Lleyton Hewitt was never the most popular player in the locker room or the press room. His repeated shouts of “C’MON!” haven’t always endeared himself to opponents. The ultra-competitive Aussie has been an unwitting recipient of the Prix Citron at Roland Garros, the dubious annual award that is presented to the tour’s No. 1 sourpuss. There was his infamous run-in with officials at the ’01 U.S. Open, when he appeared to insinuate that an African-American linesman was favoring his opponent, James Blake. He twice called a chair ump “spastic” at the French Open that same year. He was fined $20,000 for pulling a no-show at a post-match interview with ESPN, an incident that led to the two-time Slam champ to sue the ATP. There have been run-ins with tabloids, and who else would attempt to trademark a victory salute? But as often happens with prickly players as they advance in age (and their bodies begin to break down), they soften, and so, too, does their image. During an inspiring run to the fourth round in Melbourne (in which he sent the likes of Andy Roddick and Milos Raonic packing), the 30-year-old was embraced by fans and opponents alike.
“I admire him a lot,” said Rafael Nadal. “He deserves all the respect of the people who love this sport and respect and admiration of everyone, because after having, I don’t know how many, five surgeries, six surgeries, something like this, keeping having the motivation to run, to fight [for] every ball. Even if the body don’t have the perfect answer, is something fantastic.”
“He is one of the more charismatic players on tour,” Rafa added. “I always liked him, his spirit of competition. Today he is an example to follow for a lot of people.”
Even Roger Federer said he fist-pumped when Hewitt upset the bullet-serving Raonic in the third round.
Hewitt himself described the feel-good reception as an experience “that you can’t buy. Until you’re one of the players out there experiencing it, it is a massive adrenaline rush…A couple of months ago, I didn’t know if I’d be able to play. I didn’t play much tennis last year. I always wanted to play this tournament. I’ve done a lot of hard work. It’s only my close friends and team that know what we’ve done to get here. That’s probably why it’s very satisfying.”
COURIER AND HIVES: Jim Courier will have his hands full when it comes to piecing together his team for the upcoming U.S. vs. Switzerland Davis Cup clash. Andy Roddick — likely a no-show from the start — officially pulled out after injuring his hamstring in his AO loss to Lleyton Hewitt. And Bob Bryan will be unavailable due to the fact that his wife, Michelle, is due to give birth on Jan. 29.
WILANDER RECOVERING: Mats Wilander landed in the hospital after the seven-time Slam titlist took a freak fall in his Melbourne hotel room on the eve of the Aussie Open. The 47-year-old Swede suffered a laceration on one of his kidneys, but is reportedly well on the road to recovery.
AMERICAN WASHOUT: For the first time since ’73, not one American man reached the fourth round at the Australian Open. FoxSports.com’s Greg Couch opined, “The top players have faded, and the bottom ones aren’t good enough. This is the moment U.S. tennis has been nervous about for years…The USTA is trying, and studies show that American kids are taking up the game more and more. But everyone has gone home from Australia. That baton for the next American tennis star is still waiting there, on the ground. Sooner or later, someone is bound to pick it up. Right?”
NO HALFWAY FOR SERENA ANYMORE?: Sports Illustrated’s Jon Werthheim wondered whether Serena Williams‘ Aussie Open loss to Ekaterina Makarova will motivate her “to make one last, earnest push toward the Evert–Graf–Navratilova corridor,” or whether it will only further complicate “what is already a complex relationship with the sport of tennis. This we know: she can’t get away with doing this halfway anymore.”
A PASSION REGAINED: Maria Sharapova, who advanced to the quarters with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 comeback against Sabine Lisicki, seems reinvigorated by her recent success. “I love this sport as much as I loved it when I was [17],” said the Russo-American. “Every day I feel like when I wake up and I go out, I can improve, and that makes me feel young. I feel like I still have a lot of energy and desire. Maybe the year before last I was on a steady line, maybe didn’t have that energy and passion, and everything was kind of at a standstill. But I feel like I’ve regained that energy.”
CURIOUS QUESTION: A reporter asked Martina Navratilova, “How do you explain that sometimes men are heterosexual at the beginning and they become gay during their life? Doesn’t happen the opposite with women when they turn to be homosexual?” Said the 55-year-old, openly-gay Hall of Famer, “You don’t turn. Do you turn straight? No, you didn’t. You don’t turn gay. No, I think you don’t know enough about the issue when you frame a question like that. You don’t just turn. You either are or not.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Ekaterina Makarova was asked, “Russian tennis is destroying American tennis. Are you surprised and how much?”
USE YOUR NOODLE: Ekaterina Makarova was asked, “Does your last name mean anything? Sounds a little bit like ‘macaroni’ in Italian.”
