Hewitt to miss Olympics
(Herald Sun)
By Leo Schlink
18dec03
AUSTRALIAN Davis Cup hero Lleyton Hewitt will miss next year's Athens Olympics.
Scheduling concerns similar to those that drove a raft of leading players out of
the 1996 Atlanta Games will force world champion Hewitt to bypass Greece in
August.
The Athens tennis tournament is played from August 15-22, with the US Open
starting three days later in New York.
"The big thing is when we had the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it was after all the
four majors had been played," Hewitt said yesterday.
"Athens is being held right before the US Open and it's got the same feeling as
the Atlanta Olympics (in 1996) when a lot guys were missing because it was just
so close before the US Open.
"We're fortunate in tennis, I guess, that we're in a sport where we've got the
four majors and Davis Cup every year and they're my main goals.
"I've sat down with (coach) Roger (Rasheed) and we've come up with a schedule
designed for me to do well at the grand slams and Davis Cup.
"They're my priorities next year. I would like to win at least one major and
help Australia successfully defend the Davis Cup."
Hewitt will play an expanded list of tournaments next year, starting with the
Hopman Cup in Perth, then the adidas International, Australian Open and the
first round of Davis Cup in Adelaide.
He will then contest Rotterdam before attempting to win a third consecutive
Masters Series title in Indian Wells, California, before travelling to Miami.
Should Australia beat Sweden in Davis Cup next month, Hewitt will return to
Australia for the April quarter-finals.
His claycourt season will take in two of three events in either Monte Carlo,
Rome or Hamburg and there is a chance he could play the World Team Cup in
Germany before the French Open.
Hewitt will then return to Queen's Club en route to Wimbledon before using Los
Angeles, Toronto and Cincinnati to prepare for the US Open – leaving no room for
Athens.
Hewitt is unlikely to be alone in his decision to bypass the Olympics.
Andre Agassi, the 1996 gold medallist, is rumoured to be an unlikely starter
after missing the Sydney Games.
Hewitt makes no apologies for his stance.
"For athletes in many other sports, the Olympics are the be-all and end-all,"
the Wimbledon and US Open winner said.
"It comes around once every four years for them and it's understandably huge.
"For a tennis player, you can pack up your bags after losing at the Olympics and
be on cloud nine two weeks later if you've had a win in New York.
"For me, Davis Cup is about representing Australia in a team sport and I love
it. Although you're still representing Australia at the Olympics, you're doing
it as an individual."
Hewitt lost in the first round of the Sydney Games to Max Mirnyi, of Belarus,
but still enjoyed the experience.
The timing of Athens means it is likely to lose a host of players who will
prefer to rest before the US Open, as Pete Sampras did before Atlanta in 1996.
Australia will be represented in Athens by Hewitt's fellow Davis Cup hero Mark
Philippoussis, who was Australia's best performer at the Sydney Olympics, losing
in the third round to eventual champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald said Hewitt's dedication to the
national cause was clearly evident despite his decision to bypass Athens.
"I reiterate how much Lleyton loves playing Davis Cup for his country," said
Fitzgerald, who will manage the Australian Olympic tennis contingent in Greece.
"Lleyton's priority in 2004, apart from doing well in the grand slams, is a
successful defence of the Davis Cup.
"Even without the Olympics, Lleyton has already got a full year."
Hewitt said his decision had nothing to do with his world No. 2 girlfriend Kim
Clijsters' move to bypass the Games. Hewitt said the pair had made decisions on
the Games independently.
Why Lleyton has done us favour
Opinion by Ray Chesterton
19dec03
IT has always been obscenely fraudulent to impose tennis upon the public as a
genuine, widely-accepted event of Olympic merit.
It is, like soccer at the Olympics, just a mediocre deception created to
artificially generate revenue.
Tennis is a sport built upon traditions, myths and emotions that are older than
even the modern Olympics.
The four pillars of world tennis are the French, Wimbledon, Australian and US
opens.
Anything else, no matter how much money or how many trinkets are involved,
counts for little, except fattening bank accounts.
The four Opens constituting the grand slam characterise tennis in the past, the
present and the future.
Players' careers are measured in grand slam wins. Not gold medals.
We all know that whichever of Lleyton Hewitt's social shortcomings has made us
cringe in the past, no one quibbles about his devotion to tennis and
representing Australia, especially in the Davis Cup.
So for him to publicly say he is unavailable for the Olympics because it might
interfere with his preparation for the US Open is a welcome and honest reaction
to the duplicity the IOC has been perpetrating for more than a decade.
Congratulations Lleyton.
You have done us a favour with your forthrightness.
Olympic tennis is a pleasant pastime but only if there there are no grand slams
to play. We saw that at the 1996 Olympics when the tennis was again scheduled
too close to the US Open and key players dropped out. Now we're seeing it again.
Tennis is not an Olympic sport. Nor is golf, a sport frequently talked about as
being introduced at some stage. Nor is soccer, which discriminates and blurs the
edges of the competitive boundary lines quite shamelessly, or even baseball for
that matter.
