LLEYTON HEWITT

Oh, I get pretty fired up on the court. I try to play with a lot of emotion, especially when I'm playing in front of a large crowd. I want to go out and do my best, and to do that, I have to play with the most energy possible.

My video game character is a bit better looking than me, actually. I don't think he has to worry about his hair getting messed up.

I'm more in that Rafa Nadal high-energy high-octane mold out there. I wear that emotion on the court. That's how I play my best tennis. People either like that or not. And I can't change that: that's who I am on a tennis court.

I'd much rather win in three or four sets than go the distance all the time; I seem to put everyone through the wringer quite a bit.

There are people who love you and people who hate you, but for me, more so, people only think they know me by how I act or perform on a tennis court.

I was lucky enough to win the Davis Cup in my first year in 1999. I won my first slam at the U.S. Open in 2001 and became world No. 1 later that year. By the age of 20, I'd done it all.

I've probably put up with more criticism than a lot of people out there. At the end of the day, you block out everything, especially with your personal life.

When I go out to play, I still believe I'm as good as anyone out there. I don't have to prove anyone wrong. I know what I've done and how well I can play.

I'm not to eager to play tennis in my spare time. I'm more interested in doing gym work and stuff like that. We have a lot of schools and courts around where I live, so if I really want to play, I don't need to go too far.

Even when I was No. 1 in the world, I was taking it one match at a time. I never was a player to look too far ahead, the way draws can pan out.

I'm not a guy who needs to read motivation books.

I am two different people. What you see on the court is just natural for me. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I have always said 'C'mon' purely to fire myself up. Off the court, I am a lot shyer. I stick to my team and my family and people I trust.

Matches are won and lost so many times in the locker room.

I'm fortunate: I can play as long as I want to play. There's no coach or trainer who is going to say to me that I'm dropped or sacked, it's time to move on. I can play as long as I want to play.

Tennis players go into a press conference, and almost every one of them is the same. We do very little differently on a day-to-day basis.

I don't have too much spare time, but I try to play games as much as possible. I played a little growing up, but I never played any tennis games before.

You always love playing in finals at any tournament. The grand slams and stuff like that are obviously the priorities but any titles go on your record.

I liked Pat Cash, and I loved Mats Wilander. I went to the Australian Open with my parents, and I used to watch Wilander being cheered on by the Swedish fans, and with his game style being like mine, I drew comparisons with him.

When I was a kid in Adelaide, I dreamed of becoming No. 1 in the world, winning a grand slam and the Davis Cup for Australia.

I'm one injury away from hanging up the racket at any time.

I have sometimes played my best Davis Cup matches away from home when you stay in the moment a bit more. But it is tough when half the crowd are spitting on you.

Finally I'm really happy with the way I'm playing again after a couple of frustrating years.

That's when you've got to grit your teeth and hang in there and try and find a way to win when you're not playing your best tennis - that's what I can be proud of

I think I was as mentally tough as I've ever been. I felt like I handled the situation both on and off the court extremely well. I felt like I needed to.

(Andy Roddick's) a different kind of guy. I don't spend a lot of time with him. His coach in the past (Tarik Benhabiles), I didn't have a lot of time for at all. He was a bigger problem than Andy.