Just a simple love story

Clijsters, Hewitt go to extremes to sustain their relationship

Nice as it is, Singapore's Changi International Airport is not a place you'd want to kill 12 hours waiting for your boyfriend. But last weekend Kim Clijsters, the No. 4 player on the WTA Tour, arrived on a flight from Belgium and then spent half a day aimlessly strolling the concourses, getting a massage and doing some heavy-duty duty-free shopping. Eventually her beau, Lleyton Hewitt, the top player on the ATP Tour, flew in from China. We can only hope that Hewitt had the good sense, knowing he was in arrears, to pay for dinner before they left together on a flight to Australia.

Tennis has had a rich history of intramural romances. Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors were briefly engaged in the 1970s, and Evert eventually married another pro, John Lloyd. Though Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf didn't date until after her retirement in 1999, they need a separate wing on their house to accommodate all their trophies. Jennifer Capriati and Xavier Malisse were inseparable for a year; the day they parted company, they resuscitated their careers.

Still, it's safe to say that few couples have had to endure the logistical hurdles of Hewitt, 21, and Clijsters, 19. He's based in Adelaide, Australia, the down under of Down Under, and she calls Bree, Belgium, home. Together, they log tens of thousand of air miles and rack up four-figure monthly phone bills to keep the flame burning. "It's not easy," said Clijsters, who spends three months a year with Hewitt in Australia. "When it's possible, we try to be together when one of us is playing and the other has a week off."

Whatever, it hasn't hurt their games. Earlier this month Clijsters upset top-ranked Serena Williams in the final to win the WTA Tour's year-end championship in Los Angeles. It marked the biggest title of her career. Five days later, Hewitt equaled her feat, winning the Masters Cup -- the men's season-ending lollapalooza -- in front of an SRO crowd in Shanghai. In so doing, he defended his year-end No. 1 ranking. The couple's combined haul from the two events: $2.1 million, a Porsche Carrera (hers) and a Mercedes CLK 320 (his). "I guess I get 50 percent of that," said Hewitt. "So it's all right."

By all outward appearances, this is a classic case of opposites attracting. Clijsters is cavity-inducing sweet and exceptionally popular on tour -- she makes a habit of making unpublicized visits to children's hospitals during tournaments -- if a bit naive at times. Asked in L.A. whether her muscular legs were a factor in her success, Clijsters was puzzled: "If I would have no legs, I wouldn't have won." Hewitt, on the other hand, has more than a little "mongrel in him," as the Aussies would say. A fierce fighter on the court, it sometimes seems like he is shouldering a chip the size of Ayers Rock. Before his first match in Shanghai, he spent hours on a speakerphone appealing a $100,000 fine he incurred from the ATP last summer for blowing off a mandatory television interview.

So, too, is their tennis a study in contrasts. At 5-foot-10, Clijsters is a charter member of the so-called Big Babe Brigade, a fluid athlete equipped with the arsenal to engage the Williams juggernaut. (In addition to her defeat of Serena, Clijsters beat Venus twice in 2002.) Hewitt is, ahem, listed at 5-10 and plays an unrelenting, counterpunching style. Aside from blinding quickness, his greatest asset is an outsized heart that stems from a lifetime of being the little guy eager to prove he belongs.

Clijsters and Hewitt met by serendipity. Sort of. In the winter of 2000, Hewitt invited Clijsters to a party for Pat Rafter, a player women don't like so much as they lap him up. Clijsters eagerly accepted, and only later realized Hewitt invited her as his date and not so she could meet Rafter. In nearly three years together, Hewitt and Clijsters have discovered the numerous benefits of dating someone in the same line of work. They practice together and critique the other's game. Watching Clijsters, Hewitt has come to appreciate the virtues of a calm demeanor. Sitting in Hewitt's box, Clijsters has learned what she calls, "the power of having strong self-confidence and believing in yourself." Perhaps above all, they are kindred spirits in a sport where self-absorption is all but an occupational requirement.

With Hewitt already on top and Clijsters just starting to enter her prime, the two have a chance to replicate Connors and Evert's feat of simultaneously being the No. 1 player on their respective tours. For the time being, they are taking a well-deserved vacation. After their airport rendezvous, they connected to a flight bound for Adelaide to drop off their bags. They then headed to an isolated oceanside resort in Queensland. According to Hewitt's reps, they are decompressing after an exhausting year and toasting their success at their respective year-end events. Singapore Slings, no doubt. And better make it a double.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his Tennis Mailbag.

 

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