Lleyton’s passion not enough to challenge tennis greats

Mike T says:

08:42pm | 17/01/11

clearly you dont like him, and thats fine. But maybe you should take a peek at his record before making the silly point that he never had the quality for a longterm results.

* 80 weeks as number 1
* 2 majors, 2 davis cups
* 2001 & 2002 ATP player of the tour

In fact if you want to talk longevity, since 98 he has one an ATP event every year bar 2008….thats 12 years HB, does that qualify as long term in your books??

Seano says:

09:05pm | 17/01/11

Mike I think Harlequin was being hard on Hewitt he was world number.

But his glory days are nearly 10 years ago and it doesn’t seem like there’s any sign of them returning.

But I do miss when we dominated Tennis (and other sports).

Mike T says:

11:53pm | 17/01/11

@ Seano.

I agree with you 100% that his glory days are behind him and i have no problem with people pointing that out. I do, however, object to people saying that he never reached glory days or never achieved glory for an extended period. Its simply fasle when you look at his record which was obtained over a VERY long period.

WhenTenniswasGood says:

08:07am | 18/01/11

@Seano - Australia hasn’t dominated tennis for nearly 40 years. Get over it. It won’t happen again for a very long time.

@Mike T - Hewitt reached number 1 when there wasn’t any real competition. Sampras/Agassi era had retired or were close to, Federer hadn’t hit his straps yet and well, Rafa was still a baby.

Hewitt is a has-been and an almost-was. He plays Agassi’s game, just not quite as well as Agassi.

He should just bite the inevitable bullet and retire.

Adrian says:

01:04pm | 18/01/11

Why would he retire when he makes a comfortable living playing major tournaments and travelling the world? Seriously people don’t actually realise that these guys are human beings working for a living, rather than images on television playing for our entertainment.

Der!! says:

07:58pm | 17/01/11

Horowitz?

Rose says:

01:06am | 18/01/11

Australians don’t like him much because he comes across as an absolute wanker. Not only does he make sweeping FIGJAM statements, he basically sold his eldest child’s first year to a magazine, tried to get people to pay for the ‘privilege’ of learning his youngest child’s name and tramped all over his mate, Andrew McLeod, in order satisfy his own agenda. Quite frankly, there is nothing much in his public image that is likeable. That he is an Australian doesn’t negate his other apparent flaws.

Davo from St Kilda says:

04:41am | 18/01/11

@Macca - I’ve never heard of Matt Dunning, but I agree with the rest of your sentiments. Lleyton is a national hero and deserves to be treated as such.

Macca says:

08:38am | 18/01/11

@Der, clearly you missed Anthony Sharwood’s send off of Nathan Hauritz.

@Rose, If Lleyton is a FIGJAM than so is Tim Cahill, Ricky Ponting (and the every Australian Cricketer for the past decade) and a multitude of other Australian sportsmen across the various codes. Narrowing down in the footy codes has proven too difficult due to the sheer number of brash young ambitious individuals. This is not a problem in sport. As for your use of words Privilidge and Trample, clearly you have a different view. I just hope you don’t view all people with such poison. Regardless, his service to Australian Tennis is undeniable and underappreciated

@Davo, Matt Dunnin is / was a Wallabies Prop Forward who kicked a field goal for the Waratahs in the final minutes of a semi final despite the waratahs needing a try to win. He is without doubt the most untalented person to appear in a wallbies jumper in the past decade. Such a battler.
Although, I’d never call Lleyton a national hero. Just a gutsy competitor who gives his all to his sport and nation

Rose says:

12:22pm | 18/01/11

Macca, you are right, there are any number of sports people, actors etc who are all about FIGJAM. That doesn’t detract from Hewiitt’s ability to alienate almost his entire country. As for his service to Australian tennis, I don’t deny that some good has come from some of his efforts, I just think that anything good that happened was a byproduct, as he has always seemed to be all about what’s good for Hewitt first, not Australian tennis. I could be wrong, but if I am, he seriously needs to get some better advice about working with the media, as most people seem to find fault with his persona, he nearly always comes across as less than likeable. It’s not about me being poisonous, he has deliberately put himself firmly in the public eye with all his magazine deals (more so than most other ‘stars’)etc and they have backfired and reinforced his poor image.

Shifter says:

01:42pm | 18/01/11

@Macca - on the cricketers, I think Mike Hussey, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Steve Waugh, Simon Katich, Ryan Harris, Jason Gillespie and Brad Hogg weren’t/aren’t particularly FIGJAM.

