Hewitt will recover from break-up, says former team-mate Oct 27 2004
Former Australian Davis Cup player Scott Draper says he does not believe Lleyton
Hewitt's form will be affected by his recent break-up with Belgian tennis star
Kim Clijsters.
Clijsters announced on her official web site last Friday that the pair had
called of their engagement ahead of their scheduled wedding in February.
Hewitt, currently ranked number three in the world, will play in next week's
Paris Masters.
Draper said he was confident the break-up would not have an impact on Hewitt's
performance.
"Lleyton's devastated about the whole thing and is a bit confused about what has
really happened," he said.
"I don't think anyone knows, I'm not sure if Kim knows, no-one can get a hold of
her.
"Lleyton is an unbelievable competitor and I don't think he's probably ever
faced any real personal issue like this, but I'm sure he'll handle it fine, he's
a true professional and a gutsy competitor."
Meanwhile, Draper said he doubted Mark Philippoussis would ever realise his
potential in the sport.
The Wimbledon and US Open finalist has struggled for form this year and pulled
out of this week's ATP event in Stockholm.
Draper said the 27-year-old Melburnian still had the talent to win a grand slam
title, but he lacked the dedication.
"Mark is his own man, no-one is going to be telling him what he should or
shouldn't be doing," he said.
"He's larger than life, he loves having a good time. Tennis has never been his
number one priority. I don't think it ever will be, it's his life and his
choice."
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200410/s1229070.htm
Game over for Hewitt and Clijsters
19:00 AEST Fri Oct 22 2004
Kim Clijsters has stunned the tennis world by announcing her break up with
Lleyton Hewitt, just four months before their scheduled wedding.
The news that the four-year relationship was over was released on the French
version of Clijsters' official website www.kimclijsters.be.
The site said the pair didn't intend on explaining the break-up to the public.
"Kim and Lleyton have agreed to end their relationship for private reasons.
There is, of course, no longer a question of marriage," her official website
said.
Clijsters, 21, said last month she would marry Hewitt, 23, in Australia in
February and the Belgian had often spoken about relocating Down Under because of
the heavy taxation in her homeland.
Former Davis Cup player and respected commentator John Alexander said he was
shocked by the news and hoped it was just a hiccup.
"It is sad because Australian tennis fans have come to love Kim and I think we
will continue to, just as we do with Lleyton," he said.
"They are both very young and it is a long road and they might find their way
back.
"It is a stressful time for them trying to arrange a wedding, having to appease
family members and having two lots of arrangements in Adelaide and Belgium.
"And the frustration she must have felt since not being able to play because of
her wrist injury and something has broken under the stress.
"I have never seen two people more in love and being so generous to each other.
"Let's just hope it is a hiccup and they get over it but if not, we wish them
well."
Both players are former world No.1s, but Clijsters, who has won 21 career
titles, is struggling with a wrist injury sustained in May.
Former Wimbledon and US Open champion Hewitt, 23, lost the US Open final to
Roger Federer in September.
He has won 23 titles in his career including the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon
titles.
Clijsters and Hewitt met at the 2000 Australian Open as teenagers when Kim's
sister Elke asked her to get Hewitt's autograph and their relationship soon
blossomed.
Clijsters quickly became known as "Aussie Kim" and endeared herself to the
Australian public with her pleasant nature.
The couple was engaged after a romantic boat trip around Sydney Harbour last
December.
The relationship with Clijsters softened Hewitt's brash image which was
tarnished in his early tennis days by his petulant behaviour.
However, Hewitt was still generally uncomfortable showing his softer side in
public while Clijsters was much more at ease talking about their relationship.
Clijsters reached No.1 in August 2003 without winning a major title, having lost
in the finals of four Grand Slams.
Hewitt's management company Octagon were not returning phone calls.
İAAP 2004
By GREY MORRIS
October 13, 2004
Two of Australia's most recognised sportsmen arrived in the Top End yesterday determined to secure an Esky full of barramundi and a safe full of cash for NTFL club Darwin.
The world's No. 3 tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and Adelaide's dual Norm Smith medallist Andrew McLeod are in Darwin on a fundraising mission for McLeod's former NTFL club the Darwin Buffaloes.
While talking at a "Night Of Champions" sportsman's night at Kantillas Function Centre on Friday is a priority, so is catching and feasting on a giant NT barra.
"I'll be trying, that's for sure," Hewitt, 23, said when quizzed on how big a fish he was hoping to land on his first trip to the Top End.
"There's not many parts of Australia I haven't been in my travels and to come up here with a bloke (McLeod) who grew up here is great. So hopefully he can show me the ropes.
"If I can help out the footy club in any way, that's great too, but it will be good to go out there (Kakadu) and relax for a couple of days."
