Hewitt's speed

[Hewittfan22]

Has hewitt lost his speed? or hes just not being reconzied as one of the fastest guy on tour cause hes not number 1 anymore. I remember when he was number 1 for two years in a row and he was pretty much dominating the tour, everyone was talking about his foot speed, but not anymore how come?
I dont really see that he has lost his speed he seems just as fast as before. I know he put on some weight but that shouldnt be an excuse caues look at nadal this guy is all musclar and moves around the court like a monkey.
Its just ******* me off that my boy doesnt get mentioned when they talk about players speed on tv, all they talk about is nadal and blake. I will put my money on my boy for 100 meter dash race. what do you think?

 

[Rafa's best friend]

Hewitt had a child, and he lost little bit of the edge so he is not as fast anymore, it is more mental than physical. He used to beat guys on sheer mental determination alone but can no longer muster up that kind of fire and that is what happened. He needs to develop little bigger serve and win his service games little more easily, ala Sebatian Grojean or Marcos Bagdatis, both are shorter guys with huge serves. But then that is easier said than done. Anyway, you need to switch to Pro hurricane tour, it is the best string babolat has ever made, much better than Luxilon.

 

[Nextman916]

Sebastien Grosjean does not have a huge serve.....Ill give Marcos Credit for an above average serve but none are particularly "BIG" servers. (btw you spelled Grosjean's name wrong)

Hewitt in my eyes is just as fast as he once was. Hes still among to top 4 fastest(in order): Monfils, Nadal, Hewitt, Blake. However his game is nowhere as solid as it once was, hes not a dynamic player, his game has always been about getting to every ball to force errors upon his opponent or until he sees an opening to hit a winner, that coupled with his intensity lead him easily to the number 1 rankings a few years back. It was short ended when players picked up on his style and figured how to beat him. Hes still playing the same way he did, and after getting married and settling down with a kid his motifs have changed. To me honestly i think Hewitt knows hes never going to break into the top 10 ever again, it shows that he isnt showing much effort to alter his game, although its tough several players have done this before. To do this you have to have dedication to the sport which i think Hewitt has lost some. I believe tennis is still his part passion and hes still striving to get a good break and win a couple more titles until he retires. Maybe he wants to go down in history for a player that did something, not just some one time wonder who sunk down to never recover(like Safin).

 

[maverick66]

Sebastien Grosjean does not have a huge serve.....Ill give Marcos Credit for an above average serve but none are particularly "BIG" servers. (btw you spelled Grosjean's name wrong)

grosjean has a very effective serve trust me i see him all the time. wouldnt call him a big server but he gets everything he can out of it. the problem with hewitt is he relaxed. hes not as a bad an a-hole out there. when he was winning everyone hated him but what does he care hes winning. now hes doing reality tv and married to an actress. these are distractions he doesnt need. if he would refocus he could be top 5 and fighting for number 2.

 

[Hewittfan22]

true true
hey rafa's best friend, yes i did try the hurricane tour and i liked it a lot but i still dont think any kind of polyester strings plays better than luxilon alu power 16L

 

[superman1]

His speed has diminished a bit. I think part of it is just that he has mellowed and he doesn't fight as hard to get to the ball. He's also putting less on his shots these days. I think Federer has pretty much taken the soul out of him. Back in 2005, he was the second or third best player in the world for most of the year. Since then he has just been crap.

 

[Lleytian3]

His speed has diminished a bit. I think part of it is just that he has mellowed and he doesn't fight as hard to get to the ball. He's also putting less on his shots these days. I think Federer has pretty much taken the soul out of him. Back in 2005, he was the second or third best player in the world for most of the year. Since then he has just been crap.

Whoa you obviously don't know lleyton hewitt at all. Hewitt is one of the top fighters out there, and i don't know how you can say he doesnt "fight" as hard anymore. he puts a lot of fight out there, and still is one of the best competitors in the game.

Federer hasnt taken the soul out of him. Not in the least. Hewitt mental determination and fight is what won him his GS. And no one can take away his will and determination.

He has been crap since 05 huh. So winning queens this past year, taking a set off the clay court chamo at FO. Doin well in all the slams cept AO. thats crap. How soon you forget hewitt was injured for most of the latter half of the year, but still went deep in the USO. how? his will. and fight.

