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As questions persist over whether king of Wimbledon Roger Federer’s crown might be slipping, Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt had a close look at a potential contender to the throne today.
Much has been made of the knock Federer’s confidence must have taken from his straight-sets loss to clay-court maestro Rafael Nadal in the French Open final.
And Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic’s complete domination of Hewitt in a 6-2 6-2 quarter-final victory at the ATP grass-court event at The Queen’s Club in London will not hurt the young Serb’s aspirations at the All England Club from June 23.
Hewitt believes Djokovic can build on his breakthrough year at Wimbledon in 2007.
There, Djokovic beat him in a tough fourth-round match, then won a five-hour five setter against Marcos Baghdatis and took a set off Nadal before retiring with back and foot problems.
“He’s just going to get more and more confidence, I think, playing on grass over the years,” Hewitt said.
“He moves as well as anyone out there as well.
“He can flatten the ball out, make life tough for both Roger and Rafa.”
Many players, including Hewitt, have this week dismissed suggestions Federer is vulnerable and expect him to bounce back from his disappointment at Roland Garros.
For his part, Federer’s performance at his Wimbledon warm-up tournament – the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany – also indicates doubts over him are misplaced.
The Swiss world No.1 extended his winning streak on grass to 57 matches with a straight-sets win over Baghdatis in the quarter-finals.
Nadal, meanwhile, had a hard-fought quarter-final at Queens, beating Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4).
Hewitt, ranked 30th after an injury ravaged 2008, bore the brunt of World No.3 Djokovic’s superior service game and paid for committing some crucial unforced errors today.
The Australian had a glimmer of hope in a marathon sixth game of the second set, but Djokovic managed to fight off three break points and finally held serve after holding advantage five times.
From there, the 21-year-old Serb cruised to victory, which he sealed when Hewitt netted a return.
Djokovic said he had learned from his match against the Australian at Wimbledon last year and “played probably the best tennis of my life on grass” to win today.
“I knew Hewitt is one of the toughest players to play against on this surface, even though he’s not on top of his level, he’s not playing like when he was the No.1 player of the world a couple of years ago,” Djokovic said.
“But still he’s very motivated to come back.
“I learned a lot from our past encounters and I tried to be aggressive, but just wait for my chances. And I did play all two sets perfect.”
Hewitt said: “Last year he served well, as well, on the big points, he’s been doing that since he got to the top 10, top five in the world.
“He does that fairly consistently, hits a lot of lines out there, especially on his first serve.”
Djokovic has a 3-1 win-loss record against Hewitt, whom he also beat in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open.
Hewitt will turn his attention back to the practice court and, while he said the hip injury that has plagued him for much of this year was still “hanging around”, he did not seem worried about his form heading to the All England Club.
“I’m happy with the matches I got this week,” he said.
“A couple areas to still work on.
“Once I get over to Wimbledon, hopefully in a week’s time, I’ll have more confidence on the grass as well.”
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