Hewitt, who won the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon a year later, was the world's No. 1 men's player for 80 weeks from 2001-03.
McLeod wants to show his mate what the Territory is about by giving him a safari experience he will never forget.
``Hopefully we can fix that up by going out with Mark West from the famous St Marys family and hooking on to a few barras as one of his secret spots,'' McLeod said.
``I'll be showing Lleyton the Cobourg area, Kakadu, Merganella and around the Darwin region so he gets to see the country.''
McLeod has again urged Top End sports fans to get behind Friday's sportsman's night.
``It might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of the best tennis players to ever go around,'' he said.
Bids have already started coming in for an autograghed Hewitt racquet and playing jumpers worn by McLeod and former Crow and Kangaroo Wayne Carey.
Bidding has reached $550 for Hewitt's racquet, $275 for McLeod's sweat-stained jumper and $175 for Carey's guernsey.
Bidders can ring (0438) 817155. The phone lines are remaining open until 8pm on Friday.
Northern Territory News
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October 6, 2004
Lleyton Hewitt has played down reports that fiancee Kim Clijsters's latest injury could mean the end of her career.
Clijsters suffered a new wrist injury at the weekend while playing her first tournament in almost five months at the Belgian Open, prematurely ending her season.
The former world number one had already spent a lengthy spell on the sidelines after tearing tendons and having surgery on the same left wrist to remove a cyst.
But Hewitt, in Tokyo for this week's Japan Open, denied media reports that the injury was serious enough to end her tennis career.
"Yeah, I don't know where that came from," said the South Australian. "She was obviously hitting the ball well, won a couple of matches and wasn't really feeling much pain at all.
"Then to actually hurt it again, the same wrist. I think she spent enough time out. I don't think she came back too early."
Hewitt revealed that Clijsters was unsure about the exact nature of the injury.
"We're not sure what the exact problem is, how long it's going to be and what the facts are," he said. "Obviously after you spend that long out and do all the rehab after surgery, it's definitely disappointing."
Hewitt plays his first round match at the Japan Open today, when he faces Gouichi Motomura. The winner of the event in 2001, the Australia is the top seed this year and is chasing his fifth title win this year.
Clijsters and former men's number one Hewitt plan to wed in February.
-Reuters/ABC
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RUSSELL REID
The West Australian
Hopes of getting Kim Clijsters to Perth for a fifth consecutive Hyundai Hopman Cup all but disappeared when she aggravated an injury to her left wrist in a semifinal of the Belgian Open at the weekend.
Clijsters, who will wed Australian firebrand Lleyton Hewitt early next year, has been a regular at the Hopman Cup since the summer of 2000-2001 when she partnered Olivier Rochus.
Rochus and Clijsters, then 17, won the play-off tie and then had an upset win against second seed Russia before losing against the Slovak Republic and United States.
The 21-year-old Belgian has teamed with Xavier Malisse for the past three summers at the $1 million mixed teams international.
World No. 3 Hewitt had already announced he would not play a fourth consecutive Hopman Cup to contest a tournament in his home town of Adelaide.
But tournament officials had been hopeful of luring Clijsters back to Perth for Hopman Cup XVII at the Burswood Dome from January 1-8.
Hopman Cup tournament director Paul McNamee said Clijsters latest setback did not augur well for her chances of returning to Perth this summer.
"It's obviously a setback for Kim, which is bad luck," McNamee said yesterday. "I saw her in New York (at the US Open) and she was waiting to see how she went at that tournament.
"I will be talking to her management in the next week to confirm what's happening but it's not the news we were hoping for."
Clijsters' comeback came to an abrupt halt when she was had to retire when trailing 6-4 2-2 against Russian Elena Bovina.
The former world No. 1 was playing her first tournament in almost five months after tearing tendons and having surgery on the wrist to remove a cyst.
Clijsters' former coach Marc Dehous said the latest injury was likely to sideline her for the remainder of 2004.
Dehous denied Clijsters aggravated the problem by coming back too early into competitive tennis.
"She followed what the doctors and surgeons ordered her to do," he said. "Her comeback was carefully planned . . . in the days before the tournament she went at it at 100 per cent with her male sparring partners and her wrist was OK."
with REUTERS
By Scott Coghlan
22sep04
The Advertiser
DESPITE his humbling at the hands of Roger Federer in the final of the US Open, Lleyton Hewitt has steeled himself to claim the No.2 ranking from American Andy Roddick with a big finish to the year.
Speaking yesterday as Australia prepared for the Davis Cup World Group qualifying tie against Morocco in Perth at the weekend, Hewitt also said there was little between him and the top-ranked Federer, despite the Swiss star having won their past four matches.
Federer beat Hewitt in straight sets in the recent US Open final and cannot be toppled from the No.1 spot after winning three Grand Slam titles this year. But the world No.3 wants to confirm his position as Federer's greatest rival by climbing another place at Roddick's expense.
