WIMBLEDON, DAY 1

Hewitt collapses while Roddick soars

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM WIMBLEDON – For the first time in his young and distinguished career, Lleyton Hewitt collapsed in the first round of a tournament where he had made his mark and the man who was supposed to be his main American challenger, American Andy Roddick, came through with flying colors.

A defending Wimbledon champion had never before lost in the first round in the Open era and Hewitt’s effort against the obliquely obscure Croatian giant, Ivo Karlovic, was less than impressive. It’s easy to dismiss Hewitt’s 1-6, 7-6 (5) 6-3, 6-4 defeat as a one-off due to the 6-foot-10h Karlovic’s many service bombs and competent volleying, but how in creation did Hewitt allow a guy who had won only four regular tour matches in his life to get on such a roll?

How does a 24-year-old with no career titles grow confident against a two-time No. 1 and two-time Slam champ? It’s because Hewitt doesn’t know how to strangle his foes anymore when they are down. It’s because Hewitt isn’t physically strong enough to consistently fend off the game’s large, imposing players and it’s because Hewitt is spending way too much time off court filing lawsuits, cutting checks to breakaway tennis associations and breaking up with his coaches.

NO ENERGY, NO SPIRIT
After the match, Hewitt said he was very disappointed, but showed little of his normal feistiness with the press. He denied that he was distracted by the lawsuit that he just filed against the ATP or the fact that his coach, Jason Stoltenberg, just left him. It seems that Hewitt’s fire and energy are elsewhere, because he’s not focusing on the task at hand.

Hewitt hasn’t won a title since early March, will fall to at least No. 4 when the rankings come out in two weeks time and should he fail to win the US Open in September, his year will be a washout. His three Slam results this year have been less than mediocre: He lost early in Australia to Younes El Aynaoui; he was beaten up was in five sets by Tommy Robredo at Roland Garros; today, he was out-clutched by a no-name.

When Hewitt won '02 Wimbledon, he was on every ball, read serves like a top physicist scanning a graduate student’s dissertation and completely dissected his foes. On Monday, it didn’t appear he had much of an idea of how to force his greenhorn opponent to gag. For a defending champion and the self-proclaimed "most mentally tough" player in the world, that’s a scary place to be.

RODDICK HAS GOT THE 'MO'

Andy Roddick and Brad Gilbert are seen in London.

Art Seitz

It would have been terrific to see Hewitt and Roddick square off in the quarters, one raging young twenty-something against the other, but it’s not to be. That's’ too bad, because Roddick is looking supremely confident and might have finally taken Hewitt down. Roddick is fresh off a very impressive title run in Queens, where he took out four men who had the pleasure of beating him during the past year – Greg Rusedski, Taylor Dent, Andre Agassi and Sebastian Grosjean.

Roddick has a new coach, Brad Gilbert, who coached Andre Agassi to six Grand Slam titles. He’s much more positive about his career and is more self-assured on court, not questioning every strategy or getting down on himself if his big heater isn’t working or his forehand is a little off. He threw away his "Freddie Couples visor" and is now donning a more age-appropriate baseball cap.

In his 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 win over the tough Italian, Davide Sanguinetti, he wasn't easily fooled and didn’t become quickly unglued like he did in Paris. He was the Roddick we saw six months ago when reached the Australian Open semis: cocky, lethal and playing within himself.

Last year here, Rusedski embarrassed Roddick. The Brit made Roddick’s backhand look like a bench-warming high school student’s stroke and completely dominated him with his wicked lefty serve.
But 12 days ago, Roddick got a measure of revenge of Rusedski at Queens.

Rusedski says that he thinks he has an advantage in a three out of five set match in front of his home crowd, but at least Roddick knows now that he can penetrate the veteran. Roddick says he has no intention of viewing the match merely as a learning experience and knows its his time to go far at a Slam.

Hewitt and his signature Aussie snarl are out of the draw, so now it’s time for Roddick and his double first pump to make his mark. It’s time for Roddick to attempt to put himself in Hewitt’s class.