This was the mother of all Mondays at Wimbledon. Henin and Clijsters in the Battle of the Belge. Serena and Maria in their Battle of the squeal. And Lleyton Hewitt would be playing.
All six of the men’s top seeds in fourth round action. All three top seeds having had five setters in their last matches.
Every competitor at Wimbledon was still shaking their heads at the marathon 70-68 fifth set between Isner and Mahut. Even camels have been known to refuel earlier.
The match-up between Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic was epic. If this was a boxing match Djokovic had a height and reach advantage over Hewitt. Djokovic was a quarterfinalist in 2009 and the bookmaker’s favourite being seeded three here.
But Wimbledon is Hewitt’s favourite surface and he has recent form in beating Federer at Halle. Hewitt has been at least to the fourth round since 2004. He was champion in 2002.
Boris Becker would like Hewitt next to him in a bar room brawl. Hewitt is probably the best pound for pound fighter on the circuit.
Phar Lap had a heart one and a half times the size of a normal horse. This heart, weighing 6.35 kilos is on display at the National Museum in Canberra. One suspects Hewitt’s heart is as big.
Some say the American wonder horse Secretariat had a bigger heart but all the tennis experts are unanimous in endorsing Hewitt’s fighting qualities. The Queen, with her love of racehorses, would no doubt agree.
This match was relegated to Court Number 1 as Andy Murray tried to salvage England’s lost football pride on Centre Court. Djokovic, on the other hand, would be looking to exact some revenge for Serbia’s football loss to the Socceroos.
The task before Hewitt was enormous.
Beat Djokovic and set up a possible quarterfinal against Andy Roddick. Win that and a date with Federer. Finally he would have to beat Nadal, Soderling or Murray.
In effect all six seeds awaited him. A lesser man would simply have gone home.
Jarmila Groth had earlier lost to Venus Williams and Lleyton was now the last Aussie standing.
Hewitt would have been inspired if he had been watching. Jarmila played Venus as an equal. She is one feisty young lady. She lost in straight sets but had her chances, especially in the second where she twice served for the set.
Jarmila fought back from 0-4 down in the tiebreaker to be 4-4 and then at 5-5 double faulted to give Venus match point. Just a few line calls and the odd unforced error. Jarmila is top ten material on this showing and you heard it first on The Roar.
From the very first point Hewitt came out throwing a crosscourt jab and hustled right through the first set. It was even until 5-5 and then Djokovic broke and served out for 7-5.
The match was close, and our man was in the contest.
Djokovic was relying on his heavy first serve and Hewitt was returning well but not consistently well enough. One service break was enough for Djokovic to take the second 6-4.
Lleyton Hewitt loves a scrap. He broke Novak for 3-2 and consolidated to 4-2 by holding to 15. At 3-5 down Djokovic was struggling with Hewitt’s return of serve and down 0-40.
“C’mon”, said tennis’ Phar Lap and Hewitt broke again to take the set 6-3 and importantly would be serving first in the fourth.
Novak Djokovic carries Serbia’s hopes every time he steps on the court. Earlier Jankovic had retired hurt leaving him the only Serbian left in the singles.
He broke Hewitt in the first game of the fourth and the momentum had shifted once again. He built to 2-0 and had the chance to go 3-0 having Hewitt down a break point. Lleyton came again and held serve to stay in the match.
The fourth game of this fourth set was going to be crucial. Hewitt had to break back now.
Djokovic raced to 40-15 and it looked ominous for Hewitt. A deep return gave Hewitt a chance and then a Djokovic double fault gave him the lifeline. Hewitt was making Djokovic hit the extra ball and wearing down the Serb. Djokovic hits long and the Wimbledon air is pierced by a triple “C’MON!!”.
Hewitt consolidates with an easy hold and at 3-2 is in front. He has Djokovic double faulting and at deuce had the Serbian groggy. Hewitt pressed a fraction too much with the adrenalin pumping and missed the opportunity to break again.
At 3-3 this was becoming a dog-fight. Hewitt holds easily for 4-3 and the match hangs in the balance.
Djokovic serves an ace for 15-0. Hewitt scrambles the next point for 15-15. The Serb fires another big serve and puts away Hewitt’s half court offering for a 30-15 edge. Hewitt refuses to go away and it is 30-30. It goes to deuce and Djokovic barely survives this round.
