Pressure of Australian Tennis is on Hewitt’s Shoulders

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 30th October 2010

Pressure of Australian Tennis is on Hewitt’s Shoulders |

Newly installed Australian Davis Cup captain Patrick Rafter admits 29 year-old Lleyton Hewitt will have to shoulder the nation’s fortunes for another couple of years yet despite undergoing two hip operations and suffering several other injury problems.

Rafter is well aware of the issues Hewitt has with playing alongside feisty teenager Bernard Tomic and believes a new crop of youngsters including James Duckworth, Jason Kubler and Ben Mitchell are still way short of sufficient experience to step into the team.

“Hewitt is integral to Australia right now, he’s the man we need,” said Rafter who has installed Tony Roche, briefly coach of Hewitt, as his no.2. “Hopefully the young guys will be able to feed off him. You don’t see a Lleyton come around very often, maybe once every 20 years. He was a freak.”

Rafter’s first match in charge will come next March when Australia takes on Taiwan in the Asia/Oceania Group One at Melbourne Park. Roche admitted Australian tennis is in trouble after missing out again on promotion to the world group.

“I don’t think we can get any lower than where we are right now,” he said. “But John Newcombe and I experienced it when we took over. In 1995, Australia lost to Hungary at Budapest to be relegated from the World Group.

“It was a low point of Australian tennis, we had never been there before. The guys all committed to work that bit harder, to pull together and before we knew it a couple of years later we had won the Davis Cup.”

Topics: Asia Oceania, Australian Tennis, Bernard Tomic, Captain Patrick, Davis Cup, Duckworth, Fortunes, Freak, Hip Operations, John Newcombe, Kubler, Lleyton Hewitt, Melbourne Park, Patrick Rafter, Rafter S, Shoulders, Tony Roche, World Group, Young Guys, Youngsters