The enigma wrapped in a riddle that is the public’s relationship with Lleyton Hewitt constantly amazes, and did once again at this year’s Championships at Wimbledon.
In general, we as a sport watching public have a natural dislike for Hewitt.
We find his behaviour on court often quite vulgar and distasteful, and a poor representation of Australian people to the world.
The anger and frustration he vents, often at anyone close enough to be in the firing line, makes the description of Hewitt as a “sore loser” quite applicable.
But amazingly, every time a major tournament comes around, we get behind the man like he’s the great white hope of Australia.
To a man we will stay up all hours of the night, watching him, talking about how tough he is, riding every serve-volley with him, and calling him “our Lleyton”.
The same thing happened at Wimbledon this year, right up to the match with Federer.
When he is out there against the big guns, we support him even further, and the hopes of the nation ride with him as he “battles bravely” against the Federer’s and Nadal’s of this world.
As he is past his prime, he more often than not loses the big match-up, and this is where the feeling changes once again.
After a loss, most of us drop him like a sack of spuds, often stating that he was never really a chance, and we were only ever really just hoping he could pull something out of the bag.
Very quickly, the same descriptions we started with of Hewitt come to light, and we go back to hating him again.
The question is, though, why do we do this every time? Do we secretly love him?
Or is he the illegitimate son of Australian sport, who we really don’t want around, but will claim as our own when he does something right?
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