Although he didn't win a Grand Slam tournament this year, Hewitt has won 59 of 73 matches and said his form was as good as at any time in his career.
"I'm playing extremely well," Hewitt said.
"Since the US Open last year, I haven't put too many feet wrong.
"Right through this whole year, it has taken a hell of a player to beat me week in and week out.
"The three majors that Roger won, I lost to him in all three and I lost to (Gaston) Gaudio in the quarters of the French (Open) and he went on to win it.
"I'm back at No.3 in the world now and got a chance to try and finish (number) two."
The intricacies of the ATP ranking system give Hewitt a strong chance of overhauling Roddick.
Rankings are based on results for the previous 12 months. And because Hewitt didn't play any tournaments in the last three months of 2003 he has no points to defend.
Hewitt admitted he knew little about the Moroccans and said it was a tricky tie. "It is an awkward tie knowing that you can't win the Davis Cup this year. We are trying to put our best foot forward for next year," Hewitt said.
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|
Belgium's Kim Clijsters and Australian Lleyton Hewitt, the golden couple
of tennis, will marry next February in Australia. Clijsters said on her
website on Thursday that a party for their close friends would be held in
a Belgian chateau after the wedding.
|
"In December 2003 Kim and Lleyton Hewitt got engaged," a statement on the website said. "A year later the beautiful love story will have its logical extension with a marriage in February in Australia." Both players are former world number ones. Hewitt lost the U.S. Open final to Roger Federer last weekend while Clijsters has not played since May because of a wrist injury. Hewitt, whose birthday is in February, first invited Clijsters out in late 2000 to a party for fellow Australian Pat Rafter and they got engaged after a romantic boat trip around Sydney Harbour. "He invited me out for dinner on a boat and suddenly unveiled a ring and earrings," she said shortly before Christmas. Hewitt won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002. Clijsters reached number one in August 2003 without winning a major title -- she has lost three times in a Grand Slam final to fellow Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne. The pair follow in the footsteps of Steffi
Graf, now retired, and Andre Agassi, also both former world number ones.
They married in October 2001 and have a son and a daughter. |
Leo Schlink 18sep04 Herald Sun
FRESH from re-establishing a top-three ranking, Lleyton Hewitt yesterday set his sights on the 2005 Australian Open.Humbled in the US Open final by Roger Federer, Hewitt is uncertain of his plans for the rest of a renaissance season in which his ranking has climbed from 19th to third. But he already homed in on the January 17-30 Australian Open, which will feature a historic night singles final.
"I've played a fair few tournaments already this year," Hewitt said in Adelaide yesterday.
"I'm not sure how much more I'll play this year. I've qualified for the Masters (Cup in Houston) in November, but I don't know what my program will be before that.
"I'll be playing Tokyo (October 4-10) and I've qualified for the Masters. It's been a good, consistent year, but the four majors were my priority.
"If you're not going to finish No. 1, then at least I can go to the Masters and enjoy myself, unlike 2000-01 when I had the pressure of the No. 1 ranking.
"It's a big tournament again for me this year, but it's going to be a lot more enjoyable than it has been in the past.
"The big picture for me is looking forward to the Australian Open in January and doing well there."
Mark Edmondson (1976) is the most recent local to win the Australian Open. Hewitt is yet to reach a quarter-final at Melbourne Park.
Hewitt's best grand slam results -- Wimbledon and US Open victories, as well as a French Open quarter-final appearance -- have been abroad.
The winner of 59 of 73 matches, four titles and $2.8 million prizemoney this year, Hewitt believes he has improved significantly since his 75-week stay at No. 1.
"It's been great," he said.
"I've played as consistently well as I ever have and I feel I've improved a lot.
"Taking those eight weeks off before the Davis Cup final has really helped me. I was able to freshen up and build a really good base. Since then, I've played my best tennis week after week."
Trailing American Andy Roddick by 715 points in the rankings -- and with no points to defend -- Hewitt has the chance to move to No. 2 by season's end.
Apart from taking a month off for his February wedding to Kim Clijsters, Hewitt will again concentrate on the majors and Davis Cup next year.
He will try to keep Australia in the Davis Cup world group in the relegation tie in Perth against Morocco from Thursday.
Hewitt received a boost yesterday when the Supreme Court of South Australia handed down a preliminary decision in his favour against the ATP. He is taking legal action against the tour over a $147,000 fine imposed in Cincinnati over his alleged failure to complete an interview in 2002.
Justice Mulligan yesterday rejected an application by the ATP to strike out parts of Hewitt's claim.
Hewitt, 23, will now be allowed to continue with his defamation claim against the ATP, which runs the men's tour outside the four majors.