Lleyton Hewitt will head into his third round clash at the Australian Open in a confident mood after overcoming the mental challenge of seeing off an injured Andy Roddick on Thursday night.
Hewitt moved into the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon 2010 after Roddick was forced to retire with a hamstring injury with Hewitt leading 3-6 6-3 6-4.
While the big-serving American veteran suffered the injury early in the second set, he battled on trying to overcome the problem by winning points quickly with his power game.
Hewitt said Roddick's injury made it difficult to know how the American was going to play but was delighted to overcome the psychological test.
"It's hard," Hewitt said after the win. "It's a tough situation for anyone. It's more of a mental game than physical."
"Even tactics-wise, it's not easy as well because you start thinking ... you're in two minds with what you're going to do out there."
"At one end it was against the breeze, uphill a little bit. It was harder to dictate Andy from the back of the court at that end."
"From the end with the breeze, I felt like obviously I could move him around and put him under a bit more pressure."
"Playing Andy with such a big serve, he's still able to go out there and swing at the hips, hold his serve and put pressure on you."
After missing most of the 2011 season through injury, Hewitt said he is starting to feel much more comfortable on the court with each match.
"I think the more matches you get, the better," the 30-year-old, who needed a wildcard to play at the Australian Open, said.
'It's no secret, I didn't play many matches last year. To expect to come out and play against these guys, they played right through the end until some of them early December, you know, it's totally different on the practice court to the match court."
"So far everything has gone okay. Physically I was really happy with how my body pulled up after playing four hours, a long four setter a couple nights ago."
"Just because I haven't played a lot of tennis, you're never sure how it's going to pull up."
Hewitt's next opponent is another big-server in rising Canadian Milos Raonic.
The 23rd seed has had an easy time of it so far and moved into the last 32 with a comfortable win over German Philipp Petzschner.
Asked about his next opponent, Hewitt said: "I've only seen him a little bit. Early on obviously the Australian Open last year I saw a little bit. He played very well in San Jose and Memphis early on in the year, winning his first title in San Jose."
"He's a dangerous player. He's similar in some regards to Andy, same as tonight."
"But I haven't even thought about the match."