Lleyton Hewitt walked into the press conference with eyes blazing. Australia still trailed 2-1, indeed still had it all in front of them, yet he felt the doubles had changed something.

The adrenalin was still running, high octane. A Belgian sportswriter noted Hewitt seemed rather fired up.

“I’m always fired up,” Hewitt shot back. Fullstop, exclamation mark.

“That definitely won’t be lacking tomorrow. I’ll come at him with everything."

Later, when the press conference was over, outside the Belgian sportswriter was jumping.

“This Lleyton Hewitt,” he said, “I’m beginning to like him."

It seemed like an unusual thing to say until, on deeper reflection, it became clear why.

You hardly ever hear that in Australia.

Hewitt? Locally, opinions are fixed. Ask 10 different people about Hewitt and you will get two different answers, five from each side.

They like him or they don’t. The critics will point to his on-court outbursts, the small tantrums, his “c’mon” celebrations, and the sale of his celebrity romance to the women’s mags to fuel their argument.

That’s why he will never win Australian of the Year, like Pat Rafter did.

This is despite winning two Grand Slam titles, like Rafter, and all the money he has donated to charity, like Rafter.

Hewitt has got a bum wrap from the Australian public. There is something about a man that gives all he has and keeps looking to give.

In today’s sporting world most athletes would have walked into that press conference and been mindful Australia was still behind on the scorecard. They would have played it softly-softly in case they didn’t eventually win.

Hewitt refuses to make deals with himself. The silent deals, the small allowances you make to that voice in your head, the tiny out you create for yourself in case things turn sour.

Even the good ones do it. When Teddy Atlas began training former world heavyweight champion Michael Moorer, whom he took to the title, he was stunned to see Moorer miss training sessions in the lead-up.

Moorer complained he was sore or he needed rest; he had them all. Atlas recognised it for what it was: a frailty in Moorer’s mental toughness.

By missing training he was creating an excuse so he could live with himself in case he lost. He was making a deal with himself.

It doesn’t only happen in sport. How many pass up the new job offer because they couldn’t work with the new boss? Failed to get the promotion because they didn’t suck up like the bloke that did? How many think about the job switch but, well, better the devil you know?

Life gets easier when you have made the deal. It’s why Hewitt fails to get the credit he deserves.

When he beat Olivier Rochus on Sunday to square the tie at 2-2, he was asked what he was thinking as the match went into the fifth set.

“I was thinking he was going to have to kill me to beat me,” Hewitt said.

It’s not an original line. An old Australian contender once claimed the only way he was going to leave the ring without the belt was in a bodybag.

He got hit with a bodyshot in the first round and took the full count on one knee, saying afterwards he shouldn’t have “fought” because he damaged his ribs in sparring.

There was his out. That was his deal. 

Then there is Hewitt, who had a cold all last week.

He told nobody about it but you could hear it on his chest.

Asked about it, Hewitt said, “It’s nothing.”

When he lost to Kristof Vliegen in the first rubber he could have pulled out then, but he stayed quiet.

Instead he played his most aggressive tennis the next day, won the doubles and then rolled it into Sunday’s win.

Nearly 11 hours on court – and he never made the deal.

When people try to describe our Aussie culture, when the patriots thump their chests and try to explain why Aussies are different, most talk of our never-say-die attitude.

We pride ourselves on it but how many of us actually live it?

Yes, sometimes the pressure bubbles out of Hewitt in unseemly ways. 

But he lives the never-say-die attitude better than most Aussies even though he can’t win with some. If nothing else, he deserves to be understood.