Hewitt aims for higher ground
By Alix Ramsay
(Filed: 23/11/2003)


When Tim Henman finishes the season as the world No 15 and proudly places his Paris Masters Series crystal shield alongside the trophy he won at the Legg Mason Classic in Washington DC on the mantelpiece, his year is regarded as a roaring success.

But when Lleyton Hewitt counts a world ranking of 17, a title in Scottsdale and another at the Masters Series in Indian Wells as his only achievements for 2003, it is thought of as a catastrophic slump.

Then again, Hewitt's standards are higher than most. To date he has won two grand slam titles, he has finished the year as the world No 1 two years running, he has won the Masters Cup twice and he has help take Australia to four Davis Cup finals, winning one of them. All of this and he is still only 22.

On Friday he will make his first competitive appearance since September, walking out on to the newly laid grass court at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne to take on Spain in that fourth Davis Cup final.

His year has been geared to this moment and his schedule has been pared down to keep himself fresh for the cup campaign and the four grand slams.

Playing only eight regular tour events in between the majors, he has arrived at the slams "under-cooked", his results have been mediocre and his ranking has plummeted. Still, if he, Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge can beat Spain next weekend, Hewitt believes it will all have been worth it.

"If we go out and get to hold up the Davis Cup trophy then, in my mind, it'll be a pretty successful year," he said. "That was one of my main goals at the start of the year. I've set a schedule and stuck to it throughout the year to try to hold me in the best stead to try to win the Davis Cup.

"This is going to be our third match out of four matches at home so we've had a good draw and you just don't know how many opportunities you're going to have to play in another Davis Cup final at home. Especially after feeling the pain two years ago when we lost to France at home, if we can win this time then it will make it all the sweeter."

While Spain's top two, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya, have been schlepping around the European indoor circuit and on to Houston for the Masters Cup, Hewitt has been at home, working in the gym and on the practice court to be ready for the weekend.

An operation in October to remove a small cyst from his foot kept him idle for more than two weeks but since then it has been nothing but hard graft. According to Wally Masur, Australia's team coach, "the ball is just coming off the racquet so sweetly" in practice.

"Davis Cup matches are totally different to any other matches that you play because you play for your nation," Hewitt said. "I think more if you're mentally prepared for Davis Cup matches then that actually holds you in better stead than having a lot of matches under your belt.

"I've been in both situations when I've come off a bit of a break and I've played in Davis Cup finals at the end of the year and I've come in after winning Masters Cups and getting to No 1 and played Davis Cup finals. After playing the Masters Cup, you're on a bit of a high so I hope they don't feel too confident."

There is little chance of that as, between them, Ferrero and Moya won only one match out of six in Houston. Ferrero, the world No 3, looked tired and glum and, arriving in Australia on Friday, he has left little time to improve his mood.

For Hewitt, both the Davis Cup and the Australian Open are "bloody important to me in my career" and, he feels, success in one can only help in the other. Back in September he came back from a two-set deficit to beat Roger Federer in the Davis Cup semi-final and that, he believes, could be key to his comeback.

"I'd never really won a huge match at the Rod Laver Arena until then," he said. "I think that's just going to give me a lot of confidence when I step out there in the future, just to have those feelings and thoughts going and to have those memories coming back from that win."

While his form has dipped, Andy Roddick, Federer and Ferrero have taken centre stage and many have doubted Hewitt's ability to climb back to the top. Hewitt, though, fancies his chances, especially as the new season begins, for him, at home with a full schedule of tournaments.

It was back in the last century that his ranking was so low and he had won so few tournaments, so how exactly did Hewitt view 2003? "If you ask me after the Davis Cup final it'll be a lot easier to tell you." And that is something Tim Henman has never been able to say.

Aaron ready to ace Lleyton    *pics
By Jackie Epstein
23nov03

A FIT Aaron Baddeley will test himself on the comeback trail against Davis Cup-bound Lleyton Hewitt at Moonah Links golf course today.

The young sport stars are going to head-to-head over nine holes from 10am in a mixed skins game with rising golfers Carlie Butler and Sarah Kemp.
Baddeley called Hewitt -- who is preparing for this week's Davis Cup final against Spain -- about a month ago to tee up the shootout, which is part of the International Golf Festival and will raise money for charity.

"It'll be fun," Baddeley said this week.

"I spoke to Lleyton and I wasn't sure how early he was over here. I'm really looking forward to it."

The skins game, with $2000 on offer on each hole, will be followed by a $25,000 "Bash for Cash" long-drive competition involving professional players, footballers and celebrities.

Baddeley is back on track after he damaged ligaments in his ankle while playing frisbee near his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.

During the three-month lay-off from April, he sought treatment from several specialists, including trainers from the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball club.

