Hewitt moves to explain 'stupid'
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ABC - Thursday, Jan 6 2000
Australian tennis star Lleyton Hewitt has done a backflip after last night calling
Australian crowds "stupid".
Today, Hewitt says he regrets his comments and says by and large Australian crowds have
been very good to him.
He says he has played his best tennis with Australian crowds behind him, like in the Davis
Cup semi-final in Brisbane last year when he defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
"They're definitely not stupid at all, and all I was commenting on is the two people
who did comment on me challenging a line call," he said.
"Everyone challenges a line call if you get a bad call, or you think you've got a bad
call, and I went up to the umpire, asked him what he thought and he said 'it's too close
to call'.
"I said 'that's good, we'll get on with the match' and at that situation, I was 5-0
up in the first set and I wasn't going to take a step back."
Father
Earlier, Lleyton Hewitt's father, Glynn, came to his son's defence.
Hewitt described Australian fans as "stupid" after he thrashed fellow South
Australian Dejan Petrovic in a second round match at the Australian Men's Hardcourt Tennis
Championship in Adelaide.
During the match, Hewitt disputed several line calls after which he was heckled by the
crowd, and booed when leaving the court.
Hewitt's father Glynn says his son was set-up by the media at the post-match media
conference.
"As I gather one of the particular reporters in there just bagged him start to
finish," he said.
"It obviously had an angle and a slant on the story he had prepared and he just tried
to bait Lleyton into comments, by just saying the crowd was on him and just bagged his
performance."
Petrovic
Meanwhile, Petrovic is coming to terms with his defeat last night by Hewitt.
Hewitt thrashed Petrovic 6-0, 6-2.
Petrovic, who was playing in his first main draw ATP event, says he cannot
understand why Hewitt became frustrated with the crowd's behaviour.
"Not really,...I would say the crowd just wanted to see a great match, and
unfortunately I couldn't produce," he said. "Last night was the biggest
crowd I've ever played and, you know, I tried to block out as much as I could, so I didn't
really listen to too much of what the crowd were actually saying."