Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

If you are looking for signs that Lleyton Hewitt will become an all-time great, look no further than the fact at the age of 20 years and 10 months, the scrappy Aussie was quicker to No. 1 than Jimmy Connors, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and John McEnroe. All those greats won multiple Slam titles, with Pete leading the pack with 13 and the stylish TNT analyst Courier being the low man on the totem pole with four.

Hewitt has only one Slam title but with his stomping of the Masters Cup field in Sydney, it's pretty clear not only has his confidence risen to a champion's level, but his game has evolved to a point where nearly all of his strokes are weapons. Hewitt's serve will never be as electric as Mark Philippoussis', he'll never have the net coverage of Patrick Rafter nor the crisp volley of a John Newcombe, but he can hurt you everywhere, sort of like alter-ego Connors could.

Lleyton is super-quick, has a wonderful, authoritative return of serve, can whack both groundies for winners and absolutely lives for victory. Like Connors, the feisty Hewitt despises losing and will go to great lengths to win every time he steps on the court. He simply does not take losing in stride.

The last man to end the year at No. 1 and lead his country to a Davis Cup
title was Sampras in 1995. Hewitt will have a similar opportunity next week,
when the Aussies take on the Cedric Pioline-less French. Sure, there's a
chance that Sebastien Grosjean/Arnaud Clement/Nicolas Escude could pull off
an upset of either Hewitt or Rafter on transplanted grass, but the fabulous
French are decent-sized underdogs playing Down Under.

If the Aussies play to form and take the Cup home again, the churlish Hewitt
would become not only a good candidate to be named his nation's athlete of
the year, but have his name stuck side-by-side with the great Sampras' until
the next chest-thumping yellowballer accomplishes the same feat (Roddick in
2003?)

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Was Hewitt truly the best player of 2001? Yes, he was. While Agassi had a
slightly better year at the Slams, Hewitt never experienced a serious slump,
and when it came down to actually beating all of his elite peers in Sydney in
order to grab the top spot, he did so in impressive fashion. Andre could have
claimed No.1 if he could have taken out Lleyton in Sydney but it was pretty
obvious (and understandable) that his new wife and son have taken most of his
attention since the US. Open and the aging Las Vegan simply wasn't sharp and
didn't have enough snap on his balls to threaten Lleyton.

As talented as Juan Carlos Ferrero is, the Spaniard is still very much of a pretender when it comes to gutting out big wins. Grosjean had a terrific tournament but is still a bit of a headcase. And Guga? Well, let's just say that the Brazilian won one match since the U.s. Open and in Sydney was whining about being feeling tired from a long year. You would think a couple espressos and the
knowledge that the Aussie whippersnapper was about to take his No. 1 spot
would be enough to give Guga a little bounce in Sydney, but Kuerten couldn't
even gather enough steam to win one out of three matches in his group.

Lleyton kangaroo-kicked everyone's behind and disproved the theory (which
this reporter expounded in Paris and London) that he wasn't physically strong
enough nor had the weapons to thump the big boys over the long haul.

MORE FIREPOWER NEEDED
Lleyton faces two major questions going into 2002: Will he continue to
work hard enough to add more firepower to his arsenal, which will give him a
shot at winning Slams on every surface; and will he mature to the point where
he is no longer so cagey, overly aggressive and mistrustful?

The jury is still out. But make no mistake about it, he has more than a
little Connors in him and in Jimbo's now 30 years or so in and around the
sport, he has never matured to the point where he can take constructive
criticism, or admit he was in the wrong. Here's hoping that Hewitt evolves at
a faster pace. But then again, we bet the Aussie would take eight Slam titles
like Connors did rather than be widely adored.