Hewitt is serving at 4-4 and 30-0. Djokovic surges again and has break point. Hewitt double faults and Djokovic will serve for the match at 5-4. Three good serves and he holds three match points. Hewitt throws a half-hearted punch and it is all over.
Djokovic lets out a primal scream and raises his tired arms. He is delirious and a little punch drunk.
A warm embrace at the net follows and Hewitt walks off with a tired wave to the crowd. Djokovic screams some more and tears off his shirt and tosses it to the crowd. He has also proved he has a big heart and maybe one day there will be a horse he can call his own.
jeremy
Guest
well if we're to continue the comparisons, Phar Lap was gelded (in) by Australia... ...and I hope he is not destined to die from suspected food poisoning by an unsuspecting trainer???
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium, you did nominate Berdych to cause an upset and so it has come to pass. It was a polished performance and he looked strong. He was serving 10 MPH faster than the Fed but the Swiss had more aces with his serve wide to the forehand.Federer had more break opportunities but could not convert.
Whiteline
Guest
Gee Vinay, tell me what you really think!
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Greetings,Greg. Astute summing up. I agree that Roddick should have moved Lu around. The ability to change a gameplan is what sets apart the truly great players. There is a tendency in modern sport for players to be lost without the "continuous" reaffirmation of their mentors. The ability to think independently. There are too many calculators and short cuts taken by the modern player..the art of "reading"...books or an unfolding game seem to be lost. You will recall some years ago at the SCG Cronje was censured for receiving instructions on the field from his coach via a miked up relay. Recently Ishant Sharma has lost his way because he cannot think for himself. Even Serena Williams when she was losing to Stosur at the French Open kept looking forlornly towards her entourage. First Asian into the quarters? Perhaps correct in singles because the last one I remember was Ramanathan Krishnan in the semis in the early seventies.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Whiteline,finally, a studied and plausible response. You must be in a non-combative mood. But I agree that our perceptions sometimes do not change with the current reality. In saying that I believe Hewitt is probably top 15 but he is not currently in the same league as the top 4. His time may have past. A fantastic warrior and has been consistently good over a decade.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
By chance I watched the 5th set of Roddick-Lu. My wife (a first-division tennis player in Christchurch), the commentator on German channel Sport1, and I were all unanimous that Roddick was the author of his own demise. Clearly he was working on the gameplan that his serve and fitness were invincible, and that Lu would eventually drop serve because of unforced errors if Roddick just hit the ball back to him. For the first half of the fifth set this looked like a plausible gameplan: Roddick was holding his serve with ease, and Lu was always dropping points. Then everything turned on the match in which Roddick had a breakpoint. After that Lu started winning his serve with ease, and because he was the one playing the shots, it was evident that at some point he would get a chance on the Roddick serve. That is what happened, and Lu took it. From this one must wonder both about Roddick's tennis intelligence and the quality of his coach, Larry Stefanki. Whichever of them devised the tactic of simply hitting the ball back to Lu on his serve, it should have been evident by the business end of the fifth set that momentum had turned, and Roddick needed to change his tactics urgently. He needed to try to hit winners on the Lu serve and move the Asian player around. If Roddick couldn't see this, then at the very least his coach should have signalled to him (that being allowed now). There are many similarities between Roddick and Hewitt in terms of how the careers of these contemporaries have unfolded, both on and off the court. However one difference is that I believe Roddick is still a chance of winning a major - I feel he showed that in last year's epic Wimbledon final. So this tepid effort by Roddick is a huge blow for his career, as he won't have too many more chances to win a major. For Tony Tannous' benefit: it was said on German TV that Lu is the first Asian (male) in 15 years to make the QFs of a tennis major. Someone may know who was the last. I am wondering if Michael Chang is counted as an Asian male?
Whiteline
Guest
Unfortunately many associate the 29 year old Hewitt with the brash model which hit the scene 13 years ago. He has matured and now conducts himself in a manner which Australian's should be proud of. He probably wont be remembered as favourably as someone like Rafter but has proven himself to be a world class player for over a decade.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Plasmodium,glad you enjoyed the writeup. Taiwan would perhaps have a good case for telling the PRC to go jump. Lu sure knows how to play chicken. He had Roddick interested to the end. This is what sport can sometimes throw up. The unexpected. Lu might just have the extra legs to beat Djokovic. And what did you think of Jarmila Groth..she was not intimidated. Venus was quite surly and impolite in keeping every one waiting. I have not read that she has apologised for this. I have a lot of time for the Williams sisters and where they have come from. So I will give her the benefit of the doubt. Jarmila hit deep and to the lines..she had the match but for her inexperience. She has not yet learnt the art of slowing down the play.She will learn that champions can be bitchy.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
As in cricket, so in tennis. Either measure speed in KPH or MPH. About time England (also perhaps USA) follow the metric system. I am sick and tired of multiplying by 1.6 or dividing by 1.6, especially at 2 am! So let us roarers all unite and clamour for KPH. "We want KPH. When do want it? Now!"
