Lleyton Hewitt - The unregistered legend: A bridge across time!

‘Age is an inevitable curse upon the body’, we are time and again told. And further, given our delirious indulgence in its script, Sport is verily that elegant stage of art where time seems like a cosmetic, fading as the evening arrives. With each passing season, the growing experience gets negated with the tragedy of weakening limbs. Despite an undying desire for success, failure becomes a habitual unwanted guest. Indeed, to an objective eye, there arrives a time, when a gritty champion desperate to fructify his passion actually seems justified in being labelled greedy!

In such a backdrop, the stories of tennis’ twilight stories have been quite romanticized. Year after year, even as tennis fans watch in despair, most of our childhood icons have faded into oblivion. And with the increasing number of instances, as with the sudden retirement of a fiery Roddick to hang up his boots even before his first child came to the stands, there is a sudden statistic doing the rounds. That 30 is perhaps the ideal time to think of a life beyond the rectangle borders and closed stadia.

But there are those few who stir us to the glaring misconception of our statistical opinions. And they are the men who prove their mettle as the real fighters and true champions. Keeping Federer for another day, for today it’s the story of a brave-heart named Lleyton Hewitt!

There isn’t a more inspiring image of endurance and motivation besides this 31-year-old. Turning up at tournaments and often handed a wild card in lieu of his past glory, he plays out marathon five-setters and goes deep into the tournament to prove that honour is dependent on deservedness and not sympathy. One finds him inspiring when he even accounts for quite a few of the seeded heavy-weights. Defeating a rank 15 Raonic and the very next day, a top 10 player fresh off an impressive Davis cup victory, Berdych, in making it to the Kooyong classic final, is no mean feat.

But to evaluate the deservedness of his grit and genius, perhaps we just need to rewind the film of his career.

The youngest to make the World No.1 and if quantity seems the demand of the hour, he stayed there for close to one and half years. He was the last of our generation to own both a singles and a doubles Grand Slam. He was the fierce fighter who played an austere semifinal and returned the very next day to humiliate the don in his den, beating Pete Sampras in straight sets at US Open final, all at 20. A charged prince who returned the next year to prove his deservedness for the throne, storming through to his 1st Wimbledon title, losing just 2 sets in the entire tournament. A feat never matched till date.

Surprisingly, despite his world conquering talents, he was that erratic maverick who could kiss the stars and wade to the bottom of Marina Trench with equal ease. A legendary sensation and yet the only open era Wimbledon defending champion to lose to a qualifier in the first round.

There is no player to have tasted as much success in dismantling Federer early in his career, winning 7 of their first 9 matches, although it happened before Federer’s majestic era started in ’03. Understandably, most fail to gauge his dominance given the way the Swiss maestro later reversed this audacious advance as fading aberrations, picking the next 16 of their 17.

In a way, Hewitt was the tenacious bridge connecting the two monumental epics of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. An unregistered legend. A bridge across time.

28 titles inclusive of 2 season ending WTF ATP titles, 15 times losing finalist, 2 Grand Slams, twice a Grand Slam runner-up, 2 Double career titles, and 4 times Doubles career finalist!’

Indeed, an inspiring CV of a modern day gladiator who has conquered age!