The Aussie Wimbledon Tilt

If you, like many Australians stayed up to watch Lleyton Hewitt win his first round match at Wimbledon against Robin Haase you probably have come to the conclusion that his tilt will be a short lived one.

Hewitt faces Spaniard Albert Montanes in the second round, in a match that Hewitt should win. Of course, with Hewitt nothing is easy, and a five set match is almost a certainty. Montanes is ranked 68th in the world and has no grasscourt form to speak of.

In the third round, Aussie Lleyton has a likely date with Roger Federer and an exit here looks certain.

We keep getting excited about the Hewitt Wimbledon tilt in this country. And that seems a little strange. The last time that Hewitt was a true force on the Men's tour was 2002. We seem to forget that, as he still looks and acts the same as he did then. Problematically, he does not play the same as he did then.

Realists were more optimistic about the tilt of Australian hero the Gooch. However, the Gooch never looked like making it past the first round.

The last time Australia had a player to be excited about at Wimbledon was the marvellous winter of 2001, when June not only made staying up to watch Rafter a must, but the Australian cricket team were destroying England in the Ashes series. An Australian team which actually had some characters in it!

Have a look at this squad. Sure it's not quite as interesting as some of the squads from the 90s but:

[S Waugh, M Waugh, Martyn, Hayden, Slater, Gilchrist, Ponting, Bevan, Katich, Seccombe, Warne, Noffke, Miller, Lee, McGrath, Gillespie, Fleming, Bracken]

So some of the credibility of that team is lost with the Professors most loathed Australian cricketer ever: Michael Bevan. Bevan's reputation as the greatest one day batsman seemed to be built on his ability to guide Australia through tricky situations late in one-day internationals. What most did not see, was that Bevan typically put them there in the first place. Channel 9 misses "lets make a game of it" Bevan.

Michael Bevan, needing 20 runs from 40 balls says "lets make a game of it!"

But there are a lot of interesting characters in that squad, with the Waughs, Warne and Miller. Ponting is even more interesting, as we still had not conveniently forgotten about his pants down indiscretions. He was the slightly messed up batting prodigy, rather than the worst and least questioned captain in recent memory.

Anyway, this post was about Tennis. Australian tennis is dead. Roger Federer will win Wimbledon for the 10,009th time. I will not miss a lot of sleep watching it. Maybe someone will write an article about how Lleyton is the fittest he has ever been, has learnt to volley or something. Maybe I will believe it and lose some sleep to watch him get reamed in straight sets by Federer.