There are sports in the world anchored so firmly in tradition and fable that
they might as well be pinned in steel and concrete.
Tennis's grand slam, is one of them. Soccer's World Cup is another. They regard
the Olympics as secondary.
Similarly there are sports so emotionally and historically linked to the
Olympics that no man-made competition like a world championship can ever erode
their support.
Athletics is one. So is swimming.
Athletics and swimming have their own world championships but neither carries
the cachet of an Olympic medal.
But the IOC continues to try and brainwash the public into believing tennis is
part of its grand plan.
The Olympics can offer tennis no prestige that it does not already have.
As grandiose as they may be and as much of an amazing theatre they present, the
Olympics are undermining their own achievements.
Soccer at the Olympics is a joke. Countries field under-23 sides that can be
boosted by the inclusion of three over-age players, who are usually
international stars.
But soccer sells tickets.
And, as always, the IOC is about making money. It sees the massive money tennis,
soccer and perhaps golf can generate and they greedily want a share of it.
Even if it gives the Olympics a tawdriness and sense of avarice that is
sickening.
Lleyton rejects Athens
Leo Schlink
18dec03
AUSTRALIAN Davis Cup hero Lleyton Hewitt will miss the Athens Olympic Games.
Scheduling concerns similar to those that drove a raft of leading players out of
the 1996 Atlanta Games will force world champion Hewitt to bypass Greece in
August.
The Athens tennis tournament is played from August 15-22 with the US Open
starting only three days later in New York.
"The big thing is when we had the Sydney Olympics in 2000 it was after all the
four majors had been played," Hewitt said yesterday.
"Athens is being held right before the US Open and it's got the same feeling as
the Atlanta Olympics (in 1996) when a lot of guys were missing because it was
just so close before the US Open.
"We're fortunate in tennis, I guess, that we're in a sport where we've got the
four majors and Davis Cup every year and they're my main goals.
"I've sat down with Roger (coach Roger Rasheed) and we've come up with a
schedule that is designed for me to do well at the Grand Slams and Davis Cup.
"They're my priorities next year. I would like to win at least one major and
help Australia successfully defend the Davis Cup."
Hewitt will play an expanded list of tournaments next year, starting with the
Hopman Cup in Perth, then the adidas International, Australian Open and the
first round of Davis Cup in Adelaide.
He will then contest Rotterdam before trying to win a third consecutive Masters
series title in Indian Wells before travelling to Miami.
Should Australia beat Sweden in Davis Cup next month, Hewitt will return to
Australia for the April quarter-finals.
His claycourt season will take in two of three events in either Monte Carlo,
Rome or Hamburg, and there is a chance he could play the World Team Cup in
Germany before the French Open.
Hewitt will then return to Queen's Club en route to Wimbledon before using Los
Angeles, Toronto and Cincinnati to prepare for the US Open – leaving no room for
Athens.
Hewitt is unlikely to be alone in his decision to bypass Athens. Andre Agassi,
the 1996 gold medallist, is rumoured to be an unlikely starter after missing the
Sydney Games.
Hewitt makes no apologies for his stance.
"For athletes in many other sports, the Olympics are the be-all and end-all,"
the Wimbledon and US Open winner said.
"It comes around once every four years for them and it's understandably huge.
"For a tennis player, you can pack up your bags after losing at the Olympics and
be on cloud nine two weeks later if you've had a win in New York.
"For me, Davis Cup is about representing Australia in a team sport and I love
it. Although you're still representing Australia at the Olympics, you're doing
it as an individual."
Hewitt lost in the first round of the Sydney Games to Max Mirnyi, of Belarus,
but still enjoyed the experience.
The timing of Athens means it is likely to lose a host of players who will
prefer to rest ahead of the US Open, as Pete Sampras did ahead of Atlanta in
'96.
Australia will be represented in Athens by Hewitt's fellow Davis Cup hero Mark
Philippoussis, who was Australia's best performer at the Sydney tennis event,
losing in the third round to eventual champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald said Hewitt's dedication to the
national cause was clearly evident despite his decision to bypass Athens.
"I reiterate how much Lleyton loves playing Davis Cup for his country," said
Fitzgerald, who will manage the Australian Olympic tennis contingent in Greece.
"We're very lucky to have Lleyton - and also Mark, Todd (Woodbridge) and Wayne (Arthurs)
- always willing to play for Australia.
"Lleyton's priority in 2004, apart from doing well in the Grand Slams, is a
successful defence of the Davis Cup.
"The Athens Olympics are played after the French Open and Wimbledon and
immediately before the US Open. Even without the Olympics, Lleyton has already
got a full year."
Hewitt's manager Tom Ross, of Octagon, said tennis insiders would appreciate
Hewitt's decision.
"I think Lleyton enjoyed the Olympic experience last time primarily because they
were at home in Australia," Ross said.
"I think it's safe to say he was there probably more for that experience rather
than the tennis.
"Lleyton sacrificed the end of this season to be ready for Davis Cup and ended
up beating the Wimbledon champion (Roger Federer) in the semi-finals and the
French Open champion (Juan Carlos Ferrero) in the final.