There’s a time for sweeping generalisations but suggesting ‘George’ Hogg was as up himself as Punter is is stretching it.

I’m not going to defend the indefensible with the footballers though. There’s some geniunely nice guys who play top level, but they’re all a bit up themselves.

macca says:

02:23pm | 18/01/11

@Rose, not sure if his Hopman / Davis Cup efforts have been about him that much, but he has always done all he can to play them. If we are being truly harsh, we could say that his performances are just about raising his profile so he can make money at home, but I’m not that cynical. I understand why people don’t like him, but I still find it hard to justify the level of disdain the public feel for him.

@Shifter, gotta disagree regarding Steve Waugh, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and Simon Katich. Put it down to good PR, but those blokes all had pretty high opinions of themselves. It was simply that they had a lot of blokes around them who were also pretty dominant and could keep them grounded. I justify this belief by their actions towards their oppoonents.

As for the others, particularly George Bradley Hogg, yeah, you’re probably right.

James says:

05:40pm | 17/01/11

Children in Switzerland, USA, Spain and the UK are waiting to be as lucky as us Aussies and discover these exclusive video games and this facebook you sepak of!

marley says:

06:00pm | 17/01/11

Oh, I dunno.  The AFL and the NRL seem to be able to recruit pretty good athletes.  Cricket and tennis are falling by the wayside, but I don’t think it’s because the kids with talent are lacking.  They’re just going to other sports.

Mike T says:

08:32pm | 17/01/11

Umm…. 80 weeks ranked as number 1…....

I would call that a fair length of time

Dan says:

04:00am | 18/01/11

Mike T, Hewitt was lucky because he peaked after Sampras and before Federer. He was never particularly talented, and he overachieved due to his peaking in a transitional era. During any other era, I think he would have been lucky to win one slam.

WhenTenniswasGood says:

08:09am | 18/01/11

Thank you @Dan!

Post-Sampras, Pre-Federer. He was never a shot otherwise!

Go back to your seat with the Fanaticals @Mike T!

Denny Crane says:

08:58am | 18/01/11

Hewitt, is same age as Federer i believe The Fed has stayed at the top because he has continued to change his game as tennis has evolved.

Hewitt, is like Chang, they had speed to keep getting the ball back, they waited for mistakes, as there leg speed got slower, they couldnt rally all the time, and accordingly there rankling dropped.

Where Agassi continued well into his 30’s as he changed his game to the player he was against, he could even push Federer, the US open which he lost he pushed Federer around, hitting back junk sometimes, this kept Fed on his toes.

Hewitt dosent have the game, and will be gone quite early, expect him though to be trying to get all the fans back on side, now he is aiming for a media career

Milke T says:

09:10am | 18/01/11

Yep….

80 weeks at number one…just plan lucky…never really that good…. geez…how high do you lot set the bar??

So with your logic is Federer lucky as well? as the only real competition he has is Nadal??? No Agasi, Sampras, Lendal etc to compete with….

Your logic is BS…if a player is number one for an extended period he is DOMINATING every other player on the planet, full stop

You are correct he was not as good as sampras or as Federer….so what??? How many present day players are?? does that make him hopeless because he was not in thier league??

There have been 1000’s of professional modern day tennis players, and there is one here that won majors, 2 davis cups and held the number one title for over a year. And your reasoning is “ohh, he was just lucky”. Well, hey, i hope im that lucky one day.

Place your personal dislike to the side ladies and genntlemen, it is clearly clouding your ability to see the facts on this one

WhenTenniswasGood says:

01:44pm | 18/01/11

@Mike T and clearly your love for Hewitt is clouding your ability to judge his achievements objectively…

works both ways.

Mike T says:

08:26pm | 17/01/11

Why the Hatred Kerrie???

Im pretty sure he is around 29? Is that to old in your book?

Will he win a major? of course not, but if only those that were likely to win competed then it would simply be federer and Nadal starting only.

To call someone a “has been” is extremly spiteful and makes me wonder what made you that way

Macca says:

08:41am | 18/01/11

@Kerrie, this implies there is something wrong with being in the top 40 in World. If that is the case, than I suggest you stick to your own rules, also pull up stumps and maybe give up this commenting thing

john says:

07:52pm | 17/01/11

What does it matter…. he’s washed up and desperate for money, it was all rosy and fine when he was winning with his painful immature sportsman like antics on the world stage making us all look like wankers, now his flame has gone out like a candle in the wind. What a poor example of a sportsman, how embarrassing for him. He will never be the likes of Roger Federer.
He should put himself out of his own misery and stop playing tennis.