Borg, Connors, Agassi and now Hewitt: the baseline is back July 8

www.SuperTennis.co.za


A fizzle in the drizzle. A Wimbledon final hackers could appreciate and
only the most loyal fans could love.

It had as much tension as a snapped string. As much excitement as teatime.

The loudest cheer came for a man who somersaulted naked over the net. At
least he provided comic relief. Not that anyone expected anything more.

Lleyton Hewitt was No. 1 coming in and he's No. 1 going out, brandishing
his first Wimbledon trophy Sunday after a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 drubbing of
20-year-old David Nalbandian, an endearing but overwhelmed Argentine making
his debut on Centre Court.

If there was little to savour in this sloppy affair, it at least provided a
welcome change from the fusillade of aces that ring out most other years.

Pete Sampras sometimes served more aces in two games than the seven Hewitt
and Nalbandian produced in three sets. On the other hand, they hit more
groundstrokes in one rally than Sampras did in a whole match. To the
typical weekend player, this felt a little more familiar.

Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and now Hewitt are the only men to
win Wimbledon from the baseline in the Open era. The only ones, really,
since Bill Tilden back in 1930.

This final was the first between two baseliners since Borg beat Connors two
straight years, 1977 and 1978.

The baseline game may be back on Centre Court. But for how long?

History suggests that Hewitt's title run this year is more an anomaly than
a portent for the future. Consider the trend: Connors in 1982, Agassi in
1992, Hewitt in 2002. Once every 10 years. Not a baseliner in between.

The reason is simple. Grass, where the ball skids low and fast, favours the
big serve-and-volleyer. Always will.

Winning from the backcourt takes a rare combination of sharp returns and
steady groundstrokes. It takes intelligence and swift legs, canny
anticipation and the endurance to chase balls all over the court.

Most of all it takes patience and guts, a willingness to stand 10 meters
(yards) from the net when the opponent is rushing in, trying to win with
the power of passing shots or the finesse of drops and lobs.

Agassi stands his ground in the centre of the baseline and controls points
with flat, crushing groundstrokes from side to side, winning as much by
wearing players down as by whipping shots past them. He's not as fast afoot
as the other baseliners, but he seems to know where all the balls are going
and usually gets there in time. No one has had quicker reflexes on returns
or has taken shots earlier on the hop.

Connors also hit flat groundstrokes, his shots clearing the net by the
smallest of margins in a way that thrilled the crowds. He was the best
returner of his era, but he wasn't content to stay back all the time. He
liked to press the attack, taking short balls or groundstrokes on the fly
while moving forward.

Hewitt is more like Borg, counterpunching rather than dictating the terms
of a rally.

"He's Borg with less spin," Brian Gottfried, one of the top pros of the
1970s, said as he watched at Wimbledon.

Borg, who won Wimbledon five straight years from 1976 to 1980, was the
baseliner supreme who hit with the heaviest topspin, his shots arcing 1.5
meters over the net, biting and kicking up. But Borg also learned to
transform his game on grass, to play a more serve-and-volley style his last
few years.

Hewitt could do the same. He's a lightweight at 67.5 kilograms, but he can
serve at more than 193 kph. He knows how to hit the approach and how to
volley. At 21, with trophies from last year's U.S. Open and now Wimbledon,
he's still a work in progress.

"When I first came on ... I was actually trying to mix it up," he said. "I
think I was playing the wrong style of game - come to the net, chip-charge,
that kind of stuff. It wasn't working. I went back. I said, 'The guys have
got to play extremely well if they're going to beat me from the back of the
court.' I returned well, used my passing shot, my quickness." Though
Australians in the past grew up playing and loving grass, Hewitt was best
on hardcourts. But the more he worked on his serve, the more he found he
could win on grass. The past three years, he won the Wimbledon warmup at
Queens.

"My serve has got me out of a lot of trouble the last few years in big
tournaments," he said. "When you start winning Queens a few years in a row
... then you start realising you're a real contender for the big one a
couple of weeks down the track." Still, it's tough to win Wimbledon year
after year from the baseline. This year, with all the strange upsets,
belonged to Hewitt. The future probably still belongs to the big boys.

