“Super, super Lleyton! Super, super Lleyton! Super, super Lleyton! Super Lleyton Hewitt!” One of the Aussie Fanatic’s many chants for the man who has been Australian tennis’ poster boy for well over a decade.
Those years are sadly coming to a halt though– and unfortunately, Lleyton couldn’t get one more Wimbledon win. Yesterday he exited from his last Wimbledon in the first round to Jarkko Nieminen, losing 3-6 6-3 6-4 0-6 9-11 and missing out on the chance to take on the world No.1 Novak Djokovic on Centre Court – a chance which Hewitt would have surely relished. Yet, the fairy-tale ending was not to be and, in a way, Hewitt’s career has not been a fairy-tale throughout. Always constant has been his hunger for competing and the intensity he has brought onto court – and that is as admirable a trait as any for a sportsman. We have certainly seen this trait in full flow on the lawns of the All England Club over the years.
His career at SW19 started in 1999 where, at just 18 years of age, Hewitt reached the third round of both the singles and the doubles. Coincidently in the singles, he was beaten by a certain Boris Becker who only 14 years earlier, had won the Wimbledon title at 17. Hewitt did not quite emulate this, but he certainly made himself known. In 2001 he would win Queen’s, the first of his four titles there, neutralising “Pistol Pete’s (Sampras)” big serves in the final with an exhibition in returning. Round four was the reuslt for Hewitt at Wimbledon that year, but 2001 would end with a dramatic ascent to the World No.1 spot for the 20-year-old Aussie from Adelaide.
In 2002, Hewitt took the Wimbledon crown. An emphatic straight sets win over Argentine shotmaker David Nalbandian in the final. It was in this match that Hewitt arguably pioneered a movement away from the grass court play of old; moving modern tennis into a new era of baseline play, reminiscent of Agassi’s style. A BBC article written at the time boldly stated post match that Hewitt ‘seems set to dominate the world game just like Sampras did in the 1990s’ – it was that imperious a display. In the whole tournament, Hewitt only dropped two sets.
Hewitt would never hold the Wimbledon trophy in his arms again, nor reach the final Sunday. In fact, the following year Hewitt crashed out in the First Round. And in ’04, Hewitt would be foiled by Roger Federer, as he would be on many other occasions, in the Quarter Finals. In 2005 though he would make it to the semi-finals in a year where he arguably played his most consistent tennis – reaching the semis of the US and the final of the Australian Open.
In 2009, Hewitt would return to the Quarter Finals of Wimbledon as an unseeded player, producing a major upset over Juan Martin Del Potro as well as orchestrating an astonishing yet characteristic two set down fightback against Radek Štěpánek to win in five. It would take an Andy Roddick five-setter to bring him down. Then in 2010, Hewitt would reach the second week of Wimbledon for the very last time, seeded as 15th in the tournament.
Prior to this, Hewitt would take the Halle title, beating Federer in the final on the turf that the Swiss has seen the most success of his entire career – winning eight titles there. This victory in particular pays testament to the relentless never-say-die attitude of Hewitt, as before it he had been on a torrid 15 match losing run to Federer. In 2013, Hewitt defeated three top 10 players and at Queen’s he would reach the semi-finals. In Wimbledon, he triumphed over Stanislas Wawrinka in Round One before losing in the following round to Dustin Brown. In 2014 he would similarly reach Round Two of SW19.
Then yesterday, 16 years after his very first Wimbledon, the Australian played his last – his success and popularity proved by the standing ovation he received from both opponent and crowd at the end of the match. And although Hewitt’s career is not yet over (it will in fact end at the 2016 Australian Open), we will never see him play tennis again on a grass court, and for a player who has eight grass court titles to his name including four Queen’s titles and a Wimbledon Crown, that is a great shame. ‘Super Lleyton Hewitt’ indeed.
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