Escude Finishes Off Hewitt in Five
Barry Newcombe 


Nicolas Escude, the French 24th seed, picked off his second Top 10 seed in two days, as he finished off fifth-seed Lleyton Hewitt's 14-game winning streak on grass, coming through in five sets 4-6 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-4.

Yesterday Escude knocked out ninth seed compatriot Sebastien Grosjean in four sets. He was made to work much harder today, especially at the end when Hewitt came back from 5-1 to 5-4. But Escude kept his cool to cause the second big upset of the day.

Hewitt was forced to play his second five-set match of The Championships and Escude triumphed in three hours and 28 minutes on Court 2, notorious as the graveyard of seeds.

In the fifth set, Escude, in his third Wimbledon and for the first time in the 4th Round, led by 5-1 but Hewitt managed to take the next three games to put even more pressure on the Frenchman.

However, Escude held his serve to love to beat the player who had won two grass-court tournaments back-to-back before Wimbledon. 

Pat Rafter staged a fightback to make the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, but fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt's run came to an end in the fourth round.
Third seed Rafter feared his Wimbledon campaign was about to be snuffed out before he recovered to defeat Russian Mikhail Youzhny 2-6 6-3 6-2 7-5, setting up a quarter-final with Swedish 10th seed Thomas Enqvist.
But Hewitt was not able to conjure a similar fightback against 38th-ranked Frenchman Nicolas Escude.
Having been short of his best form all tournament, Hewitt showed his usual amount of fight to come back in the fourth set, before Escude wrapped it up, 4-6 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-4, in three-and-a-half hours.
Hewitt had produced some tremendous tennis from the baseline to take the fourth set by breaking Escude's serve, to 15, in the 10th game.
But the lanky Frenchman started powerfully in the fifth, breaking Hewitt twice on the way to a 5-1 lead which withstood one last revival from the South Australian.
The defeat halted Hewitt's winning sequence at 13 matches -- earned by taking the Queen's and Rosmalen titles on grass leading up to Wimbledon -- and blotted his copybook on the surface this year with a first loss in 16 matches.
Many Hewitt watchers believed his heavy workload heading into the tournament explained why his form was not at its sparkling best.
The 20-year-old Hewitt also had to come through five sets against Taylor Dent in the second round, and four more in the third round against Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, and was clearly wilting by the time today's match entered its fourth hour.
It is a fair bet he would have stood little chance in a quarter-final against second seed Andre Agassi, who has ominously kept himself fresh this tournament by not dropping a set so far.
Rafter, striving to better his runner's up finish at last year's tournament in what could be his last Wimbledon before retirement, found himself down and almost out after being blasted in the first set.
But the 28-year-old lifted appreciably from then onwards for a win which bolstered his confidence for the days ahead.
"He came out on fire," Rafter said.
"I thought I played alright in the first set, and I just got killed.
"I thought I was going home, I really did.
"I'm doing really well to figure out my matches at this stage.
"Today I took a few chances, and they worked well. My game plan started to come into play really well in the second set.
"I take it one match at a time but I do feel reasonably comfortable out there. I definitely give myself a 50/50 chance against whoever I'm playing. I guess I'm quietly confident."
Rafter said the turning point came for him when he broke Youzhny -- a 19-year-old ranked 85th to his 10th -- for the first time to lead 5-3 in the second set.
Significantly, Rafter had faced five break points in the first set, with Youzhny converting two of them, but was not down a break point again in the match.
His ratio of points won on his first serve climbed from a feeble 54 per cent in the first set to between 87 and 100 per cent in the next three, while Youzhny's fell progressively as the match wore on.
Rafter leads his next opponent Enqvist 6-2 in career meetings, including a straight sets win in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago, their only match on grass. Rafter also won their last encounter, on a hardcourt at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf in May.
Former Australian Jelena Dokic recorded her worst Wimbledon result today when knocked out in the fourth round by Lindsay Davenport.
The 18-year-old Dokic, a quarter-finalist an semi-finalist at her only previous Wimbledons, succumbed to third seed Davenport 7-5 6-4 in a tight match on centre court in which the American's greater experience told the story at the key moments.

Rafter our only hope

From our wire sevrices

03 July 01

News Interactive

LONDON: Pat Rafter staged a fightback to make the quarter-finals at Wimbledon overnight but fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt's run came to an end in the fourth round.

