Lets Go, Lleyton, Lets Go….
That was how the chants go from loyal Aussie fans when Lleyton plays the Australian Open and any other tournament internationally. But, of late, Hewitt has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, his ranking has dropped miserabl, no where near the No 1 ranking that he held for sometime, no chance of winning a Grand Slam, still trying to win his maiden Australian Open. In the last week, his coach Roger Rasheed quit his position after an altercation with Hewitt after his quaterfinal loss at the Adelaide tournament.
I just happened to read a news item in one of the Indian dailies about the future of Indian tennis after Leander Paes.
The story is the same in Australia, who is after Lleyton ? He is only 25 years old and already facing the twilight of his career in my opinion. He risks being out of the top 20 in the rankings and this is a player who was number 1 for 80 weeks between November 2001 to June 2003.
The other player who was atleast worth mentioning was Mark Phillipousis, but he too has been distracted from tennis by his off court pursuits of girls and his problems with injuries.
Lleyton can still salvage some of his pride by concentrating on his game and not just by being all talk, no action. He is still capable of rising above being coach-less for the Australian Open, but that angry attitude has to change. Rasheed follows a list of players who have coached Lleyton including Jason Stoltenberg and Darren Cahill.
So, the question remains, who is the next big one after Lleyton for Australian men’s tennis ?
January 7, 2007 at 10:52 pm
we just hate hewitt.i think he unnecessarily creates problems on court with his temperament.even if he is a good player,there’s no excuse for his kind of behaviour.let’s see what happens to his game…
July 20, 2008 at 8:45 am
i think lleyton Hewitt is a fantastic player but he is not able to concentrate hard enough.he is just the age of Federer but he is way behind federers and Nadal.