"Needless to say that gamble paid off for him and Australia."
Hewitt said his decision had nothing to do with his world No. 2 girlfriend Kim
Clijster's move to bypass the Games.
Hewitt said the pair had taken decisions on the Games independently.
Games bungle arms critics
Comment by Leo Schlink
December 18, 2003
INANE Olympic Games tennis scheduling exposes the sport not only to short-term
loss, but also long-term damage.
Lleyton Hewitt's decision to bypass the Games is based purely on logistics and a
healthy dose of pragmatism.
As with every other player in the world, Hewitt has been asked by tennis and
Olympic officials to peak for the Athens Games from August 15-22 and then, just
three days after the final, front at the US Open.
It is ludicrous scheduling and, as it was in Atlanta seven years ago, an
administrative bungle likely to cost tennis its luminaries in Athens.
Tennis at the Games could have started on the opening day, August 13, which at
least would have provided a five-day gap.
Or, even better, start before the opening ceremony, as soccer did at the 2000
Games.
Those who believe tennis has no place at the Olympics, despite its claims to be
a founding sport of the modern Games, will seize on the absence of what is
certain to be a raft of stars in Greece.
Despite the sport's full Olympic presence since 1988, it has sat uncomfortably
alongside the purest Games pursuits such as track and field and swimming.
Tennis already has its four majors, Davis Cup and Fed Cup - all annual
international highlights - so why the need for an awkward Olympic union every
four years?
Having an Olympic outlet has been invaluable for the sport in Eastern Europe
because of developmental concerns, but the Games are about celebrating the elite
and those who aspire to it.
Without Hewitt, Kim Clijsters and possibly Andre Agassi, tennis is bracing
itself for a repeat of the hollow Sydney tennis experience where Pete Sampras,
Martina Hingis, Agassi, Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport were absent.
Hewitt will cop flak for his decision but he has acted honestly. He sacrificed
the closing quarter of this season - losing millions of dollars in potential
earnings by taking time away from the regular circuit - to prepare for the Davis
Cup final.
But critics should be aware that Hewitt's Davis Cup decision was not such much
selfless as pragmatic.
His choice not to play Athens will be received with similar disapproval. He will
be barraged for having the honesty to declare the Olympics do not fit his
scheduling.
Never mind the fact Hewitt will continue to show up for Davis Cup - wherever and
whenever it is held - nor the fact he contested the Sydney Games and, all things
being equal, will probably play the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Hewitt's stance has nothing to do with Clijsters' decision to miss Athens. It is
simply a matter of priorities.
If Hewitt was as accessible as his most vehement critics wished, the only issue
to be examined today would be the tennis calendar and the positioning of the
Olympic Games in it - both short and long-term.
Herald Sun
Lleyton Hewitt drops
bag and returns to net
Leo Schlink
16dec03
FRESH from shouldering Greg Norman's bag at the Australian PGA, Lleyton Hewitt
will revert to a more familiar task today: the business of preparing for a grand
slam tilt.
Hewitt, 22, will pick up a racquet for the first time since Australia's Davis
Cup triumph over Spain in Melbourne last month.
Rejuvenated after playing only one match in three months -- a five-set win over
French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero -- Hewitt will today begin grooving his
baseline game with coach Roger Rasheed.
The pair has adhered strictly to a schedule structured to have Hewitt peaking
for last month's Davis Cup decider and again for the Australian Open (January
19-February 1).
"Our agenda after the Davis Cup final was to have Lleyton not picking up a
racquet again until this week," Rasheed said yesterday. "He hit a lot of balls
before the Davis Cup final, probably more than any other player in the world to
be ready for the final, and we've concentrated on other areas since.
"We'll start hitting this week to get ready for the Hopman Cup, adidas
International and the Aussie Open."
Hewitt might not have wielded a racquet since overwhelming Ferrero, but he has
hardly been idle.
The right-hander maintained fitness during a golfing holiday at Coolum with
regular stints in the gym and touch football.
And, before and after lugging Norman's bag last week, the South Australian
completed training tasks set by Rasheed. Hewitt's workload was largely
running-based and also incorporated more strengthening exercises in the gym. He
built a solid foundation after opting off the ATP circuit in September after
piloting Australia to victory over Switzerland in the Davis Cup semi-finals.
The US Open and Wimbledon winner used his time away from competition to have a
wart removed from his foot, before resuming full training.
His impressive physical condition was apparent during the fifth set of his
draining clash with Ferrero who, by comparison, looked exhausted as the
Australian found reserves of energy to stream to victory.
Hewitt is eager to improve his record at Melbourne Park where, Davis Cup heroics
aside, he has been unable to progress beyond the of the Australian Open fourth
round in seven attempts.
The difference this season is twofold. Hewitt will play the Open having had the
longest end of season respite of his short career.
But he will do so with his lowest ranking -- 17 -- since 1999, when he was 22nd
in the world, leaving him without the protection of a high seeding.
---------------------------------------------------