Third seed Rafter feared his Wimbledon campaign was about to be snuffed out before he recovered to defeat Russian Mikhail Youzhny 2-6 6-3 6-2 7-5, setting up a quarter-final with Swedish 10th seed Thomas Enqvist.

But Hewitt was not able to conjure a similar fightback against 38th-ranked Frenchman Nicolas Escude.

Having been short of his best form all tournament, Hewitt showed his usual amoung of fight to come back in the fourth set, before Escude wrapped it up, 4-6 6-4 6-3 4-6 6-4, in three-and-a-half hours The 25-year-old, who had not progressed beyond the second round here on two previous visits, will play Andre Agassi for a place in the last four.

It was a stunning upset for the 20-year-old Hewitt, who came into Wimbledon on a roll with back-to-back grasscourt titles at Queen's and Den Bosch including morale-boosting wins over Pete Sampras and Tim Henman.

Escude, in his third appearance at Wimbledon, started with few hopes having lost in the quarter-finals at Halle and pulling out of the Den Bosch tournament with a lower back injury in the second round.

"It was a tough match," said Escude, adding that he felt he would have his chances against Agassi in the quarter-finals.

"He has beaten me each time - at Basel and in the US Open quarter-final. But I have never played against him on grass.

"I have more chance to beat him on grass because it is not his favourite surface and I feel comfortable."

It was Hewitt, as expected, who took command in the first set which he won 6-4, but gradually the momentum swung in the second as the more aggressive style of the Frenchman had the Australian scampering from side to side.

Hewitt managed to level the sets in a desperately close fourth set as a large Australian contingent roared their approval and it all came down to the fifth.

Hewitt held serve in the opening game, but he was the one who was making the mistakes and Escude reeled off five games in a row with breaks in the third and fifth as his confidence soared.

In character, Hewitt refused to lie down and die and he hauled himself back to 5-4 down by breaking the Escude serve.

But in the next game, Escude was rock solid, moving to 40-0 by coming into the net and wrapping it up when Hewitt flayed a despairing forehand into the net.

Escude's previous best Grand Slam performance came in the 1998 Australian Open where he reached the semi-finals.

For Hewitt, there was the consolation that he has come on in leaps and bounds on grass in the last few weeks and he will undoutedly feature in future years.

"I just didn't feel comfortable at all out there. I served well, but did not feel comfortable with my ground strokes," he said, adding "I think my time is going to come."

Rafter, striving to better his runner's up finish at last year's tournament in what could be his last Wimbledon before retirement, found himself down and almost out after being blasted in the first set.

But the 28-year-old lifted appreciably from then onwards for a win which bolstered his confidence for the days ahead.

"He came out on fire," Rafter said.

"I thought I played alright in the first set, and I just got killed.

"I thought I was going home, I really did.

"I'm doing really well to figure out my matches at this stage.

"Today I took a few chances, and they worked well. My game plan started to come into play really well in the second set.

"I take it one match at a time but I do feel reasonably comfortable out there. I definitely give myself a 50-50 chance against whoever I'm playing. I guess I'm quietly confident."

Rafter said the turning point came for him when he broke Youzhny - a 19-year-old ranked 85th to his 10th - for the first time to lead 5-3 in the second set.

Significantly, Rafter had faced five break points in the first set, with Youzhny converting two of them, but was not down a break point again in the match.

His ratio of points won on his first serve climbed from a feeble 54 per cent in the first set to between 87 and 100 percent in the next three, while Youzhny's fell progressively as the match wore on.

Rafter leads his next opponent Enqvist 6-2 in career meetings, including a straight sets win in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago, their only match on grass. Rafter also won their last encounter, on a hardcourt at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf in May.

Rafter and Hewitt in good form
By Patrick Miles 
July 02, 2001 

THE stage is set for a tantalising fourth round of the men's singles tonight (AEST), with Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter well established to advance after contrasting rounds.

Twelve seeds, including the two Australians, and four outsiders will do battle for places in the quarter-finals. 

Hewitt, the No. 5 seed, takes on France's Nicolas Escude, the 24th seed, while Rafter, seeded at No. 3, meets Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, ranked at No. 85 in the world. 

Hewitt posted his best performance at Wimbledon by defeating Younes El Aynaoui 7-5 5-7 6-4 7-6 and Rafter swept aside another Moroccan, Hicham Arazi, 7-6 6-4 7-5. 

The Davis Cup team-mates are expected to take another step tonight in their quest to become the first Australian champion since Pat Cash in 1987 to win the title. 

