Ask Lleyton Hewitt who has given him the most problems on court and he is more likely to cite a line judge or an umpire than a player. ”Nobody really stands out if I am being honest. If I’m not on my game I can lose to a lot of players, but if I’m on my game I feel like I can beat anyone on any surface,” he said. As befits the world number one, the 21-year-old Australian is not given to heaping praise on his adversaries. Neither was Pete Sampras, unless he was sure he could beat them.
More than any other current leading player Hewitt is greater than the sum of his parts. He does not possess an outstanding forehand, backhand or serve. What singles him out is his extraordinary mental aggression and determination, allied to what Sampras calls ”the best set of wheels in the business”. And these could propel him to the Wimbledon title.
Since winning his home tournament in Adelaide four years ago Hewitt has garnered a further 14 titles, including his first major last September when he defeated Sampras 7-6 6-1 6-1 in the United States Open final. ”Before that win there was always a little bit of doubt in my mind,” he said. ”But now I have the inner belief.”
Hewitt and doubt appear a contradiction in terms. Of his contemporaries Russia’s Marat Safin (22) and Switzerland’s Roger Federer (20) are more gifted but neither has the mean competitive streak that runs through every corpuscle of Hewitt’s blood. His father, Glynn, and uncle, Daryl, were Aussie Rules footballers. It is in the genes.
Spain’s Carlos Moya, the former French Open champion, remarked that Hewitt was ”mentally the number one in the world” almost a year before the Australian actually reached the top of the pile in Sydney last November. This was on his way to winning the end-of-season Tennis Masters Cup, during which he was undefeated. And Hewitt, the youngest player to achieve the number one position since its inception in 1973, has held on to the top ranking since.
Yet he is not universally loved. Some would argue that WB Yeats’s line that ”the worst are full of passionate intensity” sums up Hewitt to a T. Certain members of the Australian press refer to him as ”Spewy” or ”Satan”, having tired of being excluded from his conferences for daring to criticise his often boorish on-court behaviour.
He will learn. The responsibility of being number one so young is hard. On court Hewitt rarely gives anything less than 100%; managing his private life, much of which he shares with his Belgian girlfriend and fellow tennis professional Kim Clijsters, requires a more subtle approach, and subtlety is not Hewitt’s strong hand. ”There is more demand on my time now but I try to block it out and concentrate on the game I love so much,” he said.
At a time when so many players possess all the charisma of a billiard ball, Hewitt’s stentorian cries of ”C’mon!” have at least singled him out as something different, albeit that his altercations with officialdom, including innuendos of racism at last year’s US Open, cannot be tolerated. However, an element of danger, or the unexpected, makes a stimulating change from the succession of anodyne matches the modern game so often produces.
He admits, however, to having been inhibited by Wimbledon’s centre court initially and it was only last year, during a second-round five- setter against the American Taylor Dent, that Hewitt shed the carapace of conformity.
”I came out of my shell,” he said. ”It was a great atmosphere. I was pumped and the crowd were into it too. There’s no doubt I play with a lot of emotion and that’s when I play my best tennis.”
To date, in three attempts, Hewitt has not gone beyond the last 16 at Wimbledon but he sets great store by the achievements of Andre Agassi, the champion in 1992 and three times a semifinalist. ”He’s the same size as me and our strengths are the same. We move extremely well and counter-punch. I’ve beaten a lot of tough players on grass and I feel a lot more comfortable on it than a lot of other guys.”
Last year Hewitt was beaten over five sets in the fourth round by France’s Nicolas Escude, who also defeated him in last year’s Davis Cup final on grass in Melbourne. Escude is one of the few players to have a head-to-head advantage over Hewitt, leading 3-2. Once more he is the Australian’s projected fourth-round opponent.
”Wimbledon is huge, the most famous tournament in the world, and I would dearly love to win it,” said Hewitt. ”The more matches I play on grass the better I get.” As Tim Henman admitted after losing his second successive Stella Artois final against the Australian this year: ”He’s the best in the world.”
It remains to be seen whether Hewitt can prove it on grass.