Lleyton Hewitt's story going into Wimbledon 2010
There was a time when an Australian star was rising on the horizon. After the retirement of Patrick Rafter, the Australians needed a player to cheer on. Their prayers were answered in the shape of Lleyton Hewitt. He was on a high after winning Wimbledon and the US Open, being ranked number one in the world in 2002, and engaged to rising Belgian tennis star, Kim Clijsters.
However like any fairytale, this dream run had to come to an end. A few bad losses, the breakup with Clijsters, and a drop in world rankings sank the Australian star into a deep abyss; a dark hole he is still waiting to come out off. He may have entered the final of Halle, but does that signal the resurgence of Lleyton Hewitt?
As Lleyton Hewitt kept losing matches, his ranking kept dropping as well. Thus, in almost all grand slam tournaments his early exit was attributed to not just his poor form but meeting the top guns of the game in the first couple of rounds. It became a vicious cycle, with Lleyton sinking deeper and deeper into the loser’s circle, frustrating the star even more. An apt example of this is the fact that he had to face off against the King of clay Rafael Nadal four times at Roland Garros and all before the fourth round. Thus his early exit from the French Open was inevitable.
Similarly, he has had several meetings with Roger Federer in the early rounds of major slams including Wimbledon 2008, US Open 2009 and of course at this year’s Australian Open. What is worse is that even though he did not lose a set in the run up to the above mentioned matches, Hewitt was unable to rekindle the magic he had earlier on in his career against the Swiss giant. His losses have not been helped by the fact that injuries plagued him in 2006. As a result he had to undergo hip surgery forcing him out of the circuit and dipping his ranking even lower.
Lleyton Hewitt came into the fore of men’s tennis at a time when the dominance of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi was dwindling, making room for other rising stars. During that time no other player took advantage of the situation, with Marat Safin becoming a one hit wonder and with Roddick, Federer and Nadal waiting in the benches for their professional lives to sky rocket.
At the acme of his career, it was Hewitt’s consistency that sent players like Federer, Roddick and even Agassi in a tizzy. It was his unusual knack of prolonging game points that could frustrate his opponents and make them commit the error or then push them on the back foot. One of Hewitt’s surprising weapons was his passing shot that he played with such accuracy that his opponents were just left flabbergasted.
However, this domination was not too last too long. Hewitt lost his number one spot in 2003, due to other players on the circuit raising their game and Hewitt losing focus. This is where the downward spiral started, as Federer rose to his greatness in 2004 putting further pressure on Hewitt’s game. It wasn’t just the pressure of other players but also his injuries. Hewitt’s rebuilding stage commenced after his surgery in 2008, but that did not prove to be too fruitful either, with Hewitt entering the grand slams unseeded. And his consistent losses did not improve the situation either.
But it was alas his lucky surface; grass that propelled him back into the ranking lists. He made it to the quarter finals in last years Wimbledon, improving his place in the men’s circuit. Thus being considered one of the best players on grass after Federer, it will be a test for Hewitt to get himself back on track this grass season.
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