A CHEERFUL ANSWER: Told that it’s becoming more difficult to make her smile during press conferences, Maria Sharapova quipped, “”Maybe you should start asking cheerful questions and I’ll have cheerful answers.”
KEI TO SUCCESS: Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese man to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals since 1932.
NOT THAT DESPERATE: Serena Williams, who struggled with an ankle injury, said she never would have played had it not been a major. (“No, no way.”) Asked when she’ll play next, Serena said, “I don’t know. I’m going to play Fed Cup. I look forward to that. Gosh, I was just thinking I want to pick up a tournament because I did so awful here. There’s no tournaments, unless I pick up Indian Wells, and we all know I’m not going there. It crossed my mind very briefly, like a nanosecond.” Prompted that she could play Acapulco (a tournament, by the way, that her sister, Venus Williams, regularly plays), the former No. 1 said, “Yeah? I’m not THAT desperate.”
DO THE SLAMS RULE THE ROOST?: Martina Navratilova weighed in on the recent rumblings of a player revolt, saying, “The Grand Slams are making a lot more than they’re sharing with the players. That’s a fact. When the players try to talk to them, the Grand Slam are like, ‘Oh, well. Get lost. Too bad.’ If the men and women got together I think the Grand Slams would listen. When they’re separated they can do what they want, which is what they’ve been doing. The players made the Slams big and the Slams made the players big. It’s a very symbiotic relationship, but the Slams are ruling the roost. They dictate everything to the players.”
THE NAKED TRUTH: Asked if he would pose for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot if the magazine had a swimsuit edition featuring men, Novak Djokovic said, “I’m not getting naked for anybody, except my girlfriend.”
PAYBACK’S A BITCH: Asked if all the bugs at this year’s Australian Open are more dangerous than the ferocious-but-fictitious kangaroo she invented last year, Caroline Wozniacki said, “I actually had a small kangaroo — and I’m not kidding this time. I was holding a small kangaroo, baby kangaroo, trying to show me that actually it was very nice to me this time. Do you know what it did afterward? I gave it some milk, and it just spit it all over me. I was like, ‘Is this a thank you for just being nice and petting the kangaroo?’ I got milk all over myself. I guess I deserved that from the story last year.”
LOSING UGLY: John Isner described the dearth of Americans in the Round of 16 as “very ugly, to be honest.”
RODDICK’S WOES: Andy Roddick spoke of his recent injury woes, saying, “It’s frustrating. It’s discouraging. Your sensible mind says to have a sense of perspective. You still have it pretty good. The competitor in you feels terrible and wants to break stuff. I can’t really complain. I had 10 years pretty much of a clean slate. That’s a lot more than most people get. The last two years has been pretty tough. It’s tough physically. It’s as tough mentally, though. It’s hard…I don’t think it’s coincidental that all of a sudden in the last year and a half or two years that I’m getting hurt more. It’s just frustrating because you can do all the right things and it might not matter.”
HEADLINES
American Horror Story
THE NUMBERS
$8,000: Fine to be paid by David Nalbandian after the oft-cantankerous Argentine threw water at an Aussie Open staffer following his controversial second-round loss to John Isner.
3: First-time Slam quarterfinalists at the Aussie Open — Kei Nishikori, Ekaterina Makarova and Sara Errani.
37: Unforced errors for Serena Williams in her fourth-round loss to Ekaterina Makarova
QUOTEBOOK
“U.S. tennis is gone from the world map.” — Greg Couch, FoxSports.com
“Serena Williams can no longer do tennis as a part-time gig.” — Jon Wertheim
“That will probably be the highest note of my career…I was so naïve…I don’t think I actually logically knew what I had done…You never quite know when your success is going to come. But…the stars aligned for me to achieve that.” — Three-time Slam champ Maria Sharapova on her ’04 Wimbledon title
“Hopefully, I can be like Li Na for the men.” — Kei Nishikori on his impact in Asia
“My idol was Anastasia Myskina. I really love her game. I didn’t want to look like her…” — Ekaterina Makarova
“I can’t even describe how I served, to be honest. It wasn’t good, though. My lefty serve is actually better than that. Maybe I should have started serving lefty.” —Serena Williams on her fourth-round loss
“She was all about Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. She repeated that about four or five times, so I just felt I couldn’t get through to her.” — Martina Navratilova on the last time she spoke to Margaret Court, whose controversial anti-same-sex-marriage comments have drawn a heated response
“Apparently she had kind of an ‘Ah-Ha’ moment when she was feeling sorry for herself and burned out, life is so difficult, this and that. Her grandmother said, ‘Listen, darling, I worked three jobs.’ So that put it in perspective, and she’s been a different person since then.’ — Martina Navratilova on semifinalist Victoria Azarenka