© Sapa-AP

- - -

One thinks one could improve things at Wimbledon

Christopher Clarey
www.iht.com
Tuesday, July 9, 2002

LONDON Memorandum to Mr. T.D. Phillips, chairman of the All England Lawn
Tennis and Croquet Club.
.
Regarding: The future at Wimbledon.
.
Dear Mr. Phillips. One imagines that one is still rubbing one's eyes in
disbelief after watching a men's singles final in which neither man served
and volleyed.
.
Lawn tennis has changed. The last time a man won the title from the
baseline was Mr. Andre Agassi in 1992, but this year three of the four
semifinalists played like Agassi. All except your Mr. Tim Henman, who
remains the epitome of the gallant loser.
.
One imagines that one was not rubbing one's eyes after that development.
But how curious that an Argentine, of all unlikely people, made the final
Sunday, yet Britain - despite the home-court advantage - has not managed to
get someone past the semifinals in more than 60 years.
.
Bad form. But better luck next year, although from the looks of Mr. Lleyton
Hewitt's passing shots, court coverage and fast-improving serve, better
luck might not be enough for Your Tim or anybody else's Xavier, David,
Richard, Andre, Roger or Pete.
.
One hopes that one can agree that this was not a vintage year. The women's
event lacked drama, and the drama in the men's event peaked on the third
day when Agassi, Mr. Pete Sampras and Mr. Marat Safin were all eliminated
by lesser men, who then went out and proved it by losing in straight sets
in the very next round.
.
With all due deference to the club's best efforts this fortnight, the best
television viewing on the BBC on Sunday was the replay of last year's men's
final.
.
Even one year later, one still got rather misty eyed watching Mr. Goran
Ivanisevic fall to the turf after his victory. No handkerchief was required
when Hewitt took the same tumble Sunday, but then Ivanisevic made winning
your tournament look exceedingly difficult, and Hewitt made it look rather
easy at age 21. As did the first-time ladies champion, Miss Serena
Williams, at age 20.
.
They will undoubtedly return with pleasure on many occasions, and in the
interest of making those occasions as pleasurable as possible for all
concerned, please accept the following suggestions:
.
Reconsider a roof. One is all for tradition. Keep the anachronistic grass
if you must. Continue referring to players without high school diplomas as
if they were foreign dignitaries and continue making a fat profit on
strawberries and cream. But there is no longer anything quaint about
obliging people who have invested significant funds in a ticket or
considerable time waiting in line, or both, to spend their precious day in
the club under an umbrella while hardly any tennis is played.
.
Nor is there any quaintness in forcing broadcasters who have paid dearly
for their rights to settle for broadcasting the Fred Perry statue with rain
dripping off his bronze nose. Tennis needs exposure more than it needs
exposure to the elements. Other grass-court tournaments have temporary
roofs. There has to be a way for Wimbledon to do the same without damaging
the beauty of the showcourts or the health of the grass.
.
Respect the clay-courters. They are not flocking to your club to begin
with. Mr. Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil has not played Wimbledon in two years,
and Mr. Albert Costa of Spain, the French Open champion, chose to get
married in the middle of Wimbledon this year. If one wants lawn tennis to
prosper, one must woo the doubters, and putting Mr. David Nalbandian and
Mr. Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador on a half-empty Court Two for their
all-South American quarterfinal was hardly convincing or polite.
.
Keep not doing whatever you are not doing to the courts. The balls are
slower, but attacking players are convinced the club slowed down the grass
this year, either importing new turf, spraying the grass or changing the
soil composition.
.
The chief groundsman, Mr. Eddie Seaward, assured me that this was hogwash.
"They were prepared the same way as ever," he said. They were firmer. Mr.
Seaward has tested the bounce on the courts for the last five years, and
this year's was the highest.
.
Normally, the ball bounces 80 percent as high as on a hardcourt. This year,
because of dry weather in the first week, it bounced 85 percent as high.
While the big servers were upset, lawn tennis was never meant to be all
about the serve. Two-shot rallies get as old as Wimbledon after two weeks.
.
Tighten security. Two pranksters made it on Center Court during the first
week and managed to exchange shots before being escorted off. A streaker
made it on Center Court on Sunday and made himself much more at home in the
hallowed place than the Argentine finalist, Nalbandian. Though the Duke of
York seemed to enjoy the diversion, perhaps it would be best to let fully
clothed players do the diverting in future championships.
.
Just in case, it might be wise to teach chair umpire Mr. Mike Morrissey how
to tackle. He looked out of his depth against the streaker Sunday.

- - -

A big huff over Lleyton's puff
By SHAUN PHILLIPS
www.news.com.au
10jul02

LLEYTON Hewitt has copped a backhander over his cigar-sucking Wimbledon
celebrations.

"Code violation, Mr Hewitt," came the call from health authorities as
newspapers splashed a picture of the world No.1 chomping Churchill-style on
a big stogie.

For Quit Victoria it's a case of where there's smoke, there's ire. The
anti-smoking body said Hewitt's Cuban caper had set a shocking example for
impressionable youngsters.

"We don't begrudge Lleyton celebrating his success, but he was portrayed in
a situation that sends the wrong message to young people," Quit executive
director Todd Harper said.

"High-status role models like Lleyton are incredibly influential. One of
the things we work hard at is to avoid situations that glamorise smoking.

"Lleyton is a very powerful role model and while it's a subtle message that
is being sent, it's also a powerful one."

Hewitt, holidaying with girlfriend Kim Clijsters in Belgium, could not be
contacted.

The Hewitt camp said it was a harmless incident and said the 21-year-old
had no intention of joining the likes of Groucho Marx and George Burns as a
cigar pin-up boy.

"Someone just handed him a cigar and the photographers were there --
Lleyton doesn't smoke and he would never intend to influence anyone to
smoke," said a spokeswoman for his management company.

Premier Steve Bracks refused to criticise Hewitt, saying the legacy of his
Wimbledon triumph would endure, not a spot fire about a cigar.

"He's young - he's a 21-year-old. Someone probably thrust it in his face
when he was at a function and it was probably a prank," he said.

Herald Sun