Despite missing so many tournaments, he still managed to retain his tour card by finishing 73rd on the US tour's money list with $1,367,369.

"I feel like I'm close and I feel like it's just a matter of time," Baddeley said about a return to form.

"I've got to keep working hard and that's all I can do.

"If I keep working hard it'll all fall into place, there's no doubt about it.

"(Finishing 73rd) on the money list was OK.

"I had three months out during that period, so I would have liked to have been a bit higher up the money list, but what can you do?

"I've just got to learn from the year and move on to next year and set high goals and try to achieve those high goals."

Baddeley was at Moonah Links on Friday to do a fashion shoot for MacGregor and yesterday he was again at the Mornington Peninsula course for the final qualifying round of his junior tournament, the Aaron Baddeley World Junior Championship, to be held at the Sheraton Denarau Golf and Racquet Club in Fiji from December 6-12.

He is looking forward to a busy summer, which starts with the Australian Masters at Huntingdale from December 4 and the Australian Open at Moonah Links from December 18.

Play stops for Bob Carmichael funeral
Leo Schlink
21nov03

AUSTRALIA's players will break from Davis Cup practice this morning to attend the funeral of coach Bob Carmichael.

As tributes flowed in from former world No. 1 players Pat Rafter and Jim Courier, the Australians will not use their morning practice-court allocation and will instead pay tribute to Carmichael.
A former international player and coach, Carmichael died on Monday. He was 63.

Hewitt, who travelled with Carmichael in 1998, was still reeling from his former coach's passing yesterday.

"It's shocking news," Hewitt said. "He was a great person, you'd never forget him, you'd never forget little things he did or said.

"I worked with him for a number of weeks when no one really wanted to coach me, I guess, during '98 when I was struggling a little bit after I won Adelaide.

"I worked with 'Nails' leading into the US Open qualies. He was an awesome bloke, I learnt a lot from him, he was real down-to-earth.

"He really wanted me to succeed and wanted to help out Australian tennis as much as possible.

"You sort of can't get it out of your mind. It's probably hit me and 'Fitzy' (captain John Fitzgerald) harder than most of the guys because we were playing golf with him just a few weeks ago.

"It was just shocking news when we got told. It's really tough to block it out in the week leading up to a Davis Cup final."

Rafter, who Carmichael guided into the top 20 in 1993, said his former mentor had taught him invaluable lessons.

"Bob and I didn't always see eye to eye and we eventually went our separate ways, but he was very good for me," Rafter said.

"There was a lot of respect between us and he was one of the great Australian coaches. He was unique and he was very good at his job."

Dual Australian Open winner Courier was shocked and saddened by Carmichael's death.

"I'm really sorry to hear about 'Nails'," Courier said. "It is a big loss for tennis."

I'll be No. 1 again: Hewitt
By Linda Pearce
November 20, 2003


Lleyton Hewitt believes he is capable of regaining the world No. 1 ranking and emerging from the shadows of a troubled tournament year when his self-imposed tennis exile ends at next week's Davis Cup final against Spain at Melbourne Park.

While peers such as Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero have all won major titles this season and are widely being hailed as the future of the sport, Hewitt has tumbled from first to 18th in the past 12 months. Parallels have even been drawn with Martina Hingis, the retired Swiss who won all five of her grand slam titles before her 19th birthday, and was then overwhelmed by the more powerful forces in the women's game.

Hewitt's slide has been a combination of disappointing grand slam results and his willingness to enter just 12 official ATP tournaments in 2003. His only match play since losing his US Open quarter-final to Ferrero in early September was at the Davis Cup tie against Switzerland later that month.

Indeed, the former US Open and Wimbledon champion has insisted all year that Davis Cup has been his priority, and he has prepared for the final with almost fanatical zeal - on the court and in the gym, both in Melbourne and at home in Adelaide, on Rebound Ace and on grass, with his personal coach Roger Rasheed, and now the full Australian team.


"At the moment I'm playing as well as I've ever played, so I think the way that I beat Federer in the Davis Cup semi-final there's no doubt that gives me confidence that I can get No. 1 back," Hewitt said yesterday.

"I have no doubt that I can beat anyone in the world on any given day, and it's just got to, I guess, all come together . . . As soon as the Davis Cup final is over, and hopefully we've won, then the next thought's going to be trying to prepare myself as well as possible for the Australian Open."

I have no doubt that I can beat anyone in the world on any given day, and it's just got to, I guess, all come together.
LLEYTON HEWITT

Hewitt has never passed the fourth round at the national championship, but his eggs, as he likes to say, have all been placed in Australia's brimming Davis Cup basket. He hit for several hours in the heat at Kooyong yesterday, first with Mark Philippoussis, and the fist-pumps and trademark self-exhortations during his practice sets against youngster Todd Reid were proof of a desire to win that insiders say has never been so fierce, or intense.

