Hewitt blows his stack
Hewitt blows his stack
By John Thirsk and Mark Stevens
16may03
Fox Sports
LLEYTON Hewitt blamed the pressure of two nailbiting matches in as many days
after blowing a fuse and berating an umpire at the Tennis Masters Series event
in Hamburg yesterday.
The world No.1 laboured for more than 3 1/2 hours before edging past Arnaud
Clement of France 6-7 6-4 7-6, winning the deciding tie-break 8-6 to reach the
third round.
As the pressure built on Hewitt, the Australian was horrified when a line call
went against him -- taking out his frustration on Brazilian chair umpire Carlos
Bernardes.
Hewitt had been unsure where the ball had landed and returned it even after the
lineswoman called the shot from Clement "out" over the baseline.
When Clement protested, Bernardes inspected the mark where the ball landed on
the red clay dirt and overruled the "out" call, reversing the decision in favour
of Clement.
Bernardes told Hewitt: "She called it very, very late, the ball was good ... the
point is for him."
But Hewitt was furious. He got up close and personal with Bernardes, eyeballing
the umpire as he stood by the decision.
Then he exploded: "No, no, no, that's bullshit mate.
"You go back to the satellite circuit, mate. You go back to the satellite
circuit and learn the rules ... where you belong."
Hewitt's Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald last night jumped to his
star player's defence, saying he did not consider yesterday's outburst a real
issue.
"You know I think it's what makes him so competitive and I thought it was fairly
tame really," Fitzgerald said in Melbourne.
Fitzgerald said the seriousness of Hewitt's blow-ups had been overrated through
the years and scoffed at comparisons between the current world No.1 and
super-brat John McEnroe.
"You can't compare Lleyton Hewitt with John McEnroe. Give me a break. They're
not even in the same realm," Fitzgerald said.
"Lleyton just wants to win. He competes hard and wants to win. Don't start with
Johnny Mac."
Fitzgerald heard a recording of the latest incident with an umpire and said he
couldn't believe what the fuss was about.
"I listened to the sound of it and I thought what is everyone kidding themselves
about?" Fitzgerald said. "Was that an outburst? Really?"
Davis Cup coach Wally Masur also sprang to Hewitt's defence, saying: "Lleyton is
such a competitive person. He was fighting in his corner for what he believed
was an error in judgment by the umpire."
Hewitt's win came after he'd battled for two hours and 22 minutes to beat German
wild card Markus Hantschk in three tight sets a day earlier.
Hewitt is preparing for the French Open starting in 12 days. He sat out the
traditional early claycourt events in Monaco and Rome on medical advice to rest.
"I'm trying to make my three-set matches into five-setters so I've got good
preparation for the French Open," Hewitt joked after the match.
"I was aggressive on the majority of the points, but there are still areas of my
game that I feel that I can work on.
"But considering that I've had a few weeks off, it's probably the best
preparation for [Roland Garros]. I had these long back-to-back matches the last
two days and I feel as good as ever."
也許太愛Lleytonㄌ吧，我絕ㄉ並沒有那麼嚴重吧,反而覺ㄉ很有趣ㄚ...
這就是他ㄚ...有什麼說什麼...至少他是很真誠ㄉ
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