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IF YOU think Lleyton Hewitt is competitive on the tennis court, you should try having him stay at your house.
Rusty stayed at my place in Del Ray Beach Florida for a few days before the 2003 US Open. It became evident pretty much straight away that the guy didn't have an off-switch. We'd come back from practice and he'd want to take me on at golf. Or table tennis. Or on the pool table. It never stopped. And he didn't like losing at anything he turned his hand to.
He took his golf very seriously back then (although I reckon I'd kick his arse now!). There were no easy holes or gimmes. There was an intensity to everything he did.
I remember playing a practice match against him in Sweden before a David Cup tie in 2003. I think I got him 7-5 in the tie-breaker, but the way we were going at each other was like anything you'd see in a grand slam tournament. No one was gving an inch. John Fitzgerald and Wally Masur just sat back and enjoyed the show as we tore into each other. He beat me in the final at Scottsdale, Arizona that year - the last of our four meetings on tour.
"What do ya mean I'm too intense" Source: News Limited
He might have trumped me 3-1 in our head-to-heads over the course of our careers but there were two areas I had his measure in: pool and table tennis. I was seriously competitive on both - probably sometimes more than I was on the tennis court! - and there was no way I was going to let him take my crown in my home. And I remember taking him surfing at Del Ray once. It was a windy day and the little bloke was having trouble paddling out. That was one of the few places I had the better of him!
Only Rafael Nadal matches him for intensity among modern day players. They stand alone as the best and most tenacious competitors I have seen. Lleyton has found a way to be more relaxed away from the court these days, and I think that's a good thing. That was an incredible level of energy to maintain all the time.
I'm so excited to see how deep Rusty goes into the Australian Open this year. He would have to be one of the hottest players going around at the moment. Beating the great Roger Federer 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in his first outing of the year in Brisbane is a huge feat and carries on the good form he showed in the latter stages of 2013.
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I want to see him in the second week at the Australian Open. So does the whole country. And I think he's a decent chance at getting there. Drawing Andreas Seppi in the first round is good for him. Seppi may be ranked 25th in the world to Lleyton's 43rd, but he won't hit Lleyton off the court. He's a good opponent for Lleyton first up to get his feel for the tournament.
I was in New York to watch his run at the US Open last year. It was awesome. Here was a guy who has battled back from foot, ankle, hip and God-knows-whatever-else surgeries and taking it to the world's best.
He rolled Brian Baker from America in four sets. He beat sixth seed Juan Martin Del Potro - who can knock over any player in the world on his day - in five sets including a 6-1 fifth set. He topped Russia's Russia's Exgeny Donskoy in four sets to advance to the round of 16. And just when it looked like he was on his way to the quarter finals, Mikhail Youzhny battled back from 2-1 down to win an epic fifth set 5-7 at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
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Lleyton has taken great things away from that run at Flushing Meadow and it showed in Brisbane. Opponents will be nervous when they see him in their side of the draw at the Australian Open. He's hungry, he's got a nation behind him and he's in form. He still has an incredible drive at an age when many players have lost the edge.
It's real "eye of the tiger" stuff. How could you not root for the guy?
I remember seeing him for the first time in Adelaide during a Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic in 1997. John Newcombe asked me to come over and watch this 16-year-old kid and asked me what I thought about him. You could see the fighter in him even then. The bloke just hated losing.
He still does, 16 years later.
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