We all know the next wave is coming and that Lleyton Hewitt is going – but when is the big question in Australian tennis.
Hewitt has carried the torch proudly and admirably for a decade and a half now and is once again set to reclaim the Australian No.1 ranking next month from Bernard Tomic.
Davis Cup and grand slams are what drive Hewitt and the former Wimbledon and US Open champion is refusing to put a time line on his retirement.
“I want to have another crack at Wimbledon for sure and I feel if I can get more matches under my belt going into Wimbledon that will hold me in a better stead,” he said last month.
“I don’t know when I’ll be stopping, but I’ll be playing out the whole year regardless.”
Turning 33 in February, though, and surely on his last legs after a series of career-saving surgeries, the former world No.1 must make way for generation next sooner rather than later.
The father of three has led a seven-year – and often heartbreaking – crusade to return Australia to the Davis Cup World Cup for “one last crack” at winning the prestigious team competition he so covets.
But after drawing France away in February for a likely quarter-final shot at Rafael Nadal’s nigh-unbeatable Spaniards on clay in Spain, Australia’s stint back in the top tier is set to be a cameo.
The prospect of Hewitt taping up his battered body for yet another Davis Cup campaign in the tennis back waters of Taiwan and Kazakhstan in 2015 seems most unlikely.
A far more likely scenario is Hewitt assuming the Cup captaincy from Pat Rafter and taking a more hands-on role in developing Australia’s future stars.
With reigning Australian Open boys’ champion Nick Kyrgios and US Open junior finalist Thanasi Kokkinakis leading the way, the outlook is bright.
But at 18 and 17 respectively, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis are some years off filling Hewitt’s shoes – and success-starved Australian tennis fans are demanding a saviour much sooner than that.
They are looking for one Bernard Tomic, the two-time junior grand slam champion and youngest Wimbledon quarter-finalist in almost 30 years, to step up now.
The 21-year-old hopes to, but accepts he has some catching up to do after a rollercoaster 2013.
After opening the season in a blaze of glory with victory over Novak Djokovic at the Hopman Cup amid 10 straight wins and capturing his maiden ATP title in Sydney, Tomic ended the year outside the world’s top 50 following a dozen first-round defeats.
In between, his father and coach was banned from the tour for assaulting Tomic’s French training partner in Madrid.
With John Tomic still calling the shots in the background, Tomic will again launch his new season at the Hopman Cup in Perth, with Croatian Velimir Zovko to serve as co-coach.
Tomic is under huge pressure to defend a stack of rankings points from Sydney and his fourth-round charge at the Australian Open and will almost certainly relinquish the Australian No.1 ranking over the Aussie summer.
The climb back will be steep and the enigmatic youngster knows he must knuckle down to reach his revised goal of a top-20 ranking by the end of 2014.
“I’ve got to become a little bit more wiser and I think mature a little bit more,” he said this week.
“It’s difficult to get into that (top) group now, so maybe top 20 is a reasonable goal.”
Samantha Stosur is already in the top 20, but Australia’s top-ranked women’s player is nevertheless also looking to ascend after giving up her three-year residence in the top 10 following a disappointing 2013 grand slam run.
Stosur’s best result at the majors was a third-round appearance at Roland Garros.
But the 2011 US Open champion did win two titles in a season for the first time in her career, defeating two-time defending Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in one, before ending the year in style with back-to-back final showings in November.
After parting ways with long-time mentor David Taylor in August and with relatively few rankings points to defend in 2014, fans can expect a refreshed Stosur to regain her place among the elite under Andy Murray’s former coach Miles Maclagan.
Stosur is the lone Australian woman in the top 100 entering the new year but, like Kyrgios and Kokkinakis, big things are expected of former junior Wimbledon champion and three-times grand slam doubles finalist Ashleigh Barty, who turns 18 in April.
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