On one side of the net on Monday was Lleyton Hewitt, playing in his final Wimbledon. On the other side of the net was Jarkko Nieminen, playing in his final Wimbledon.
Someone’s sentimental journey had to end, and it turned out to be Hewitt’s, even though he extended the fifth set after saving two match points.
Nieminen’s victory — secured by a wild 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 ride — looked and felt very much like the match of Wimbledon’s opening day.
Photo: Reuters
However, this encounter was more about the memories, even if Hewitt made a few new ones, including a diving backhand volley winner followed by a roll in the fifth set that was well worth a fist pump and Hewitt’s signature “Come ooooooooon.”
Hewitt, as any tennis fan knows, has never gone down without a fight and he was not about to start at age 34 with his wife, young children and good friend Adam Scott, Australia’s first Masters champion, watching from the stands in a place that continues to mean so much to Hewitt.
“For me, it’s the home of tennis,” he said. “I don’t get the same feeling walking into any other grounds in the world, no other tennis court, no other complex, than I do here. I do get goose bumps walking into this place.”
Not many men have been Wimbledon singles champions in recent years; not with Pete Sampras and Roger Federer each piling up seven titles.
However, Hewitt, by force of will and speed of foot, earned his place in the pantheon in 2002, winning every match in straight sets except his five-set quarter-final victory over Sjeng Schalken and overwhelming David Nalbandian, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, in the final.
It was a before-and-after match and not because it set Hewitt up for an extended run at the top. He was upset in the first round of Wimbledon the next year by the towering, but then little-known Ivo Karlovic and never — despite all his hustle, desire and talent — has managed to win another Grand Slam title to go with his 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon victories.
The Nalbandian match was a signpost match because it was the first Wimbledon men’s final between two baseliners, neither of whom served and volleyed at any stage of the match.
That would have been unthinkable to the legions of attack-minded Australian champions who preceded Hewitt at Wimbledon. And though his victory was attributed, in part, to a new type of grass, changes in equipment technology and higher-bouncing conditions at the All England Club, it might well have happened anyway.
In his early years, Hewitt could be kryptonite to attacking players with his ability to counterpunch and his great feel for passing shots, including the now-neglected lob. Above all, he thrived on the raw emotions generated by mano-a-mano conflict.
It could get ugly at times; it could get profane. Hewitt in his teens was every bit as potty-mouthed as Nick Krygios, the young, feisty Australian who preceded Hewitt on Court 2 on Monday.
However, there was never any doubting Hewitt’s desire — and even less now that he has played on for nearly a decade since reaching his last Grand Slam singles semi-final at the US Open in 2005.
“You’ve got to give him credit,” 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash said on Monday. “I don’t know how he’s done it, to be perfectly honest. I know I couldn’t have. I think there’s always a goal, always a challenge in tennis. And he finds something; something that speaks to him.”
Federer, the serial champion who ultimately relegated Hewitt to the second tier, gets credit worldwide for his love of the game as he plays into his 30s. However, it seems rather easier to remain enamored when you are still in the mix at the top, still No. 2 in the rankings, still drawing the biggest crowds on the biggest show courts.
Hewitt has had much less positive feedback and much less of the spotlight of late. Nor has he — with his prickly side — been as universally revered as the smooth-moving, smooth-communicating Federer.
However, he cares, mate, he cares.
“I’ve been really fortunate to get to know him well the last few years and he’s an inspiration to me,” said Scott, a fellow Australian who is also a neighbor of Hewitt’s in the Bahamas. “The way he trains at this part of his career is motivational for me and certainly I’ve looked at him on the court and in the gym where we train and it makes me want to work harder. Because he leaves nothing, nothing at all, to chance. He’s got one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever seen in sport.”
It has been big enough for him to continue, despite two hip operations and surgery on his left foot that required his big toe to be fused.
“He had to learn how to run again, because the toe is set in position,” his father, Glynn Hewitt, said. “He’s just so tenacious. Even at practice, every point is a point to win. He doesn’t just go out there and go through the motions. That’s probably told on him in the end. The body is wearing out.”
Hewitt plans to play until next year’s Australian Open and is still entered in doubles at Wimbledon.
Unusually, he looked the wearier of the two combatants down the stretch on Monday.
It was surprising, too, to see the man who did not serve and volley in the 2002 final continually pushing forward under pressure against Nieminen, winning 34 of 56 points at net and seven of eight serve-and-volley points.
However, Nieminen, at 33, ultimately had more firepower than Hewitt, who has long had to rely on precision to make the difference.
On Sunday, on the eve of the tournament, Hewitt took a seat in Wimbledon’s iconic Centre Court — headphone switched on — and listened to music and let his mind wander. It was the place where he won the trophy that has long mattered most in tennis and he almost certainly would have been back on that famous patch of grass if he had beaten Nieminen to earn a second-round date with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Instead, Hewitt had to settle for playing his last Wimbledon singles match on Court 2, a showplace that had not yet been built when he first played at the All England Club.
At least the score was fitting — 11-9 in the fifth set of a duel that lasted exactly four hours in the sunshine and would have ended 45 minutes sooner if Hewitt had not fought off those match points.
“That pretty much sums up my career,” he said.
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