J. LEHECKA/G. Dimitrov
6-4, 4-4 (ret.)
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Probably not the way you'd have liked the match to end, but you have an early finish. How impressed were you with your performance? All the big points, you were able to capitalize.
JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, definitely. Of course, this is never the way how you want to finish a match. Obviously you just want to win, but not like that. Hopefully Grigor is fine. Hopefully he'll be ready for Melbourne. I don't know if it's something serious or not. I just felt in the last two points he made, he couldn't move. Something clicked or I don't know what happened.
Yeah, first set and the first half of the second was a good level. I think that we both played good tennis. In the first set I was a bit more solid in the game where I broke his serve. He made two mistakes at the net.
Overall it was good tennis from my side. I was focusing on keeping the aggressive game style, going for the points, not to be scared to play aggressively. I think that it worked well.
Q. The doubles semifinal tonight, it makes things difficult. How are you feeling about the scheduling?
JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, the scheduling, it's never easy. Of course, if you try to schedule the whole day, you have plenty of matches going on, then it's just a mess sometimes. It's not easy to put everything in order.
Yeah, I mean, I'm the type of guy that when I sign for doubles, I want to play until the end. That's why I don't play doubles that often, because when I'm not sure or I'm not convinced that I would finish the game, I'd rather not to play than to pull out end of second round.
That's why I think I decided to play doubles in this tournament here in Brisbane because it's the beginning of the year. We were lucky we played our first doubles match before our first singles match, which helped me a lot. If I speak about today, it helped me to play doubles because I played my first doubles match at the center court, then everything I played on Court No. 1. Today when I walked on the court, it was easy for me to see the court because I played already one match there.
Yeah, doubles, it's fun to play. Of course, my focus is on singles. Yeah, definitely we would like to win today. We will do everything we can.
With the scheduling, it is how it is. We need to accept and we will be focusing. I think that we are both physically well-prepared. We will see how it goes.
Q. The final tomorrow, no matter who you face, they're very tall with incredible serves. How do you prepare for that?
JIRI LEHECKA: Yeah, that's a good question. I need to ask my coach for that (smiling).
Both players are extremely good servers. Seems like they have served couple of balls during their lives. It will be a big challenge. Doesn't really matter who wins, I will need to be focused 100% like all the time. I will need to focus on every point, every chance, because the chance can be gone in a very small moment.
Yeah, I think for me the most important thing will be to focusing on my own service games, then try to figure something out on return, try to react better than in the previous matches.
Yeah, tough to say now. We will see.
Q. You won your first title in Adelaide, now in the final here. Is it the courts, the Australian conditions?
JIRI LEHECKA: I think it's a bit of everything. The first thing is that you come here to Australia from Europe, so immediately you feel good (smiling). That's the first thing, which is very important.
All the cities, doesn't matter if it's Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney, all these cities are nice. The people are nice. The tournaments are very well-organized, which helps you a lot through the first days of the year.
Then also together with the balls and the courts. The good thing is that I cannot help feeling that Tennis Australia is doing a good job in a way that all the courts are the same, all the conditions are similar. Doesn't matter if you will arrive to Melbourne, Adelaide or somewhere else, you kind of know what is waiting for you right there.
This is good that you can adjust in your mind what kind of things I want to work on in the next few days, weeks. You know you will have a chance to work on it because it won't be like that you arrive somewhere elsewhere the conditions are absolutely different.
It helps also a lot. Yeah, we will see how it goes. I like it here.
Q. You said before about having to play doubles and singles, that was your choice. If Giovanni plays not before 8:30 his singles, you may not get on the court till midnight. What do you do until then? Will that affect your singles match tomorrow?
JIRI LEHECKA: Of course. I mean, right now for me the most important thing will be to rest a bit, to save as much energy as I can. After that we will see of course how the matches are going.
I don't really think they will put (indiscernible) the final. I think the tournament will do like a solid compromise the next day also for the fans and for everyone here.
Yeah, we will see how it goes. For me is not kind of a big deal. These are still best-of-three tiebreak sets. Today also we played almost two sets. It wasn't that physically tough. I think we will be able to play doubles in a good way. I think that we will try to be very focused.
Definitely anyway I'm used to go to bed late. There won't be a big change for me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports