Hewitt rapt with French formula
Hewitt rapt with French formula
By LEO SCHLINK
25may03
LLEYTON Hewitt yesterday began fine-tuning for a daunting French Open campaig
n, confident a light preparation would work in his favour.
The Wimbledon and US Open winner turned his back on the riches of Barcelona,
Monte Carlo and Rome to rest in Adelaide after a draining US schedule and
Davis Cup duties in Sweden.
His reward was a third-round loss in Hamburg before surging to form with a
trio of emphatic claycourt wins at the round-robin World Cup in Dusseldorf -
over accomplished Jiri Novak, James Blake and, most important of all, his Span
ish nemesis, Carlos Moya.
"(My form's) not too bad," said Hewitt ahead of his first-round French Open
match with American Brian Vahaly.
"It's always going to take a few matches to get used to the clay, and get used
to the European clay. I feel that I'm getting better and better with each
match. I played well against Novak - to go out there and beat him two and
three in straight sets - and then to beat James (Blake) three and three in
straight sets, too."
What satisfied Hewitt most in Germany, however, was his 6-3 decision in the
third set against Moya on the former world No. 1's cherished clay.
Elated, perfectionist Hewitt sounded a note of caution as he began working out
in Paris on court one.
"The Roland Garros clay is a lot different, I still feel, to the clay we play
on in Germany," he said. "It's a lot heavier and a lot slower in Germany, but
it's still more the sliding I'm trying to get used to a bit."
If Hewitt is successful in Paris and becomes the first Australian since Rod
Laver in 1969 to lift the Musketeers' Cup, he will look back favourably on a
decision to return to Adelaide to rest ahead of a week's training at Melbourne
Park.
"It was good," he said. "For starters, I just felt like I needed a break, more
than anything.
"I just took a couple of weeks off first and started training, started getting
into it, started training pretty hard."
His training included work with fitness coach Roger Rasheed, coach Jason Stolt
enberg and "a couple of the AIS kids" on the clay.
"We just felt the claycourt in Melbourne was, again, the best in Australia at
the moment," he said. "It helped me out a lot, I guess . . . getting that prep
aration as much as I could, in Australia.
"But it's all different when you come over here to Europe and start playing ag
ainst the big boys on it."
Hewitt, who could face a string of high-class claycourters headed by triple
champion Gustavo Kuerten, Gaston Gaudio, defending champion Albert Costa and
Juan Carlos Ferrero, said he was in good health and not suffering from his
chronic breathing ailment.
"Yeah, it's not bad at the moment - (I'm) feeling pretty good," he said.
"It was after that Davis Cup I felt I needed a few weeks off - just a break to
put the feet up and not go out there and grind myself into the ground."
Hewitt is one of only four Australians to have so far secured a place at the
French Open.
Mark Philippoussis faces a qualifier, while Wayne Arthurs and Scott Draper
hav
e tough draws against Czech Radek Stepanek and Dutchman Sjeng Schalken.
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