I’ve been trying to keep match coverage and details to a minimum in these posts—figure you know what you’re looking at, and have lots of other options for gathering that kind of information.
I’ve been thinking about last night’s clash between Andy and Lleyton, though, and what it may bode for American tennis as well as its top player.
Hewitt, clearly is back—and with a vengeance. He’s a tough little hombre; a Jack Russell terrier to Andy’s loping Golden Retriever. To beat Hewitt, you have to play a match that is above all tight, because Hewitt is a player of extraordinary focus and discipline. Roddick’s new coach, Dean Goldfine, was pressed up against a wall, talking to three or four pencils, late last night after the match. At one point Goldfine said it all:
”Sure Andy needs to take it to Lleyton, but he needs to take it to him at the right times.”
Translation: Andy has to play tight. He has to be ever vigilant for the chance to attack, but not on any old prayer of an approach shot. He has to play each point with clarity, purpose and precision, Roddick won the first set, then led 3-0 in the third after Hewitt won the second. When you’ve got a serve like Roddick’s (he hit seven consecutive aces at one point, spanning the end of the first set and the start of the second), you simply can’t lose that third set. You have to play tight.
Hewitt made a telling comment when a reporter suggested that Roddick may need to play a more mature, patient, evenly-paced game.
“Yeah, I felt like I just wore him down tonight more than anything. You know, he got off to a good start and I just had to weather the storm and hang with him and wait for my opportunities.”