Lleyton Hewitt won another tennis match yesterday at the U.S. Open, but lost the respect of many fans. His 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 second-round rally past Yonkers native James Blake had the mark of a champion; his whining and racism had the sound of a loser.
The 20-year-old Australian showed both his prodigious talent and his petulant nature, complaining and showboating throughout the match. He had linesman Marion Johnson moved, implying that he had shown favoritism towards Blake, who, like Johnson, is black.
After Hewitt was called for two foot-faults down 2-1 in the third set, he pointed at the line judge, then at Blake, and said, “Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is,” in complaint to chair ump Andreas Egli, whom he’d called a spastic at the French Open.
Blake outplayed Hewitt until the former cramped and became visibly sick in the fourth set. Blake lost that set and was immobile in dropping the fifth set. Afterwards, Hewitt claimed neither his complaints nor his comparison were racially-motivated.
“It had nothing to do with racial, mate. I don’t think I said anything racial. It was a conversation between me and the umpire,” he said. “I come from a multicultural country. I’m not racial at all. People can have their own opinions. There was nothing racial said out there at all.
“I got two foot-faults at one end. I asked if the guy could be moved. The umpire said yes. Normally in the past I would ask for a guy to get moved totally off the court. I get foot-faulted two times at one end and none at the other, something [is wrong].”
There was indeed something wrong with Hewitt’s common sense, and with Blake’s stomach. The fourth-seeded Hewitt looked out of sync for much of the match, and the Connecticut-raised Blake dominated in front of a capacity crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Blake played aggressively, but he began to suffer from the heat and humidity. He got sick between games in the fourth set and had to call for a trainer from Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Hewitt, who turned the crowd against him by screaming, “Come On! Come On!” and by sniveling about several line calls, broke Blake’s serve to open the fifth set.
After that, Blake hardly moved around the court and Hewitt polished off the last wild card, earning a third-round date with No. 25 seed Albert Portas.
Blake didn’t forget what he heard or saw on the court; but he did forgive.
“It probably didn’t occur to him that I heard it. He said there was a similarity between the line judge and myself,” Blake said. “I’m definitely going to give him the benefit of the doubt, because it’s in competition. You’re doing anything you can to win the match. You probably don’t mean it. You feel like it’s not who you really are.
“I did hear it on the changeover and looked up. I then looked over to the umpire – not to the chair umpire, but to the umpire he was referring to.”