Hewitt caught in competitive era
Hewitt caught in competitive era
tvnz.co.nz
Jun 18, 2004
Lleyton Hewitt will arrive at Wimbledon as good a player - probably better -
than when he won the title two years ago.
The trouble is, so will his peers.
The prodigious Hewitt has always been ahead of his time, but now finds himself
caught up in the most competitive generation of men's tennis since the open
era began in the early 1970s.
While world No.1 and defending champion Roger Federer and the second-ranked
Andy Roddick were but emerging forces back in 2002, they are now Hewitt's two
main rivals for this year's Wimbledon crown.
Not only have they surpassed him in the rankings, but Federer and Roddick can
also now claim to have the edge over the Australian in recent head-to-head
battles.
Hewitt leads Federer 7-4 in career meetings and is 3-1 to the good against
Roddick, so he knows how to beat them.
Significantly, though, he's lost both clashes with Federer this year and went
down to Roddick in the Queen's Club semi-finals last weekend in their first
meeting since 2001.
Nevertheless, Hewitt can never be written off and will rightly fancy his
chances of another successful Wimbledon campaign.
Forget his relatively low ranking of world No.10. Everybody knows, not least
his rivals, that Hewitt remains a top-five player.
His false standing can almost solely be attributed to his first-round "hiccup"
- as he put it - at Wimbledon last year and his subsequent focus on Australia's
Davis Cup cause, rather than the ATP tour.
Hewitt's record in 2004 is more reflective of where his game is at.
His 32-10 win-loss record and two titles is only marginally down on two years
ago when he entered Wimbledon at 30-7 for the season with three tournament
wins to his credit.
It is also certainly worth noting that it has taken the eventual champions
(Federer at the Australian Open and Gaston Gaudio at the French) to end
Hewitt's run at this year's first two grand slams.
And he loves the grass.
Five of his 21 career titles have come on grass - including four on London
lawns - and he boasts an enviable 50 wins from 59 matches on the surface
since his Wimbledon debut in 1999.
"I enjoy playing on grass," Wimbledon's seventh seed said.
"It's a different challenge for me, but I enjoy going out there and knowing
what I have to do to play well on it now after I've won Queen's three times,
I've won Rosmalen and won Wimby.
"My return of serve and my passing shots and my quickness around the court ...
those three things are important when you're playing on grass.
"As I've said every year, I've taken confidence from a guy like Agassi doing
well on grass, from the back of the court, and that's given me confidence."
And, after drawing a scheduled quarter-final against Federer, he will need
every ounce of that confidence.
But Hewitt rarely loses matches he's expected to win. So, if the former world
No.1 finds himself in the second week, anything can happen, especially if
Federer and Roddick aren't there to meet him.
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