Richard Evans in Sydney
The threat of anti-climax hung over Lleyton Hewitt’s head all last weekend. After the euphoria of becoming the youngest world number one when he beat Patrick Rafter on Friday night, the 20-year-old South Australian was heading for two more matches fraught with danger.
Mentally elated but struggling physically, it would have been so easy for Hewitt to take his eye off the ball. How many batsmen get out immediately after reaching a hundred? How many boxers fall for the sucker punch? But Hewitt is tougher than that.
After disposing of Juan Carlos Ferrero in the semifinal on Saturday, Hewitt completed an amazing week by winning the Tennis Masters Cup at the Sydney SuperDome with a 6-3 6-3 6-4 demolition of Sebastien Grosjean in the final. Even by the standards set in this sports-mad nation, that was quite an achievement.
Not since Michael Stich managed it eight years ago in Frankfurt had anyone emerged unscathed from the round-robin phase and gone on to win the title. Hewitt not only won all of his five matches but did so for the loss of just one set the very first he played on Monday evening against none other than Grosjean. After that came a performance which amounted to something close to perfection.
The fact that Hewitt had almost defaulted against Ferrero with a strained hamstring in his left thigh did not seem to affect the young Australian one bit. Admitting that the leg bothered him less in the final, Hewitt rendered Grosjean helpless as well. “I made far too many mistakes,” said Grosjean, who racked up 47 unforced errors. “It was difficult.”
It tends to get very difficult when faced with a fiercely competitive opponent, backed by a joyously patriotic crowd in a match that had the odd hundred thousand dollars riding on it.
But Hewitt wasn’t thinking about the money. Afterwards, 500 000 richer, he said: “I don’t know what I’ll do with it. Haven’t got a house, haven’t got a car. I’m pretty basic. Don’t do a lot, actually, apart from support the Adelaide Crows and play a bit of golf.”
It is his mental strength as much as his surprising physical endurance that has stunned everyone from his own father, a former Aussie Rules footballer, to John Newcombe, his former Davis Cup captain. “I never expected him to achieve so much so fast,” said Newcombe.
And the focus he brings to his game was still in evidence as he took a sip of champagne from the Waterford crystal Masters Cup. After all, the Davis Cup final starts next week.
“I’ll take a couple of days off and then start practising on grass,” he said. “I’ve got to get my head down and try and finish off the year with a Davis Cup win. I love playing Davis Cup. It’s the only opportunity you get to really show your colours in the locker room, to just hang out with the boys, go to dinner, play golf together. That’s why I love it so much and it’s one of the main reasons why I play so well.”