Hewitt proves he's not history

TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIP:DID YOU see him? The little guy with the baseball cap turned backwards. Bouncing across Centre Court, raspberry-faced, fist pumping, neck veins pulsing, screaming up to his coach, Tony Roche.

He’s the only Australian in the men’s draw, the first time representation has been so low since the game went open. But he makes more noise, pulls more faces and swears more often than everyone else combined.

We thought he was history, looked at his statistics and saw that he had lost his last 11 matches to top five players and his last such victory was back in 2007 when he beat Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko, the then world number three.

We saw that, after the hip surgery, which kept him out of the game for four months at the end of last year, his ranking had plummeted and now stood at 56 in the world. We had even started to call him a veteran. With that empirical evidence we decided Lleyton Hewitt was like a fading star, glamorous to have around the set and still heavily involved but no longer able to carry the movie.

But forces of nature like Hewitt and Rafael Nadal often transcend bald facts and there are few in the game more forcefully effective that the 28-year-old Australian in full spate. The heavy-serving Juan Martin Del Potro found him in that form yesterday as Hewitt buzzed to a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 win.

Now we feel like the boffins who scientifically proved that bumble bees couldn’t fly.

In the afternoon sun Del Potro, standing at 6ft 6ins, cast a long shadow over the 5ft 11ins 2002 champion. The Argentine’s break-through year was 2008, when he won four straight titles, the first player in ATP history to win that many in consecutive tournaments and since then had hit himself, largely from the back court, right up to fifth in the world rankings.

He made it into the semi-finals at Roland Garros only for Roger Federer to put him to the sword but not until he had gone two sets up and threatened to deny the champion the only Grand Slam he hadn’t won.

He then hurried home to Buenos Aires for a week’s practice on grass but lasted just over two and a half hours with Hewitt. It was vintage Australian scramble and scrap and with that and strong serving, he was able to turn the match on a couple of big points.

One service break in the first and second sets gave Hewitt the platform he desired and at that point his experience was shining through. He then broke again in the first game of the third set and seemed to be counting down the games to serve out the match. But it took an exchange of serves at the end of the third set to give Hewitt his second opportunity for the win, one he hungrily accepted.

“Oh it was a big win,” said Hewitt. “I wanted to beat a top-five guy. These are the places you want to do it. He’s an exceptional player. He’s a very talented player but he’s still a bit raw. I tried to take advantage of that as much as possible.”

The two Andys made seamless progress also. American Roddick took four sets to deal with Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, while the Andy that the entire British nation is talking about took Ernests Gulbis for a run around Centre Court. A brief run.

The Latvian Gulbis comes from quite a family. Father Einars is a former basketball player, mother Milena a successful actress, sister Elina a lawyer, and younger brother Kristops is in Florida working on becoming a professional golfer.

Not that Murray knew or cared. He didn’t falter as he did briefly in the first round against Robert Kendrick. No wobbles, no invitations for Gulbis to come into the game and only six unforced errors from him in the entire match. It was almost flawless.

Mixing his game beautifully with lots of slice from the back of the court, allowed him open with a 6-2 set. He followed that with a 7-5 second and won the match with a 6-3 third in less than an hour and a half. The nation faltered in their belief in him after the first round. This time he sent the crowd home believing here is a credible championship winner.

“I didn’t give him many opportunities at all, used my slice better, mixed it up more,” said Murray. “Much better than the first match. Today I definitely served better and made more returns on the court. There were a few nerves, a bit of tension in the first match and maybe the crowd sensed that. Better there today. I was very happy with the way I played and if I can serve like that for the rest of the tournament I feel I have a good chance.”