under my belt. The Davis Cup is also a factor: this is a chance to play with Wayne Arthurs, another Australian. It will also give me some good match practice going into the grass-court season.

Your preparations for last year's grass-court season were badly disrupted by injury. You only made your comeback at the Stella Artois Championships, yet you reached the quarter-finals at Queen's and the semi-finals at Wimbledon. Do you think you can get back to form as quickly this year? I think so. Last year was probably as tough it was ever going to be in that I went into Queen's having missed the whole of the clay-court season. I had to be mentally very tough. I didn't feel I played my best tennis at Queen's, but I got better over the grass-court season. At Wimbledon I thought I was playing some pretty good tennis. I had a tight match against Roger Federer once again in the semis. It would be nice to take it one step further and maybe reach the final this year.

You've won the title at Queen's three times. Do you generally find the transition from clay to grass quite easy to make? It's never easy, but I always have a very positive outlook on it and that makes it a lot easier. I really enjoy playing on grass. As soon as I change from clay-court shoes to grass-court shoes I probably have a big smile on my face. I really enjoy going out there and playing in those conditions. It's really hard to beat the grass courts at Queen's. To my mind they're the best grass courts in the world. They're an absolute pleasure to play on.

The most successful grass-court players have usually been big men with a powerful serve-and-volley game. Why do you think you've been so successful on grass? I drew a lot of strength from watching a guy like Andre Agassi win Wimbledon and beat the big servers, such as Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic. On grass I try to take care of my service games as best I can, but the big thing for me is to put pressure on my opponent's serve. If I return well, as I have done at Queen's and Wimbledon in the past, it makes my life a lot easier.

Are you confident that you still have more Grand Slam titles in you? You haven't won a Grand Slam tournament for four years but you're still only 25 years old. I'm still relatively young, even though I've been around a long time. In recent years I feel as though I've been knocking on the door to win another Grand Slam title, but Roger Federer has been taking a lot of them home. I'd love nothing more than to hold up another Grand Slam trophy and Wimbledon would be one of my favourites to do that.

You've lost to Federer in the quarter-finals and semi-finals at the last two Wimbledons and until this year's Australian Open you'd lost to the eventual champion in seven successive Grand Slam events. Do you think the luck of the draw has been against you? I don't know about the luck of the draw. At any tournament you have to be prepared to beat everyone to win it. Whether I might have lost to Roger in the final if I'd been in the other half of the draw I'll never know. He's definitely been the best player on grass in recent years. I don't know whether I've been second or third behind him, but I've felt that he's been the only guy able to beat me on grass in the last couple of years at Wimbledon. Even though I've lost to him, the fact that I've beaten the other guys to get that far has given me confidence that I'm still doing things right.

What was the best match you've ever played? It's hard to say. I've been in some big matches. Beating Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup in 2003, when I came back from two sets and a break down, was one of the biggest matches I've ever played.

People often compare Andy Murray to you. Do you see similarities in your games? And how far do you think Andy can go? I see some similarities. He's aggressive and very competitive out on the court. He's a great baseline player. He moves extremely well. He can go a lot further, though whether he can be No 1 or get in the top five in the world, who really knows? He hits the ball well, he changes the pace on his shots extremely well and he plays well on all surfaces. I think he's going to be very good for British tennis.

If you hadn't become a professional tennis player what other job do you think you would have done? I would probably have tried to do something else in sport. Australian Rules football has always been a passion of mine. I would love to have played that to an older age.

The Stella Artois Championships are at the Queen's Club, London, from 12-18 June. For more information, visit: www.stellaartoistennis.com

Attachment: The Lleyton Hewitt lowdown

Full name: Lleyton Glynn Hewitt. Born: 24 February 1981 in Adelaide. Lives: Sydney.

Family: Father (Glynn) was Australian Rules footballer. Mother (Cherilyn) was physical education teacher. Has one younger sister, Jaslyn, who was No 1 junior in Australia in 2000.

2005 Married Bec Cartwright, Australian soap actress, in July. One daughter, Mia Rebecca, aged six months.

Singles titles: 1998 Adelaide. 1999 Delray Beach. 2000 Adelaide, Queen's, Scottsdale, Sydney. 2001 Hertogenbosch, Queen's, Sydney, Masters Cup, US Open. 2002 Indian Wells, Queen's, San Jose, Masters Cup, Wimbledon. 2003 Indian Wells, Scottsdale. 2004 Long Island, Rotterdam, Sydney, Washington. 2005 Sydney.

Best performances at Grand Slam tournaments: Australian Open: runner-up 2005; French Open: quarter-finals 2001 and 2004; Wimbledon: won 2002; US Open: won 2001.

Prize money won: $16,096,057 (approx £8.67m).

World ranking: '98: 113; '99: 22; 2000: 7; 2001: 1; 2002: 1; 2003: 17; 2004: 3; 2005: 4.

Davis Cup: Member of winning Australia team in 1999 and 2003. Has won 30 rubbers and lost eight (27 and six in singles).

2006 highlights: Reached quarter-finals of Sydney hard-court tournament (lost to Andreas Seppi). Reached final of San Jose indoor tournament (lost to Andy Murray). Reached final of Las Vegas indoor tournament (lost to James Blake).

2006 lowlights: Knocked out of Australian Open by Juan Ignacio Chela. Knocked out of only Masters series tournament he has played this year, in Miami, by Tim Henman in second round.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in