If only the baggy greens and the Wallabies had the resilience and sheer grit of a Lleyton Hewitt.
The 32-year-old isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he sure is mine. He has some aggravating habits on court. but to suggest they should detract from his never-say-die tennis, would be over-the-top churlish.
Had the Australian batsmen been more like Hewitt in combating the likes of Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Graeme Swann, the Ashes would have been a lot closer.
Had the Wallabies been “Lleytonised”, they would have won the Lions series, and made a better fist of the Bledisloe,
As it sits, between the two sports in their last five Tests each, the scoreline reads opposition seven wins, Australia one, with two drawn.
Nothing to write home about.
But not Hewitt.
The mere fact he’s still playing after a litany of surgeries and injuries says volumes for his tenacity.
Surgery on both hips, left wrist, left foot, and a plate inserted in his toe to go with ongoing left ankle, calf, lower back, thigh, and hamstring injuries.
Even a hypochondriac couldn’t match that list.
Right now he’s the oldest left in the US Open field, he’s been around for so long he doesn’t even know half the players in the draw.
Yet he’s one match away from a quarter-final clash with top seed Novak Djokovic, providing he beats Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the round of 16. Hewitt has a 5-1 career advantage, and he’s on a roll.
“This is what I keep playing for – the big stage” was Hewitt’s comment after downing world number six Juan Martin del Potro for the second time this year.
That was a five-set epic lasting four hours three minutes.
That win, more than other wins this year over top 10 Stanislas Wawrinka. Sam Querry, and John Isner, in only 14 tournaments, proves how resilient Hewitt is in the twilight of his career.
It wasn’t so long ago Hewitt was ranked 233 in the world and on the comeback trail. He’s now 66, and rising rapidly.
His secret?
He plays every point as if it’s his last, and never has anything left in the tank, win or lose.
Transfer those actions to the cricketers and the Wallabies, and there would be a vastly different record.
That translates to the Australian batsmen playing every ball on its merit, and the bowlers making opposition batsmen play every ball. Basics.
For the Wallabies it translates to passing accurately, safely handling, and first-time tackling. Basics.
It begs the question, if a battle-worn 32-year-old with a body that is held together with hope and a prayer can do the basics, why can’t far fitter and far younger cricketers and rugby footballers do the same?
Sure there’s a massive difference between an individual sport and a team sport. But the basics are still exactly the same.
del Potro is the perfect example.
He has all the ammunition to blast Hewitt off the court. His serve is more explosive, so too his ground shots, and he has 18cm height advantage – 198 to 180.
That gives the Argentine a reach advantage of an Airbus W380 to a Wirraway, Hewitt is the paperweight taking on the heavyweights.
But the scoreline reads Hewitt won 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-1. coming from two sets to one down.
The 66th seed downing the sixth.
That is something for Darren Lehmann and Ewen McKenzie, to look at very closely.
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