Word: lleyton
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...hardest tasks faced by any off-duty sportswriter is to convince some people, usually women, that there are qualities to be admired in certain celebrated athletes. Watching, say, Lleyton Hewitt, many struggle to see past the scowling and the obnoxious self-exhortations to the traits that lifted a little trier to the peak of tennis. While most Australians preferred Steve Waugh to Hewitt, many couldn't warm to the cricketer, either. Grim and prickly, Waugh eschewed elegance for efficiency and good manners for a competitive edge. To his eternal credit, he took time out from his sport to mingle with...
...That's a little unfair to Roger Federer, but pizzazz isn't the strong point of the stone-faced Swiss who ranks No. 1 in the world. American Andy Roddick has a laser serve and smile but often fails to pack his A game when he travels. And Australian Lleyton Hewitt is too much of a crybaby to win any popularity contest...
...that because Federer's shotmaking from the baseline is so preposterously good, he can be a little lazy about advancing to the net for the quick kill. "It's not making any difference at the moment, but eventually his opponents will lift," says Alexander, who nominates world No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt as having the tireless counterpuncher's game that might conceivably burn a complacent Federer. (Hewitt, the great local hope to become the first Australian since 1976 to win his national title, has lost his last six matches against the world...
Even if he's as spry as ever, Hewitt is still in trouble, argues Anderson. Against bigger, more powerful players like Roddick, his brick-wall style doesn't cut it any more. "Lleyton's game has to move with the trends of tennis," says Anderson, "and today's trend is to whack the absolute hell out of the ball...
...tennis really changed so much that it can no longer accommodate players of all shapes and styles? "Lleyton's a more complete player than Chang was," argues John Alexander, who suspects weariness and injuries were what hurt the Australian, along with a playing style that became too conservative - a flaw Hewitt seems to have corrected. "People tend to talk about power - about serving and forehands - and they're the fashionable things to talk about," says Hewitt's childhood coach, Peter Smith. "I always felt that Lleyton had qualities that others didn't notice, subtle qualities they couldn't measure...