Victory for Hewitt in the round of 16 would most likely bring on the formidable form of Andre Agassi, of the US, while Rafter's projected quarter-final opponent is Sweden's Thomas Enqvist. 

Rafter, who lost last year's final to Pete Sampras, is the better placed to make another charge to the championship match, where there is the possibility of another clash with the American. 

But the 28-year-old, for whom there is a strong chance this will be his last Wimbledon, could meet Hewitt in the semi-final if the 20-year-old can overcome Agassi. 

It is not beyond Hewitt, especially considering where he has been of late. 

Hewitt, who won back-to-back titles on grass in the fortnight before Wimbledon, has had a testing variety of opponents during the past three weeks. 

He has beaten, in chronological order, Greg Rusedski, Sampras, Tim Henman, Goran Ivanisevic, Roger Federer and Guillermo Canas at Queen's and Rosmalen. These six will all feature in the round of 16 at Wimbledon tonight. 

To reach the fourth round, Hewitt, whose previous best showing was the third round in 1999, has had to find a way past a trio of tricky players ¨C Magnus Gustafsson, Taylor Dent and El Ayanoui. 

"It's great to make it through to the second week," Hewitt said. "It's fantastic, especially with a lot of expectation on your shoulders, as well, coming into it. 

"It feels good but I'm going to have to step it up another gear to get to the quarters." 

Maintaining his winning streak, which stands at 13, Hewitt could be forgiven for feeling the pinch at this stage of a grand slam. "I feel like I've got a lot of energy," he said. "Playing on grass, it doesn't take as much out of you as playing on clay or a hard court. 

"I feel pretty good. I get a rest after this. I've got to go for broke for one week now." 

Rafter believes that the younger man needs to improve before he can stake a genuine claim on a first grand slam title. 

"He's doing it the hard way," Rafter said. "He's still not comfortable out there. But he's such a great little competitor that he knows how to win. 

"I am happy because I've been saying it for the last couple of years that he's going to do something here. He's finally working his way in there. But I think he needs to lift his game a little bit." 

Rafter has defeated Daniel Vacek, Slava Dosedel and Arazi for the loss of just one set to reach the fourth round for the sixth time in as many years. 

"It just gets tougher from now," he said. "But there are improvements starting to show up in my game. 

"I have played some tricky guys ¨C no-one really standard yet. When I play Youzhny, he's going to be a bit more of a standard type of player. He'll really test to see how I'm playing. If I'm off, he'll beat me. If I'm playing well, then my game will be in good touch for the rest of the week."

Hewitt looks forward to tackling `new tournament' 

By LINDA PEARCE
LONDON
Monday 2 July 2001

Wimbledon's second week is new territory for Lleyton Hewitt but familiar ground for Pat Rafter, and if it is true that this is effectively the launch of a new tournament, then Hewitt would be more appreciative of the chance to be starting afresh.

Both Australians are through to the round of 16, but Rafter's third step was more convincing. Admittedly, the grand slam balance to be negotiated is between peaking too soon and losing in the meantime.

But if it seems odd to be questioning the form of a player who has won 35 of his 39 sets on grass this year, then even Rafter has noted Hewitt's continuing struggles.

"He's doing it the hard way again," said the third seed of his friend and Davis Cup teammate. "He's still not comfortable out there, I don't think, but he's such a great little competitor that he knows how to win.

"I've been saying for the last couple of years that he's going to do something here. He's finally working his way in there, but I think he needs to lift his game a little bit.

"He's probably just getting used to centre-court action. There's just such a great tradition in Australia of Wimbledon. We all just get so excited playing here; we're all just in awe of the place. I definitely am. I've gotten over that.

"I don't know if Lleyton's dealing with that. I expect Lleyton to get better and better as the tournament goes along."

Rafter seems to be, and the latter stages of his 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Hicham Arazi were his best. Today he plays Mikhail Youhzny, the Russian teenager Rafter knows more by reputation than game.

Youhzny is tipped to be even better than Marat Safin, but the upset of seventh-seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov by Argentinian Guillermo Canas has denied the young Muscovite the prospect of a quarter-final against the most successful Russian of all.

Still, first things first, and the 19-year-old would settle for Rafter's shaved scalp in what would be the biggest win of his career.

While Rafter, twice the US Open champion, is a proven grand slam performer, Hewitt still talks of major success as two or three years away.

