Laver warns Hewitt to slow down
Laver warns Hewitt to slow down
By Clive White (Filed: 26/01/2003)
The Telegraph
Notwithstanding another diagnosis of chicken pox in a fortnight's time, as was
the case last year when Lleyton Hewitt's challenge for honours at the
Australian Open also finished prematurely, the world No 1 may have to readjust
his game if he is to fulfil his enormous potential.
That is the view of expert judges such as Rod Laver and John McEnroe. Whether
that will help him win over fellow Australians too, is another matter: getting
them on side could be his most daunting challenge of all.
It is probably just as well Hewitt will not have too long to dwell on his
latest failure at his home championship, a narrow fourth-round defeat to
Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui. This week he will be in Sydney practising on clay
- his least favourite surface - in preparation for Australia's Davis Cup World
Group tie against Great Britain on Feb 7-9, although, given the quality of
the opposition, he might just as well have prepared for it by playing head
tennis on nearby Bondi Beach.
Before he finally returns to his tournament season proper, which will probably
be at the Indian Wells event in March - as it may be for Britain's Tim Henman
- he may consider some of the recommendations from his peers, who believe he
must acquire greater accuracy with his first serve - which is sometimes
unacceptably below the 50 per cent mark - and attack the net more to shorten
the length of his rallies.
John Fitzgerald, his Davis Cup captain, describes him as "sneaky tall", but
even at his official height of 5ft 10in, he is not built for quick finishes,
which means he has to run the opposition off their feet. Such tactics cannot
be without some cost to Hewitt physically, in the long run. Laver, if anything
, was smaller but it did not prevent him dominating bigger men for an entire
decade.
The Rockhampton Rocket was in Melbourne last week along with Margaret Court,
another Australian tennis legend of the Sixties, to launch their Australia
Post Legend stamps. He was asked what he thought of his young successor, whose
defeat in the arena which bears Laver's name meant that a 27th year had passe
d without a domestic winner of a championship which once was regarded as the p
ersonal property of the likes of Laver, Emerson and Newcombe.
Still looking young enough to compete on the seniors' circuit, Laver said:
"Listening to his interview while we were in California, he said he was beaten
by a better player. And that tells me something about Lleyton, that he has a
lot more to learn.
"He's a counter-puncher, he's extremely good at keeping the ball in play. He's
got such speed on his shots that he'll eventually have to get to the net a
little more often because he's going to find himself wearing out.You're just
not going to be able to run like he's done the last three or four years. He's
going to have to get in and get some cheap points, shorten the points a little
.
"He can volley, he can do a lot of the stuff, even though he's shorter than
some of the players he's playing against. He's got the footwork to solve that.
I did OK because footwork is the thing. You don't need to be a monster to
play this game."
McEnroe reckons he is trying to put too much pace on his first serve,
something he remembers Michael Chang doing somewhat unsuccessfully. "His first
-serve percentage was down at 47 per cent against El Aynaoui," he said. "He
needs to get that up to 60 per cent. Maybe he should slow it down 5-10kmph and
go for placement more. He got away from what made his game great. It's all
about not beating yourself and not giving your opponent any easy points."
Fitzgerald believes that Hewitt will continue to "tweak" his game as is
necessary. "I'm sure there are things that he can do slightly differently," he
said. "Look, you can't win every event, he had a bit of extra pressure on him
here and he handles that pressure as well as most guys. I heard an interestin
g stat the other day: Andre Agassi has played the US Open 17 times. Do you kno
w how many times he's won it? Twice."
Pat Rafter was a two-time winner of the US Open who never won the Australian O
pen, but the Australian of the Year in 2001 (the year he lost to Goran Ivanesi
vic at Wimbledon) captured the hearts of Aussies in a way that the more intens
e Hewitt can never hope to do - and we thought it was only the Brits who loved
a loser. And Rafter even had a spell in Bermuda while Hewitt was at home payi
ng his taxes in Adelaide, which prompted one satirical website to nominate him
as Bermudian of the Year.
"It's tough to judge a kid's character in press conferences," Fitzgerald said,
"but if you see him in a private situation, he's polite, loves kids, he's
generous and respectful of his elders. The thing with Lleyton, is he's got a
bit of that 'white-line' fever. When he walks on court he's a competitive
beast, that's part of what makes him great. But then I'm a Lleyton Hewitt fan
- I'm just glad he's in my team."
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