Plasmodium
Guest
Vinay, you had me on the edge of my chair even though I'd already seen the match. However, your mention of Phar Lap took my mind off tennis and plunked it down at Agua Caliente in Tijuana where I once lost, if not my shirt, at least my cufflinks and tiepin. It was there that the great horse ran his last race, in 1932, before he was murdered by the Mob. The gangsters didn't want terrific horses from Down Under ruining their handicapping so they got a stable boy to feed PH a dose of arsenic. Granny Rice wrote a soppy, sentimental column claiming that Americans didn't kill great thoroughbreds, but nobody in Australia believed him and rightly so as it's since been proved (vide Titelbild: Determination of Arsenic Poisoning and Metabolism in Hair by Synchrotron Radiation: The Case of Phar Lap (Angew. Chem. 25/2010) Ivan M. Kempson, Assoc. Prof. 1 2 *, Dermot A. Henry 3 1Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Section 2, Nankang, Taipei 115 (Taiwan) 2Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, 5095 (Australia) 3Museum Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne, Vic, 3001 (Australia) that PH was indeed poisoned. There was a period, I'm sure before your time in Oz, when any mention of America produced slitty eyes, clenched-teeth and a bitter statement from grandparents: "Don't talk to me about Americans. They killed Phar Lap." Also, my grandmother never forgave the US for being the country where Les Darcy died. Good thing it was a Serb who beat Hewitt today. Had it been Andy Roddick, my grandmother would have cursed him from whatever glad ossuary she's dwelt in lo these many years.
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Just some thoughts on the Roddick-Lu match. Roddick won more points (199 to 196) served more Aces (38 to 22) had one less unforced error(33 to 34) served faster and a bigger percentage of first serves. Yet he lost in five sets. The number of double faults at crucial moments..Roddick's 8 to Lu's 4. Its about winning the big moments in sport. Venus won these against Jarmila Groth..Jarmila will learn from this..she is a fearless stroke maker and her technique is sound. She is not flaky like some of the other top ten women. In Stosur and Groth Australia has two players that belong and both capable of being number 1. But Serena is something else. She was serving almost as fast as Federer and hit 19 aces past Sharapova. Her speed of 125MPH was just slower than Federer's top of 128MPH. Serena when she is on top of her game is in a different league to the rest. Her problem is going to be motivation and hunger. Only she can defeat herself. Federer,Nadal and Murray cruised into the quarters. Nadal plays a tired Soderling and Lu plays Djokovic...Lu could just outlast the Serb...what if Hewitt had taken his chances... Murray must get past Tsonga to play Nadal/Soderling. If Soderling serves well he can beat Nadal.
Hayden
Guest
Ouch!
Vinay Verma
Roar Guru
Hayden,of course! Born and bred. But trained and raced in Australia. Just like SBW.
Hayden
Guest
Of course Phar Lap had a huge ticker - He's a Kiwi.
Fisher Price
Guest
Good riddance Hewitt.
Tony Tannous
Expert
Cheers Vinay for the reply this morning on your previous post Naturally enough, because of a certain tournament now taking place in the Southern hemisphere, I haven’t been watching any Wimbledon this year (funnily enough, it snuck up on me, as I’m sure Le Tour is likely to do), but was delighted with Yen-Hsun Lu’s result this morning.. He sounds like a great story, the son of a chicken farmer cracking a few big eggs and egos on the big stage. Long may he continue to fight... I heard somewhere on the radio that he’s ranked 82nd and he’s the first player from Chinese Taipei, male or female, to make the final 8 of a major. To knock off proven grass-courter Roddick is no mean feat, and inspired by the passing of his father, who taught him the game rather late, who knows how far he can go?? And, of course, there’s an Aussie connection, with Mark Woodforde having spent time with him last year. Following on from my "lets get behind Japan and South Korea at the World Cup" piece on the weekend, go Yen-Hsun Lu, I say.