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| 24 Jun 2003 | |
| Day One: Hewitt’s Loss Rocks Wimbledon |
There is no way of getting around it, Lleyton Hewitt’s loss in
the first round of Wimbledon is one of the biggest ever, if not the biggest ever, upsets in tennis. Never before in the professional era, and only once before in the history of Wimbledon has the men’s defending champion lost in the first round.
It was a case of David and Goliath but this time it was Goliath who came out the winner - Ivo Karlovic had obviously not read the script before. The Croat at 208 cm is the tallest man in tennis and he turned Wimbledon on its head with the upset of the top seed that left everyone at the All England Club in shock.
In two hours 24 minutes Karlovic came back after losing the first set to beat Hewitt 16 76(5) 63 64. This is only the fifth match at a tour level that Karlovic has won out of the eleven he has played.
"I’d never seen him play. I’d seen him walk around a bit before and
obviously I tried to find out as much as possible," said a shell-shocked Hewitt.
"Yeah, knew he had a big serve and that was obviously his weapon.
That’s pretty much it. I’d never seen him play a match before."
Both Hewitt and Karlovic indicated that it will take them a few days to
understand the result but obviously their emotions would be poles apart. The Croat was almost as stunned as everyone else.
"I’m excited. I believe I’m going to realise some other day that I win," he said.
"The first set I was completely scared. After I saw I can beat him, I
start to play more better. I saw him play last week and he didn’t play
anything special. I was pretty prepared to win. I began to believe I could win in third set. Back home for sure is going to be a big story."
The match was barely over and Karlovic had barely gone back to the player areas when he got a call from Goran Ivanisevic, the champion from 2001 who was not able to defend his title last year nor play this year because of injuries.
"He was always my idol and I always hold him as a god. I speak with him and he congratulates me, that’s it," said Karlovic.
Hewitt said he felt fine with his game coming into Wimbledon. Even though he had a disappointing run at Queen’s Club, he was of the opinion that his game had come together well in practice and he was hitting the ball cleanly.
He is ruing the fact that he was not able to capitalise on the
opportunities he had. All told Hewitt held 13 break points and converted just three times, while Karlovic had three break points and broke twice. But as Hewitt said, credit has to be given to the Croat for picking up his level when he had to in a situation that was so foreign for him.
Hewitt said he did not feel extra pressure coming in as the defending
Champion, nor did he think any off-court distractions such as the transition of coaching responsibilities and a law suit against the ATP had anything to do with the result.
It came down to the fact that Karlovic picked things up and Hewitt could not secure the advantages.
The loss is going to stay with him for a while and as Wimbledon winds into the second week it will hit Hewitt some more. He says the historical aspect of the loss is not an issue, losing first round at Wimbledon is disappointing any time. He hopes he can learn something from it but it’s too early now to get a handle on that.
"Every loss is different and I’m sure this one’s not going to go away by the end of the week," said a dejected Hewitt.
"I’ll be pretty disappointed for a while. I’ve got to try and get this out of my mind as much as possible. Then again, maybe it can make me more hungry for that last Grand Slam. I’ll have to wait and see."
Straight after Hewitt and Karlovic left the court, Kim Clijsters was on
facing Rosana Neffa De Los Rios and the second seed seemed to have an
appointment to keep. In a mere 32 minutes, one of the fastest results ever, she thrashed the Paraguayan 60 60.
"To have a match like this is obviously great, I was feeling the ball very well," said Clijsters.
Asked how much of a shock was the defeat of her boyfriend, Clijsters said it wasn’t.
She added: "I would love him to win but tennis is tennis. You go
with two on the court and if your opponent is better there’s nothing more you can do, just give yourself 100% and keep fighting till it’s finished.
“As a tennis person you know how hard it is to be out there and to play those first rounds."
Lindsay Davenport advanced in straight sets over Australian wild card
Samantha Stosur while Venus Williams and Roger Federer never allowed the superstitions of Court Two, a.k.a. "The Graveyard", to enter their thoughts and produced some very fine tennis.
Williams disposed of Stanislava Hrozenska 62 62 and Federer beat Korean Hyung-Taik Lee 63 63 76(2).
In the minds of many observers this Wimbledon could be the breakthrough for Andy Roddick. The American who has swapped his sun visor for a baseball cap on the instruction of his new coach Brad Gilbert, because no one has respect for someone wearing a sun visor, defeated Davide Sanguinetti 62 63 63.
"I feel like I have a bit more edge this year than I have in Wimbledons past," said Roddick.
"Sometimes I came in here, knew the surface was good for me, but it’s a matter of doing it as well. After Queen’s I was feeling very confident. I’m pleased with the way I started off here."
Hewitt’s loss was not the only upset as another six seeds failed to
germinate on the grass courts - Fernando Gonzalez (19), Gaston Gaudio (29), Vince Spadea (31), Nikolay Davendenko (33), Patty Schnyder (20) and Anna Pistolesi (25).
If you want to follow the action as it happens, with live scores and results, then please visit the Official Website at www.wimbledon.org.
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