We soon forget that hewitt jus had a kid, and you think he is goin to bounce back like nothin happened. He has a family that he has to take care of now, and family is more important than tennis. Period. Hewitt is going to bounce back next year, for sure, and when he does, watch out. He will be top 5 next year, for sure

 

[fishuuuuu]

Sebastien Grosjean does not have a huge serve.....Ill give Marcos Credit for an above average serve but none are particularly "BIG" servers. (btw you spelled Grosjean's name wrong)

Hewitt in my eyes is just as fast as he once was. Hes still among to top 4 fastest(in order): Monfils, Nadal, Hewitt, Blake. However his game is nowhere as solid as it once was, hes not a dynamic player, his game has always been about getting to every ball to force errors upon his opponent or until he sees an opening to hit a winner, that coupled with his intensity lead him easily to the number 1 rankings a few years back. It was short ended when players picked up on his style and figured how to beat him. Hes still playing the same way he did, and after getting married and settling down with a kid his motifs have changed. To me honestly i think Hewitt knows hes never going to break into the top 10 ever again, it shows that he isnt showing much effort to alter his game, although its tough several players have done this before. To do this you have to have dedication to the sport which i think Hewitt has lost some. I believe tennis is still his part passion and hes still striving to get a good break and win a couple more titles until he retires. Maybe he wants to go down in history for a player that did something, not just some one time wonder who sunk down to never recover(like Safin).

In any case Safin is a two shot wonder thrashing Sampras and beating Federer later.

 

[Grimjack]

I will put my money on my boy for 100 meter dash race. what do you think?

I think you'd better be prepared to lose your money. Short white guys with longish torsos and shortish legs don't make good sprinters. In fact, they make embarrassing sprinters.

Hewitt has, at times, been called "the fastest player in the game." He wasn't. Ever.

Ditto for Chang.

What these guys were is quick. They could get moving in a shorter time than anyone, and get up to maximum accelleration in a shorter time than anyone. I have no doubt in my mind that the time it would take Hewitt to track down a randomly hit shot would be on the order of twice as fast as Carl Lewis could have done it.

But that doesn't mean Hewitt is/was faster. You need only an iota of common sense and two seconds to look at their respective bodies to know that this is undeniably true. Speed matters practically not at all in tennis. The court isn't big enough, and the points aren't played on a scale that really stretches one to maximum speed. Indeed, if one were to try to run at maximum speed -- a full-body task, I assure you -- one could no more perform a decent tennis stroke than play the bagpipes. A shot that truly stretches one's sprinting abilitities (which is to say, is located where you can only get to it with the maximum possible exertion, minus that little bit it would take to prepare the racquet to flick it back, and which you notice all this about in the psychological time necessary to make a go of it) comes maybe once a year. I can't remember the last time I saw a tennis match with a player in full sprint.

What tennis players do when they run from shot to shot -- even when they are extended -- is better described as either a brisk jog (side to side) or a scramble (for a dropshot, say). If you're on the baseline, and need to retrieve a dropper in a hurry, speed isn't important. There's not enough space there for speed to be important. You need average speed and mind-blowing quickness. 0-to-60 asap.

Hewitt's quickness, and Chang's quickness are bona fide weapons, and not any less important than speed to a football player. But when talk turns to "little quick guys" winning hypothetical races, it's just silly. I could go outside onto the streets of Chicago all day, and I probably couldn't find a single person quicker than Hewitt. I could go out for ten minutes, and find 100 guys who would smoke Hewitt in any sprint 50m or longer.

 

[superman1]

I agree with that. Hewitt scrambles a lot for a guy that is supposedly a road runner, but the point is that he gets to every ball. You can't get by the guy.

But how do you explain his poor results lately? And yes, they ARE poor for his standards. Hewitt was at one point the man to beat, now he's outside the top 10 and not even talked about anymore. Obviously something is wrong. I saw him live in February and he looked like a shrimp. Back in the Aussie Open '05, he actually pulled off wearing muscle shirts. Now he'd look ridiculous in one. Obviously the man is not working as hard, and I can't blame him.

 

[Hewittfan22]

totally agree with Lleytial3 thank you for standing up for my boy lol
not too many people does that

 

[Nextman916]

grosjean has a very effective serve trust me i see him all the time. wouldnt call him a big server but he gets everything he can out of it. the problem with hewitt is he relaxed. hes not as a bad an a-hole out there. when he was winning everyone hated him but what does he care hes winning. now hes doing reality tv and married to an actress. these are distractions he doesnt need. if he would refocus he could be top 5 and fighting for number 2.

True, Grosjean is a talented player, probably one of the best bh slices ive ever seen. But its besides the point that you claimed he was a "huge server" which he is nothing of the sort.

 

[psamp14]

Whoa you obviously don't know lleyton hewitt at all. Hewitt is one of the top fighters out there, and i don't know how you can say he doesnt "fight" as hard anymore. he puts a lot of fight out there, and still is one of the best competitors in the game.

Federer hasnt taken the soul out of him. Not in the least. Hewitt mental determination and fight is what won him his GS. And no one can take away his will and determination.

He has been crap since 05 huh. So winning queens this past year, taking a set off the clay court chamo at FO. Doin well in all the slams cept AO. thats crap. How soon you forget hewitt was injured for most of the latter half of the year, but still went deep in the USO. how? his will. and fight.

We soon forget that hewitt jus had a kid, and you think he is goin to bounce back like nothin happened. He has a family that he has to take care of now, and family is more important than tennis. Period. Hewitt is going to bounce back next year, for sure, and when he does, watch out. He will be top 5 next year, for sure

right on lleytian3, right on...

i think hewitt is training hard already and will start off very strong at the AO in 2007, like he did in 2005, and he will go deeper than he did this year at the slams, ...deeper than 2nd rd at AO, 4th rd at RG, qtrs at wimbledon and USO...

