Lleyton Hewitt - Where does Australian Tennis go from here?

http://www.thenational.ae/sport/tennis/body-is-failing-a-gritty-lleyton-hewitt

Just found this article about Lleyton Hewitt - always admired his fighting spirit. In a way it is sad to see such a great competitor unable to do what he once could where others at his age are still going strong. On the other hand I like that he is not ready to retire, it shows what playing means to him and that is not diminished by his reduced status in the game.

It seems unlikely he will play for Australia again but who else have they got? Australia has an extremely strong tennis history but there is no-one just behind Lleyton to carry it on.

Can Tomic, Matosevic or Ebden step up? The former appears to have a lot of talent but is showing no signs of Lleytons gritty determination at the moment. The others are both enjoying career highs in the 50's and 60's respectively but neither are in the first flush of youth tennis wise.

I get the feeling that Tomic will start to really feel the pressure if Lleyton goes, and I worry about how he will cope. I think that he could be a really strong player in a few years but it will take a lof of time and effort.

At least they have Stosur in the meantime.

Nice read.

And what an amazing player Hewitt has been for Australia in DC...with some truly memorable wins earlier in his career. Its a shame about Australian tennis...after Rafter then Hewitt you wonder where the men's game is going to be over there. I wonder how much tennis is pushed over there now compared to recent high profile sports for them such as swimming and cycling. I also wonder what courts they have...historically Aussie's were known for their fast court prowess due to having lots of grass courts...but in the modern game you need clay based courts to learn on, do they have slower courts in abundance? Perhaps not. This is the same issue facing USA too...and one of the reasons why Spain is riding so high.

Tomic, I'm not sure about. Great player, plays a slightly grinding style...and I wonder how his 6'5' frame will cope with that in later years if nothing else.

Is Spain riding so high moving forwards though? I havent fully examined it but it is notable there are few young Spaniards nor do i believe they have a strong junior presence at the moment.

Born Slippy wrote:Is Spain riding so high moving forwards though? I havent fully examined it but it is notable there are few young Spaniards nor do i believe they have a strong junior presence at the moment.

To be fair, that aren't that many young players doing well across the globe, not just Spain. Xavier Marti is there though, can't think of too many more. They have great strength in depth atm in the top 100.

As for Australia, they aren't doing badly at all in terms of youngsters, but they don't have much strength in depth in the Top 100.
Of course Tomic is top 50 and only 19 years old.
But they also have Luke Saville who is ranked 3 in juniors and is 18, Nick Kyrgios who is 17 and ranked 5 in juniors, while James Duckworth is ranked just outside the top 200 and is 20 years old.
So in terms of youngsters they are at the forefront, but in reality in the top 100 they don't have much in terms of depth.

If you are more interested in following the development of young players:
https://www.606v2.com/t35312p50-v2-youngster-watch
There are 3 Australians who I have nominated as 'ones to watch out for' throughout my groups

Absolutely B_S. Spain is a success story overall as you know with 3 players in the top 12, 6 in the top 30, 13 in top 100 - more than any other nation. They have another 8 or so between 100-200, and around 55 in the top 1000. Their tennis academies are bulging, tennis popularity is at an all time high there...and the tour has moved to slower courts/conditions in general which suits the style of game they grow up learning to play.

Good question about their juniors though. In terms of junior rankings I dont pay too much attention to those. The top21 and under, and younger juniors are spread all over, no nation really stands out. As an example of early pointers of success Olly Golding won Junior US Open but he's not been able to break through further yet - currently 453 in world. Many players only blossom on the full tour when they're 19+...what they did as a junior is not a great predictor of success...and certainly not as much as it used to be be now that the tour demands greater physicality to succeed.

For many years now promising juniors (inc. Murray) get/got sent to the Barcelona Academy to hone their craft. We also see the creation of a new Masters clay event in Madrid at massive expense...so they are very serious about their tennis and future success.

The thread has somehow travelled from Australia to Spain in the space of a couple of posts

Anyway back on topic for just a minute ...... Yes, a real 'true grit' fighter, Hewitt has served his country superbly and based on current evidence there are no fellow Aussies to fill the void right now.

From his personal (ie. non-DC) perspective you do wonder just how much longer he will want to soldier on with no/little prospect of making the business end of tournies. It's now almost a decade since he won a title at Masters level, and there have been as many as eight R1 exits - often at the hands of journeymen - in the last 18 months or so alone.

Taking in a bigger picture (and well before the days of Rafter and Hewitt) it's quite surreal to think about the degree to which world tennis was dominated by Aussie players back in the sixties and seventies.