Lleyton Hewitt Quite Quotations

We felt like the better team out there in the first set but things didn't quite go our way in the tiebreaker and we didn't take our chances.

I still felt like there was a lot of areas of my game that weren't quite clicking today. It was more a matter of trying to find a way to win today and get in the locker room and look forward to the next round.

Especially big ties. When we've played the finals before, quite often I'd played the Masters Cup and the whole indoor circuit and a lot of matches and maybe I was physically run down a little bit going in,

I've never played with balls that are getting that big. It's as simple as that. I thought the balls in Rotterdam were quite heavy till I came here. You know, the court's definitely, you know, it's a little bit rough out there. That's always going to chop the balls up a little bit more than a smoother court, such as a US Open hard court. But, you know, there's no reason why the ball should get, you know, that heavy.

It was an extremely tough match, ... I really had to earn it. I felt like there were a lot of areas of my game that weren't quite clicking today.

I'm not quite 100 percent, so it's nice to get through. I felt like I moved a lot better in the past. It's a little bit of confidence with pushing off the ankle. Tonight's match was a tough because Paul competes his heart out, especially on a hard court.

I didn't feel like I was striking the ball quite the way I would have liked.

Got the first break late in the fifth set, then just didn't close it out at 40-15, ... Just a matter of trying to hang in there. I felt like I was returning pretty well the whole match. That sort of kept me in it...I still felt like there was a lot of areas of my game that weren't quite clicking today.