 

[armand]

Didn't Hewitt have a knee injury?

Besides that, Hewitt's not a young tennis player any longer. There is a lot of wear+tear going on in a tennis players life. That absolutely takes its toll.

I've noticed even Federer isn't as fast/quick[Grimjack] as he once was.

 

[capriatifanatic]

Hewitt in my eyes is just as fast as he once was. Hes still among to top 4 fastest(in order): Monfils, Nadal, Hewitt, Blake.

Monfils one of the 4 fastest on tour, ROTFL!!! Everyone assumes Monfils is a better athlete then he is because of his height and build. Monfils is actually a clumsy looking mover. The 5 fastest guys on tour are Nadal, Hewitt, Federer, Blake, and Coria.

 

[Morrissey]

Monfils one of the 4 fastest on tour, ROTFL!!! Everyone assumes Monfils is a better athlete then he is because of his height and build. Monfils is actually a clumsy looking mover. The 5 fastest guys on tour are Nadal, Hewitt, Federer, Blake, and Coria.

I think I'd agree with that. Now who would be the 5 slowest? At least in the top 50.

 

[capriatifanatic]

I think I'd agree with that. Now who would be the 5 slowest? At least in the top 50.

Off the top of my head Karlovic, Ljubicic, Phillipousis, Dent, and Fish(I still think of Phillipousis like a top 50).

 

[Rafa's best friend]

I want to see Hewitt swear at Federer and challenge him to a fight, that is kind of fire he needs to win once again....

 

[capriatifanatic]

Hewitt isnt as intense out there as he used to be period, it does not matter who he is playing. I think he is scared of Roger as well, Roger knows this and if Hewitt p$ssed him off he would probably hit balls even harder and crush him even more.

 

[Rafa's best friend]

hewitt a fighter

Hewitt must want to destroy federer and his family and that is only way to win.

 

[Bjorn99]

Federer isn't as fast as he once was? WOW, when did you notice that? No one else has. In fact thanks to that clip of him playing Henman I think everyone here now knows just how much this guy has IMPROVED. Like no one else. Lot of work has been done obviously for him to make that kind of an improvement.

 

[ragnaROK]

Grosjean isn't a big server, but he does have an effective kick serve. Watch him live sometime.

 

[Lleytian3]

Hewitt isnt as intense out there as he used to be period, it does not matter who he is playing. I think he is scared of Roger as well, Roger knows this and if Hewitt p$ssed him off he would probably hit balls even harder and crush him even more.

SCARED!?!? Have you lost it? Hewitt scared, that is like saying federer isn't that good of a tennis player.

Hewitt is scared of no one, and i mean no one. He is a fighter, and a scrapper, not only on the court. Roger couldn't crush hewitt even more, if hewitt pissed him off. Because roger likes hewitt.

Dont be saying your idiotic stuff on this again. Especially coming from somone who likes capriati, and look at her now, fat obese and ugly. Pathetic.

 

[isuk@tennis]

Roger couldn't crush hewitt even more, if hewitt pissed him off. Because roger likes hewitt.

did roger start liking hewitt after he double bageled him in the us open final?

 

[Hewittfan22]

umm lets not bring that up ever again please, its a history

 

[Hewittfan22]

its not as bad as once hyun-taik lee of korea almost got triple bagled by agassi at AO one time. The score was 6-0 6-1 6-0 i think

 

[CanadianChic]

Who's Lleyton Hewitt? Kidding!! Seriously I don't know how much the speed factor has to do with the fact that he just had a baby or the fact that his ass is getting tossed out of almost every tournament in like the first or second round. It seems that whenever a player gets a bit of a life, their stats start to suffer - but hey, what's more important? So he had obviously slid a little, but what he's gained is I'm sure worth it, no. Really though, if y'all believe his game is suffering because he's lacking sleep due to breast feeding and diaper changing, y'all can think again. Someone else has that job - he's just taking a little time off. I'm sure his speed will return when he's ready to get back into it - it just seems his heart isn't in the game right now. Maybe he's ready to move on. Good luck to whatever he decides to settle on.

 

[Punisha]

if i had her for a wife id stay home and tap it more than play tennis too

 

[Lleytian3]

did roger start liking hewitt after he double bageled him in the us open final?

I don't think a score has anythin to do with having respect for a person you idiot.

 

[Lleyton Hewitt]

anyone think hewitt will bounce back up into the top 5 ? he did it last time when he dropped down the ranks after karlovic beat him can he do it again ? I think all will be answered at the aussie open.

 

[flying24]

I think the top 5 is open to alot of players. Outside of Federer and Nadal nobody is solidified there at all. If Davydenko and Ljubicic are there lots of guys have a shot to be there. Nalbandian is even shaky and underperforming right now.