That may well be a tactic designed to hose down expectations, but straight after Hewitt's drubbing from Juan Carlos Ferrero at the French Open, the 20-year-old spent five or six days in the gym, preparing for a two-week test of endurance he is yet to pass.

Even from his greatest supporters, one of the major question marks over Hewitt's ability to win a major is his ability to last the seven-match distance, and some of his best results have come in Davis Cup ties, where the maximum singles program is two matches in three days.

Yet despite his grasscourt program of 13 matches - for 13 wins - in the past three weeks and two demanding contests in the past five days, Hewitt insisted fatigue was not a factor.

"I feel pretty good out there," he said. "I've got a lot of energy. Playing on grass, it doesn't take as much out of you as playing on clay or hard court. I get a rest after this. I can go for broke for one week now.

"After Paris, the goal was to be able to last four tough weeks, then be able to put the feet up for another three weeks before playing the American circuit. So far it's paying off. Obviously I was a little bit tired going into Queen's at the start . Now I've sort of freshened up. That's good."

Even so, Hewitt's game could be better. Softened up by Taylor Dent's intimidating serve over five sets on Thursday, he had problems handling the powerful forehand of Younes El Aynaoui in advancing 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) on Saturday.

But move on he did, for centre court victory No.2, and into a round of 16 match against Frenchman Nicolas Escude.

The battle provides no cause for alarm. Hewitt has won the past two of the pair's three matches, including a 6-1, 6-3 result at Indian Wells in March. Escude is a former Australian Open semi-finalist, now ranked 38th, and already in the past week has exceeded his previous aggregate of wins on the Wimbledon grass.

Hewitt's relentless improvement, and the ease of his adaptation to the testing surface, have impressed Andre Agassi, who has noted the South Australian's ability to keep marching forward when the danger is to occasionally slip back.

"I think Lleyton has a very determined, business(-like) approach to the game," said the second seed. "Every year he's been out there he's been getting better. I found my game on grass really early. I think Lleyton has as well."

Agassi could be Hewitt's next opponent, having conceded just five games to Nicolas Massu as a warm-up for today's fourth round against Nicolas Kiefer. Hewitt will need to improve to cause Agassi too much anxiety, and he knows it. "I'm going to have to play as well as I've ever played," Hewitt said.

New tournament, though. Fresh hope.


Aussies home but not alone

By CHRISTINE MIDDAP
01jul01

IT is Friday night and the quaint English village of Wimbledon is heaving. Crowds spill on to the footpaths from every pub and bar, the restaurants are packed and spirits are high.

Amid the din the unmistakable Australian accent rings out. Young Australians by their thousands are drawn to the two-week party that is Wimbledon. 

But for the Australian tennis players who live just minutes from the village, off-court play is strictly off limits. 

While their countrymen celebrate until the early hours, Australia's greatest hopes, Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter, live a near-monastic existence. 

Bunkered down with their families in rented houses, they emerge only to travel to the courts to play or practice. 

Spare time is spent watching tennis, talking tennis or preparing for tennis. 

As Rafter noted during the week: "It's strictly business. It's very professional. 

"When you first come here, especially for me, I was never really a contender. I'd always enjoy myself in London, go to the pubs. Wouldn't you?" 

The Rafter and Hewitt support teams lead an isolated, tennis-obsessed existence. 

Hewitt's Emmanuel College mates, brothers Hayden Eckermann, 20, and Jarred, 17, girlfriend Kim Clijsters, 18, and parents Glynn (Hewitt's manager) and Cherilyn, all share a house close to the village. They rarely leave Hewitt's side. 

Early in the tournament, they were spotted dining together at the local Italian restaurant, Est, Est, Est. Only occasionally do the Eckermann brothers visit the local pub, The Dog And Fox. 

A similar routine is followed in the Rafter household, which is made up of Pat, his girlfriend, model Lara Feltham, and brothers Peter, Rafter's constant companion, and Steve, his business manager. 

They accompany him to games and practice sessions and occasionally wander into the village, but they are rarely seen out together. 

An avid football fan, Rafter said he planned to spend the morning before yesterday's centre court clash relaxing #&150; and trying not to watch the Test between the Wallabies and Lions. 

"I'll try not to watch it. It's like a sex question -- control yourself," Rafter said. 

"I don't want to get that pumped up. I don't want to come down if they lose and try to beat the s... out of some English guy." 

The minor-seeded Australians are also noticeably absent from the social scene, although in the second week those who stay in London can be spotted in the local pubs. 

Former player Mark Woodforde has been occasionally spotted in the village.