The challenge now is to make sure the 22-year-old is not over-cooked during the remaining eight days of practice before the tie begins tomorrow week. "I'll start tapering off before then," Hewitt said. "All the hard yards have probably been put in before these next couple of weeks anyway. If the tie was the next few days I'd be ready to go, so now I'll just try to continue that form and that preparation leading in. I'll be raring to go when the bell rings, Friday week."

Australian coach Wally Masur joked that one of the few ways to hold Hewitt back was to redirect him to the golf course, but also said the Australians did not fear the possibility of their singles No. 2 peaking too soon.

"The ball is just coming off the racquet so sweetly; if we had to play this match in two or three days' time, Lleyton's ready," Masur said. "That's fine, it's good. That's why a team environment's good, because he'll play some doubles and do things leading up to this match that he wouldn't do leading up to a grand slam, for example. That's what keeps it fresh; there's a different thing happening every day."

Hewitt said what he may lack in match practice would be balanced by the Spaniards' much shorter lead-in time on grass, their least-preferred surface, and warned of the perils of facing the Philippoussis serve if the bounce on the portable turf at Rod Laver Arena is anywhere near as uneven as it was in the 2001 final against France.

Nor could Hewitt resist a jab back at his bogyman Carlos Moya, who questioned the Australian's decision not to play a tournament match in almost two months. Claiming to be unbothered by Moya's remarks, Hewitt alluded to speculation that Feliciano Lopez is being considered as Ferrero's singles support when he quipped: "We don't even know if (Moya's) playing yet."

Hewitt tees up in skins
Bruce Matthews
18nov03

YOUNG guns Aaron Baddeley and Lleyton Hewitt will put their reputations on the line for a bold challenge on Sunday.

The good mates will go head-to-head in a mixed skins game against rising Australian golfers Carlie Butler and Sarah Kemp at Moonah Links.

Baddeley and Hewitt are playing off the challenging championship tees, which will be used for next month's Australian Open at the links layout on the Mornington Peninsula.

Butler, 21, and Kemp, 17, will use the regular ladies' tees for the nine-hole skins shootout, which is part of the International Golf Festival starting next week.

Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald is granting Hewitt, a single-figure handicapper, time off from practice sessions for the cup final to partner Baddeley.

"Aaron called me up some time ago to see if I was interested. I had to get the all clear from 'Fitzy' first," Hewitt said.

The challenge of the sexes will be over a composite nine-hole course, which will finish at the new Moonah Links clubhouse. There will be $2000 on offer on each hole, with the Country Fire Authority and State Emergency Service as the beneficiaries.

"Sarah and I are confident of taking it right up to the guys and are hoping the women golfers of Victoria come down to Moonah Links to support us," Butler said.

The skins game at 10am will be followed by a $25,000 "Bash for Cash" long drive competition involving professional players, footballers and celebrities.

The big-hitting pros are letting rip to chase $15,000, while AFL footballers, including Richmond goalkicker Matthew Richardson, will win only bragging rights as the rest of the cash goes to charity.

Golf manufacturers Bridgestone and MacGregor are conducting a "demo day" for the public to test-drive the latest equipment on the practice range.

Rafter says Hewitt not arrogant enough
 By Will Swanton
 November 14, 2003 - 10:57AM
 
 Pat Rafter believes Lleyton Hewitt has fallen off his perch because of a lack of arrogance but predicts Australia's former world No.1 will inspire a comprehensive thumping of Spain in the Davis Cup final.
 
 Rafter has tried for years to convince people that Hewitt's confrontational on-court demeanour, a classic case of white-line fever, belies a more gentle nature when he's around friends and family.
 
 Hewitt officially lost the year-end world No.1 ranking to American dynamo Andy Roddick this week, capping a poor season of botched Grand Slams that can only be salvaged by a Davis Cup triumph in Melbourne from November 28-30.
 
 "He's a very humble kid, when you really get to know Lleyton," Rafter told Fox Sports.
 
 "He just doesn't have that real arrogance, that air of 'I'm going to do this and shove it in your face' sort of thing. He knows his limitations and I guess he didn't back himself this year.
 
 "It's hard to stay at the top of the game. When you're No.1 there's only one place to go. If we don't see big results from him next year, I definitely think the year after he'll develop more as a player and as a person."
 
 Hewitt showed his trademark courage in the Davis Cup semi-final against Switzerland, clawing his way off the canvas to beat world No.2 Roger Federer in five gruelling sets.
 
 Rafter warned that the Spanish should not be taken lightly on the specially laid grass court in Melbourne, despite their hopes resting largely on a pair of clay court machines in Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya.
 
