COCKY TEEN STARS TO SQUARE OFF IN THIRD ROUND

Roddick and Hewitt: a back-alley brawl at Roland Garros

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

PARIS, May 31 – When Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick face off tomorrow, the winds of happiness and frivolity will blow out of Paris toward the south, and a spitting, swearing, snarling hurricane will envelope Roland Garros. Both kids love a back alley brawl and that's exactly what fans will get tomorrow – an R-rated match between the tourÂs two most uppity teens.

Hewitt is a cold fish off court and is so taken with himself that he not only calls addresses himself in the third person with the nicknames "Rocky" and "Balboa", (as in "C'mon Rocky, get off the canvas.") but he has also told his friends that he has been the No. 1 player in the world for the past couple years.

How the world's top dog got skunked by Gambill at Wimbledon last year or by Sampras at the U.S. Open or by Moya at the '01 Australian and comes away with this bloated self-assessment is beyond us, but at least he thinks he got real game, which is a lot more than can be said about many unmotivated players sitting fat in the bottom-50.

Hewitt is great to watch – he's a real firebrand on court and has nice variety to his game. But he's painful to listen to with his rehearsed answers, his potshots at Aussie reporters, and his frequent refusals to discuss anything having to with the on-court prospects of his girlfriend, the super-sweet Kim Clijsters. Maybe "the tough little shit" from Adelaide (as a Woody once called him) will grow up and realize that the universe isn't against him and maybe not. The fact is that Lleyton is nobody's favorite in the locker room and hasn't endeared himself to many fans.

Lleyton will have to play like a Tasmanian Devil to beat Roddick, who owns the game's most formidable first serve and one of itÂ's most fearsome forehands. Roddick is no Andre Agassi in the warmth department and can be a bit of a wise ass off court, but at least he tries to communciate in an honest fashion and is somewhat polite, which canÂt be said of Lleyton.

It was nice to see Roddick not pull a Serena and play doubles with Jan-Michael Gambill on Thursday after his cramp fest against Chang, but why play a two-hour match the day before one of the most important singles matches of your life? He should have spent the day resting and sucking down nutrients instead, he spent the better part of the afternoon avoiding overheads from the Czech team of Pala and Vizener in a three-set loss. Maybe Roddick got loose by virtue of playing dubs and maybe not, but if he has to go beyond 2 /12 hours against Lleyton, he'll be in a world of hurt.

IT'S AU REVOIR FOR PETE – FOREVER
This will be the last few comments I will offer on Pete Sampras at Roland Garros this year – and possibly ever. He had perfect conditions this week – hot, dry and only a little breeze. He had a great draw and actually followed his coach's game plan to the tee – come in at all costs, run around your backhand and take a lot of chances on the return.

But Sampras is nothing on clay when he's not serving well and his forehand is sporadic. He is without a weapon. His serving performance against Blanco was one of the worst he has ever put on and he made a decent but not great player's backhand look like Bjorn Borg's during his prime. Sure, Blanco passed with precision, but it wasn't as if Pete was making him guess much on his service games or was hitting deep approach shots.

Sampras will be 30 next year when he comes here and I don't care if he says he has many years to left to try to take the RG title, his last chance disappeared on Thursday when he couldn't find a corkscrew to open a bottle of perishable white wine called Galo Blanco.