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RACIAL
CONTROVERSY DOESN'T DERAIL LLEYTON
Boy-devil:
Hewitt was a mental rock
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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FLUSHING
MEADOWS, N.Y., SEPT. 10 – Lleyton
Hewitt and his close group of supporters were incredibly uplifted
by his blazing straight set victory over the favored U.S. legend,
Pete Sampras, in the U.S. Open final.
Lleyton's
girlfriend, Roland Garros finalist Kim Clijsters, was all smiles
as she and Lleyton exchanged hugs and sipped champagne inside
the player's gym after the match. Coming into slap the Adelaide
gunslinger on the back was his coach, Darren Cahill, current Aussie
Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald, former Davis Cup chief John
Newcombe and Lleyton's parents.
Newcombe
said he knew the match was in the bag when, "Lleyton started
returning so well and passing so well that Pete didn't whether
to cover the down the line or the crosscourt. Every time he went
to cover the down the line Lleyton would hit it crosscourt."
Clijsters
said that after the James Blake controversy (where it was alleged
that Lleyton made racial remarks, which Hewitt denies making),
she could
sense that Lleyton was locking in. "The amazing thing about
Lleyton is that
when he has a goal he'll go at 200 percent to get it," Clijsters
told tennisreporters.net
.
"It's
really hard for the other players when they see this boy across
the net and he's so motivated and he'll fight to the death for
every point. It's gets discouraging."
Pete
was more than discouraged after losing the first set, playing
uninspired, sloppy tennis. Sampras believes he played a lot better
than he
really did, so if he ever catches the videotape, he might be surprised
to see
how slow he he was moving toward net and how short his volleys
were. Still,
Lleyton was on top of Pete's serve all day and didn't appear to
have any
problem reading the legend's toss.
"He
seems to know where Pete's going to and he just picks those serves
off,"
Fitzgerald said. "Those hands are fantastic."
Hewitt
had had a mediocre summer coming into the Open, so he was almost
nobody's pick to win the title. He had all but put himself on
a respirator
trying to outstroke the claycourters in Paris and nearly had his
teeth
knocked out by Taylor Dent early at Wimbledon.
"I
didn't think he would win," said Newk."The signs weren't
there. He lost a
very disappointing five setter to Nicolas Escude at Wimbledon
and only
reached one semi in the U.S. summer hardcourt circuit. His form
wasn't good
in his first couple of matches here. It was after the match against
Blake he
turned it around and he then willed himself into the top four."
Hewitt
and Clijsters are more than just teen lovebirds now and it's easy
to
tell how much they lean on each other. During the Slams, they
are basically
inseparable when they aren't playing. They are a good match. Both
are kids of
former pro athletes, both are super intense on court and are fairly
quiet off
court. Clijsters is sweet while Lleyton still has an edge to him
but both
love the battle and don't mind a significant challenge.
"He's
mentally so strong," Kim said. "He doesn't get that
down on himself.
With every experience he has, he just keeps fighting. He learns
something new
every day and puts it to use."
How
did Lleyton learn to fight like the Tasmanian Devil with Mad Max
on his
tail?
"It
seems to be a natural instinct," Newk said. "In 1999
against the U.S. in
Davis Cup in Boston, he had never played Davis Cup before and
we threw him
into the arena against Todd Martin and he handled it unbelievable.
He's got
the temperament that doesn't mind the big occasions."
Newc
remembered Lleyton's baptism as an Orange Juice Boy for the Davis
Cup
squad in '97 when he watched Pat Rafter come back from two sets
down against
Cedric Pioline. "It had a great impression on him,"
Neck said.
Since
Boston, Lleyton has played Davis Cup hero on many big occasions.
"In
France the crowd was pretty one sided and in Spain your not going
to get
anything worse than that," Newk said. "He's tough. He
has the ability to
block everything out. Against Sampras today, he just put himself
into a zone.
It's born into you to react positively under stress. Then you
have to develop
the things you have. Lleyton is an excellent observer and he watches
other
champions to see how they act."
Hewitt
must have missed something crucial during the first week of the
Open,
when his was evasive and defensive during the Blake controversy.
But word has
it that he got a good talking to from the mates and by the second
week, he
was a new man.
"That
Blake press conference was a nightmare for him," Newk said.
"After
that he put his head down and played tennis. I think what Lleyton
saw himself
if he puts his head down and concentrates on tennis and keeps
inside himself,
it works better than everything else going around. It's been a
great learning
experience for him. He's passed over into another era and into
another part
of his tennis life.It got him focused on his tennis rather than
what's
happening around him.
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