 With Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis, Australia has the winner and runner-up from the last two years at Wimbledon.
 
 "He loves playing Davis Cup," Rafter said of Hewitt.
 
 "He's a geeat man to have in your team. There's not another man I'd have. He'd be the No.1 guy I'd pick every single time.
 
 "Lleyton's all fired up - the Spanish are going to be tough, though, and the Australians had better not underestimate how good these guys are. Although it's on grass they'll be very, very competitive ... even though I back Australia to win three-nil."
 
 Australia is heavily favoured, but the memory lingers of the debacle against France two years ago.
 
 On grass in the same arena, Hewitt and Rafter were the major players in a stunning 3-2 loss.
 
 Hewitt went down to Nicolas Escude in his opening singles. Rafter beat Sebastien Grosjean for 1-1. Hewitt and Rafter lost a shocker in the doubles to Cedric Pioline and Fabrice Santoro. Hewitt squared the ledger at 2-2 by beating Grosjean to start the final day, but Rafter mysteriously withdrew from the deciding fifth rubber, which was lost by a teary-eyed Wayne Arthurs.
 
 Hewitt, Philippoussis, Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge will line up against Ferrero, Moya, the rapidly improving Feliciano Lopez and stubborn 29-year-old Alex Corretja.
 
 - AAP

Croc hunter tops VIP list for Bush BBQ
October 23, 2003

CROCODILE Hunter Steve Irwin and tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt were among the VIPs to rub shoulders with US President George W Bush today during a barbecue at The Lodge.

Prime Minister John Howard hosted the shindig for the world's most powerful man on the lawns of his Canberra residence as protesters marching outside were forced away by police.

The guest list was a who's who of Australian celebrities, with media mogul Kerry Packer arriving at The Lodge with his wife Ros and broadcaster Alan Jones.

Former Wallabies skipper John Eales, former Test cricket captain Mark Taylor, ABC chairman Don McDonald and US Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer made up the numbers.

Mr Irwin, who this month declared Mr Howard the greatest leader in the world as well as the greatest Australia ever had, wore his trademark khakis.

Mr Howard also invited former Australian ambassador to Washington Andrew Peacock, who once ousted him as Liberal Party leader, along with Australian Defence Force chief Peter Cosgrove, Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley and senior cabinet ministers.

They were entertained by a band playing - appropriately - bush ballads including a version of Waltzing Matilda.

After dining on prawns and scallops with chilli and coriander dressing, followed by beef fillet and lamb cutlet with asparagus, baby rocket and tomato jus, Eales made a presentation to Mr Bush and reminded the - the Rugby World Cup.

In introducing Eales, Mr Howard described him as the greatest rugby player Australia had produced.

"He took the trophy at Millennium Stadium in Wales in 1999 and has been a great ambassador, and he is the ambassador of the World Cup, and he's deviously decided he wants to make a little presentation," he said.

Mr Bush was taken aback when he stood next Eales, who towers at 200 centimetres, and joked as he stretched his arm up to Eales' shoulder.

"You thought you were tall George," Mr Howard said.

Eales put the Americans at ease, saying they weren't the only ones who didn't know much about rugby.

"Recently, a friend of mine came up to me and asked me to sign his daughter's jersey for her, her Wallabies jersey," he said.

"A couple of days later he's rung me up and said I've got to tell you this story.

"He said; ... `Rebecca wore her jersey to pre-school because she wanted to tell the story for news.

"'The teacher cornered him at the end of the day and said ... Rebecca wore her jersey, she was so proud to get up there with it and she said, I'm so excited, the captain of the wombats signed my jersey'."

The joke hit a chord with the Australians guests but some of the Americans were left with blank looks on their faces.

"Anyway, the wombats aren't participating in this World Cup but the Wallabies are," Eales said.

He then revealed Mr Bush used to play rugby during his days at Yale University.

But the US president set the record straight.

"I wasn't any good," he said.

Eales presented Mr Bush and Mr Howard with a rugby jersey made up of half the US team's jumper and half the Wallabies colours.

AAP

Today's Lodge barbecue menu


The barbecue guest list

Steve Waugh
Lleyton Hewitt
Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin
Mark Taylor
John Eales
Richard Pratt
David Clarke
Hugh Morgan
Alan Jones
Neil Mitchell
Donald McDonald

What's on the menu

Entree

Barbecued Prawns and Scallops set with a crisp Asian salad and a mild chilli and coriander dressing

Main

Char-grilled Beef fillet and Lamb cutlet served on a warm potato salad with asparagus, baby rocket and a tomato jus

Dessert

Macadamia Pavlova Roulade with passionfruit ice cream and new season mangoes

Wines

Margaret River sauvignon blanc semillon
Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon