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Another Davis Cup tie has been played and sadly lost. Our prolonged exodus from the elite World Group continues for yet another year.
Despite the defeat, there were plenty of positives to take out of the weekend. Bernard Tomic beat yet another top 20 player and took the great Roger Federer to four sets. Not a bad weekend for an 18-year-old.
Lleyton Hewitt, meanwhile, was ultimately unsuccessful in his singles matches but fought valiantly against two top 20 players. He also teamed up with Chris Guccione to lead us to an important doubles victory that many expected us to lose.
Given he has played hardly any tennis over the past few years due to injury, including missing the recent US Open with yet another foot problem, his efforts this weekend are something that should be looked upon proudly by supporters of Australian tennis, and general sports fans. Sadly, it’s not.
The predictable calls of Hewitt being “too old”, “crocked” and “passed it” were thrown in alongside some extreme calls of “feral bogan”, “loser” and “no ticker”. I would have thought that “ticker” is the one thing Hewitt has always had, but maybe I’m wrong…
When so many of the world’s best tennis players use Davis Cup week as rest periods, preferring to focus on their individual career over national glory, Lleyton has always made representing his country his highest priority.
Whether playing Spain in the Davis Cup final or playing China in the Asian regional qualifiers, he has been there.
His Davis Cup record is exemplary and, in a more general sense, Lleyton has carried Australian tennis on his back for the best part of a decade.
None of that, however, seems to be good enough to an Australian sporting public who seem to take great delight in kicking anyone when their down.
Sure, he’s far from perfect. At times he’s acted like a brat on the court (though not so much recently) and had a bit of controversy.
His aggressive style has often alienated both opponents and spectators, so I can see why some people may not like him personally, though having never met the guy I prefer to judge him on his tennis ability rather than the brief glimpses of him that the media presents to us.
Whilst he may not be the player he once was, in an individual sport such as tennis, he harms nobody by trying his best to continue playing.
In a Davis Cup sense, if he were to retire, who would replace him? Tomic is good but Davis Cup requires two singles players and doubles players. Matosevic, Ebden and Guccione are all journeymen at best.
Juniors like Luke Saville and Jason Kubler are highly rated, but the transition from juniors to seniors is tough and many have failed to make the transition. Todd Reid, anyone?
At times over the past decade it seems like he’s been the only one trying to help the sport and that includes everybody at Tennis Australia. He has been arguably our best tennis player in the last 30 years.
Even if we don’t like the man we must at the very least respect what he has done for Australian tennis. He has earned that.
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