Lleyton Hewitt is adamant that his fiery willingness to argue and dispute decisions does not give him an unfair edge over infuriated opponents.
The 24-year-old Australian has never been far from controversy in his career and during his 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-3 fourth round Wimbledon win over Taylor Dent on Monday, the sparks were flying again.
Hewitt raged over a series of line calls prompting Dent to accuse Hewitt of ”bitching” and telling umpire Enric Molina not to be influenced by the complaining after the official over-ruled and then corrected himself over a call in the fourth set.
”I don’t think I intimidate umpires, it’s not a factor,” said Hewitt.
”Taylor questioned calls as well so it’s the same at both ends. There’s a lot of calls out there that you don’t question either.”
If anything, Hewitt, bidding for a second Wimbledon title after his 2002 triumph, believes any anger he generates on court only serves to fire him up.
When the crowd warm to it, his resolve is strengthened.
”There are matches when it’s worked as a positive and sometimes as a negative. Today I felt I was able to block it out and concentrate on the job. It didn’t affect me at all.
”I was very conscious of trying not to let anything affect me. I hink: ‘Oh well, that’s out of the way. It’s out of my control now. Why dwell on it?”’
Dent was not convinced and believed that Molina lacked the necessary strength.
”I thought the umpire handled the situation poorly,” said the American.
”If Hewitt is going to complain and start to get these calls, that’s an unfair advantage for him. I’m not disagreeing with how the umpire handled that call, the ball was out of my reach.
”But the umpire didn’t change his call until after Hewitt started complaining about it.
”Hewitt’s personality is he’s fired up, he’s yelling. I don’t know what he said to one of the linesmen but the crowd went, ‘Ooh!’. That’s intimidating, whether that works for him or against him. If I was a linesman, I’d definitely make the calls a little bit rougher on Mr Hewitt.”
Despite the controversy, Hewitt, who came into Wimbledon having missed the claycourt season through toe surgery and then because he was nursing broken ribs, believes his game is getting back to its best.
”I feel like I’m hitting the ball well and I went up a notch or two when I needed to against Dent,” he said.
”There has been a question mark purely because I hadn’t played that many matches coming into the tournament but the first week was especially important for me to get through and just find a way through those matches.
”Now you come up against the name players, the real challengers for the title and that’s when you have to play your best tennis.
”But I’m still a long way from holding up the trophy.” – Sapa-AFP