As the Australian Open began in Melbourne this week, the home crowds expected 18- year-old Adelaide prodigy Lleyton Hewitt to be their next hero. Stephen Bierley reports
Most European visitors arriving in Melbourne at this time of year do so in the pitch dark, jet-lagged and saddle sore, with winter still in their bones. They crawl into bed thoroughly disoriented, hoping for a little fitful sleep.
But then, on awakening, comes that surge of well-being as the dazzling sun of an Australian summer morning streams through the window, rays glinting on the gleaming towers of the Melbourne Cricket Ground floodlights and, only a few hundred metres away, tennis’s huge white centre court at Melbourne Park. This is the home of the Australian Open for two weeks and small wonder the players love it.
“It has all the competitive intensity of the other slams but still manages to stay that little bit more relaxed,” says Pete Sampras, who was the champion here in 1994 and 1997. The American stayed away last year on grounds of fatigue but is back this time in an attempt to notch up a record- breaking 13th grand slam title.
Sampras’s untimely absence last year angered the organisers, who had convinced themselves that the days when top players gave the Australian Open a miss for no good reason were finally over. Sweden’s Bjorn Borg played it only once and John McEnroe arrived down under only fitfully. In 1990 he was famously booted out after one tirade too many for the English umpire Gerry Armstrong in a fourth-round match against Mikael Pernfors.
Paul McNamee, the tournament director, is an altogether happier man this year, even though the event lost Monica Seles and Venus Williams to injury last week. He has worked hard to get the Australian Open on a par with Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the United States Open, but remains determined that the tournament should develop its own identity.
Youthfulness, passion and sexiness are all part of the package. “We wanted to establish the tournament as Australia’s biggest sporting event,” McNamee says, “so we had to start behaving like it was.”
The big bonus for McNamee has been the upsurge in the fortunes of Australian men’s tennis, culminating in their Davis Cup triumph over France in Nice last December, which has ensured further huge crowds. And the player at the centre of the spotlight is the 18-year-old Adelaide prodigy Lleyton Hewitt. Late last year he rose to number 22 in the world and was immediately tipped by McEnroe for much greater things.
“I shall be very surprised if Lleyton is not in the top 10 come the end of 2000,” said McEnroe, whose Australian television commentaries are every bit as vivid and trenchant as his behaviour on court – albeit without the profanities that led Armstrong to default him on that hot and humid Sunday 10 years ago.
Hewitt, who leads the 2000 Champions’ Race, the ATP’s new world ranking system, after winning the Sydney International on Saturday, is not averse to the occasional frenzied outburst himself, but there is more of Jimmy Connors than McEnroe about his play: he obsessively runs down every point and competes like a demon.
“I get pumped up on court a fair bit,” he admits, “and I’m not going to take a step back for anyone. Connors played his best tennis when he was pumped. He was a showman too and loved bringing the crowd into it. Just as long as I don’t go over the edge and lose my concentration.”
Hewitt first stepped on to the grand slam stage in 1997 when, at 15 years and 11 months, he became the youngest qualifier in the history of the Australian Open.
His debut was unremarkable. Those who had not seen him, but had heard of his Australian Rules background, expected a huge, big-boned slugger in the mould of Mark Philippoussis. Instead they were confronted with a whippet-sleek, blond, ponytailed baseliner who was easily brushed aside in the first round by Sergi Bruguera, the Spanish clay-court exponent and twice French Open champion.
In 1998 Hewitt made further history, becoming the lowest-ranked player (550) to win an ATP Tour title when he took his hometown tournament, defeating Andre Agassi along the way. The baggy clothes and white, reversed baseball cap clamped to his head became his trademarks. “Now it’s my image, but then it was more of a habit than anything,” Hewitt says. “Shirt out and comfortable, that’s me.”
In Melbourne that year he again failed to get beyond the first round, losing in five sets to the experienced Czech Daniel Vacek. But already it was clear he was something special, and by the end of 1998 he had risen from 722 to 113 in the world rankings in less than a year.
Australian attention, however, was focused squarely on Pat Rafter, who by then had won two US Open titles, the first against Britain’s Greg Rusedski in 1997. Rafter, whose damaged shoulder has ruled him out of the singles this time, was then the darling of the Australian tennis public, a view shared by millions of adoring fans around the world.
In his shadow Philippoussis continued to struggle, his play veering from pulverising implacability to error-ridden banality. Hewitt, though, benefited, making further progress early last year without too much expectation falling on his broad but young shoulders.
He set himself a target of a place in the top 50 and almost reached the top 20, his first tournament win outside Australia coming at Delray Beach.
“He’s just a fantastic competitor,” says John Newcombe. The twice Wimbledon champion and Davis Cup captain did not hesitate in thrusting the teenager into the competition last year, Rafter being injured, and Hewitt performed wonders in the semi-finals against Russia. Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the reigning Australian Open champion, did his best to wind him up before their vital return singles in Brisbane, only for Hewitt to thrash the Russian in straight sets.
Newcombe had brought Hewitt into the Davis Cup squad as a 15-year-old – “he’s been watching Pat and taking it all in” – and though Philippoussis was the hero of the final against France, Australia would not have won the cup for the first time since 1986 without Hewitt.
As a junior he frequently clashed with authority over his combative behaviour. Indeed only last week he ran into trouble on his home patch in the Adelaide Open, accusing the fans of “stupidity” when they sided with his struggling opponent and fellow Australian Dejan Petrovic. Small wonder McEnroe was moved to comment: “Lleyton reminds me a little bit of myself.”
It was a heat-of-the-moment outburst which Hewitt was quick to regret, the Australian media dropping on him like a ton of the proverbial. But victory in the final against Thomas Enqvist did much to ameliorate the earlier criticism.
“He has an extreme hunger to beat everyone,” says his Davis Cup team-mate Mark Woodforde. “He doesn’t show any fear.”
Tony Roche, Australia’s Davis Cup coach, adds: “Lleyton is a great guy. Off the court you could not get a better kid and on court he gives everything. We are lucky to have him as an Australian. I think tennis needs a bit of colour.”
As yet Hewitt has enjoyed only limited success in the grand slam tournaments, losing in the second round of last year’s Australian Open to Germany’s Tommy Haas but reaching the last 32 at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows.
Sampras won his first slam, the US Open, as a 19-year-old, and Agassi was 22 when he took the Wimbledon title. “I’ve got to be beating the top guys in the major tournaments now,” Hewitt concedes. “I have to take that extra little step.”
Rather a large step, of course. But with Australians seemingly conquering the world in every sport last year, the chances of Hewitt winning major tournaments in the near future look high.
“He’s the top young kid on the block,” says Agassi. “He’s got that look of a champion about him and, even though a lot could go wrong, I reckon he will be the man for the new millennium.”