* !Picby Pete Bodo*
Here's a little Tony Roche story. In 1977, the stalwart Aussie Davis Cup doubles genius was approaching 33 and had gone a full decade without playing a singles for the green-and-gold. But he was unexpectedly called upon to open the final in Sydney's famed White City stadium against Italy's Adriano Panatta, who had won the 1976 French Open and was five years younger than Roche.
Roche upset Panatta, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, and Australia went on to win the Cup for the 23rd time.
In a way, this is also a Lleyton Hewitt story. For Roche is to Hewitt what Obi Wan Kanobe was to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, or Billie Jean King was to Martina Navratilova: mentor, role-model and, lantern-bearer on any dark path in tennis. Roche is "old school." Hewitt is the closest thing we have to that among today's players.
Hewitt wlll be 31 in February, he's ranked 185 places below his career-best no. 1 (the mark he hit in September of 2001), and stepping gingerly on a left foot featuring a big toe that, according to a specialist in a position to know, is more bruised and beat up than any he had ever seen. Perhaps they can put it on display in a medical school after Hewitt is done abusing it.
It's a pity, though, that Hewitt is gimpy. Because he's all fired up about the Australian Open and in all other respects good to go. As he told the Melbourne newspaper, The Age: ''The rest of my body feels great, so that's probably even more frustrating. If I was breaking down in a lot of different areas, then you can sort of put up with it. . .If I can get over this foot injury, I feel great at the moment in terms of my ball striking. It's as good as it's been in a long time.''
Is there a player out there who better embodies the zeal for competition - or one who's more able to play in pain? He won't even take pain killers, because they upset his stomach. Hewitt is no. 186 in the world, entered in his native championships only by virtue of a charitable act (a wild card), and yet if you didn't know better and just went by his prognosis, you could be forgiven for thinking, Hey, he could win the whole shootin' match.
As Roche reportedly said earlier this year: "Look, he'd be the toughest competitor I've ever seen."
This, from a guy who rubbed elbows on a regular basis with Rod Laver, tossed back beers with Ken Rosewall, and posted a 7-2 Davis Cup doubles mark playing mostly with multiple Grand Slam champ John Newcombe.
I don't know about you, but I'd love to see Hewitt make one more strong run. Among other things, it would make up for the tears Hewitt admitted he shed for only the second time in his life when he lost the fifth-rubber of Australia's World Group Playoffs tie against a Swiss team led by Roger Federer. Hewitt was beaten, 6-3 in the fifth, by Stan Wawrinka.
"Believe me, I'm still not over it yet," Hewitt said recently.
Did I mention that the only other time he says he cried was when Australia lost the final to Spain in 2000? On that occasion in Spain, on clay, Hewitt beat Albert Costa [note: corrected from original] in five sets in the first rubber but Spain then rolled; Juan Carlos Ferrero clinched with a win over Hewitt in the fourth match. It was a blow to Hewitt, who is 37-11 in Davis Cup singles, 47-14 overall, and prepared to lace 'em up any time the captain calls.
Hewitt's continuing appetite for combat is all the more noteworthy for two reasons: At 5-11 and 170-lbs, he was supposed to be one of those guys the game would leave behind in the new power era. But he won two majors and did a good stint at no. 1 while battling the likes of Sampras, Agassi, Safin, Kuerten, Roddick and others. And Hewitt was not only small, he proved somewhat fragile everywhere but in the heart.
In 2005, while struggling with a hip injury that would ultimately require two rounds of surgery, he won three consecutive five-set matches against, in succession, Rafael Nadal, David Nalbandian (10-8 in the fifth) and Andy Roddick before he ran out of steam in the final. He lost to Marat Safin in what would be Hewitt's best chance to bag his homeland Grand Slam.
Hewitt got to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in 2006 on a bum knee (it ultimately required surgery) and his second hip surgery cost him two months last year. Partly because of his hip injury, Hewitt played just 20 matches in 2011 (9-11). I decided years ago that if there's any justice in the world, Hewitt would one day win the Australian Open. Alas, the days are dwindling to a precious few.