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Hungry Hewitt Davis Cup crucial to Lleyton’s success
Updated: Tuesday September 11, 2001 12:15 AM
SYDNEY, Australia -- On the day of Lleyton Hewitt's U.S. Open triumph, you can be sure that productivity slumped back in his homeland. Allowing for the 14-hour time difference between New York and Australia's populous eastern seaboard, the men's final at Flushing Meadow coincided with the start of the workweek Down Under. So at 9 a.m. on Monday, when employees were supposed to be showing up at offices around the country, Hewitt was putting the finishes touches on a stunning straight-sets win over veteran Pete Sampras. It would be stating the obvious to say that news of the 20-year-old's first Grand Slam title was the lead story in Aussie media outlets. Even on Saturday, when Hewitt won his semifinal against Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov, it was the second story on the evening news of Australia's No. 1 TV network. Hewitt may not have endeared himself to the Australian public in the way Patrick Rafter has, but the kid's talents have long been admired here. More so than those of the injury-prone Mark Philippoussis, who has often shirked Davis Cup duty. Hewitt is respected for his competitiveness, his endurance and his never-say-die approach. True, Hewitt's much-publicized outbursts earned him the title of "Australia's least-admired sports personality" from a leading magazine last year. But his devotion to national duty and his "mongrel" nature on the court (an endearing Aussie description of a fighting attitude) supercede any reservations about his personality. After bursting onto the scene by winning the 1998 ATP event in his hometown of Adelaide at the age of 16 with a ranking of 550 (beating Andre Agassi along the way), Hewitt was quickly added to the Australian Davis Cup squad. He played an important role as Australia won the 1999 trophy and then found himself the No. 1 singles player in 2000 with Philippoussis injured and Rafter coming back from shoulder surgery. Hewitt still considers his efforts to win singles matches on clay in the 2000 Davis Cup final in Spain and the 2001 quarterfinal in Brazil (beating French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten in his hometown) to be among his career highlights. Rafter also kick-started his career through Davis Cup, famously coming from two sets down to beat Cedric Pioline in a tie against France in 1997. Later that year, Rafter was lifting the first of his two U.S. Open crowns. While other top players have approached Davis Cup play in a half-hearted manner or skipped it altogether, Rafter and Hewitt have made the international team competition a priority. At times, it may seem like an unnecessary and tiring inconvenience. But in the long run, hard-core Davis Cup tennis creates mental toughness and invaluable experience in best-of-five set matches. Fittingly, key figures in his Davis Cup past were front and center as Hewitt clinched his first Grand Slam, becoming the 11th Australian man to win the U.S. Open. He had a telephone conversation the night before with teammate Rafter, whose advice was just to relax and enjoy himself in the final. His former Davis Cup captain John Newcombe did a post-match, courtside interview with Hewitt for the Australian TV coverage. And recently retired Aussie doubles player Mark Woodforde was the studio host for the final. Like Hewitt, Woodforde is from the state of South Australia. An Australian newspaper showed an old photo of Woodforde (who didn't look noticeably different) giving an autograph to a 6-year-old Hewitt during the 1980s. How quickly our youngsters grow up. The once cute rugrat has just knocked off the great Sampras for the first of what could be many Grand Slam titles. Australian-born Jason Dasey is a co-anchor for "World Sport," a 30-minute sports highlights and news program, shown on CNN-International and CNN/SI.
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