2005 Australian Open - Day #12
By Eleanor Preston  |  January 28, 2005

Lleyton Hewitt doesn’t smile very often, at least not when people are watching, but there was no hiding his delight at becoming the first Australian to make the Australian Open final since Pat Cash in 1988.
 
Hewitt accomplished the milestone thanks to a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-1 win over Andy Roddick, who by the end looked bruised and dazed like a man who had tried to head butt a brick wall. At a set up he looked good for a place in the final against Marat Safin, especially as Hewitt still appeared to be struggling with the hip injury that had bothered him against both Rafael Nadal and David Nalbandian in his two previous five-set slogs.
 
Sadly for Roddick it takes rather more than a bit of discomfort and an unhappy scoreline to put Hewitt off. As soon as the Australian had clinched the second tiebreaker courtesy of some clumsy and tactically naïve play from Roddick, any advantage the American had carved out for himself was lost.
 
When Hewitt came from 0-3 down to get back on serve and force a tiebreaker in the third, it put the momentum irretrievably in Hewitt’s favour.
 
“I tried to weather the storm and wear him down when I went a break down in the third set,” said Hewitt. “That tiebreaker was huge one to win.”
 
From then on Roddick seemed to run out of ideas worryingly quickly, and he and his new coach Dean Goldfine will have much to work if he is to continue challenging the likes of Roger Federer, Marat Safin and Hewitt. He is already down to No.3 in the world rankings – behind Hewitt – and has to make some big tactical changes to improve enough to get to No.2, let alone No.1. With the points he has to defend in the next few months he will struggle to stay at No.3.
 
Roddick played well enough in the first set but once his confidence was dented he seemed to have no idea whether he wanted to serve and volley or stay back. When he did venture forward Hewitt delighted in passing the target he had been given, especially since Roddick volleyed as though wearing handcuffs.
 
Roddick said he believed he his game had plateau-ed under Brad Gilbert and on this evidence he was right. The big question now is what Goldfine can do to reinvigorate Roddick’s game and his confidence.
 
“I played pretty solid until I lost my serve in the third set, then I pressed my luck a little bit to get broken,” said Roddick. “In terms of mental attitude, Lleyton’s tough, he’s up there, no question. I’m mad. I thought I was in there with a shot. I’m usually a pretty good tiebreak player and to lose two breakers like that is disappointing. I donated a little bit more than I wanted to tonight and I did it at some bad times.”
 
Most worrying of all was the way he capitulated in the fourth set, as though Hewitt and his army of cheerleaders had got so far under his skin that he simply forgot how to play the kind of tennis that was good enough to win the US Open in 2003. ”I came out flat in the fourth set and played a pretty poor game to lose my serve but he was just going to tighten the clamps and not miss and I think I tried to force things a little bit,” he said. “I was still reeling a little bit and things just ran away from a little bit. When you’ve just lost a third set on a tiebreaker and all of a sudden the wheels start going a little bit faster it’s tough to change the momentum.”
 
While Roddick headed for the check-in desk and the comforts of the first class lounge at Melbourne Airport, Hewitt was already looking forward to playing a final in front of his home crowd which, for the first time, will be played at prime-time in Australia and Asia rather than mid-afternoon.
 
“I started preparing for this tournament nine months ago and we’ve put in a lot of hard yards,” he said. “When I heard they were going to play the final at night I said I would do anything to appear in it.”

/// BACK