Mr. Ed's Champs & Chumps (November 24, 2001)
by Ed Zafian



This week's column offers congratulations to the new #1 men's player, Lleyton Hewitt and takes one more stab this year at the tennis parents. Taking a cue from the newly extended tennis off-season, this Mr. Ed will be taking a month's break from the columns. The other Mr. Ed will still be traveling "Around the World" to bring you the latest news and stay tuned for On The Line's Annual Year-End Awards coming soon. See you in 2002!

Champs
"King of C'mon" Crowned the New #1

I have to admit that I never thought that Lleyton Hewitt would one day hold the #1 ranking. I have been following the fiery Aussie for years going all the way back to his first tournament title (and his debut at the Scottsdale ATP even where he lost in qualifying and was a hitting partner for his countrymen). Sure he has the showmanship of a Jimmy Connors and the tenacity of a Michael Chang, but these days on the men's tour that does not seem to be enough. But in a year with no player dominating, one has to give credit to Hewitt for capitalizing on the opportunity and putting together the most consistent year of any of the players. Though hurting at year's end (who wasn't?), Hewitt not only moved past a fading Kuerten but capped it of by becoming the first Aussie to win the year-end championships.

Hewitt is certainly at times a hard player to love. The fist-pumping and on-court yells were quaint at first for tennis's version of "Rocky" (Andy Roddick is an example of that these days), but as he rose up the ranks it turned into more of a personal affront to his fellow players. Perhaps in response to the criticism or advice from his team, Hewitt toned it down a bit during the 2001 season. However, he still notched one of the more controversial moments of the tennis year when he appeared to pull out the race card over a close line call during his second round match versus James Blake at the US Open. Remarkably Hewitt weathered that media storm and captured his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows.

So as with most #1 players, the list of Hewitt's accomplishments this year is impressive: a 79-17 win/loss record, six tournament titles, a 17-match winning streak, and $3.7 million in prize money. Hewitt also displaced Jimmy Connors as the youngest ever #1 at 20 years, 9 months. As a key participant in the upcoming Davis Cup final, Hewitt looks to end the year with yet one more success story.


Chumps
Tennis Parents To "Zip It"?

However unlikely, I would like to be writing less about Damir Dokic, Samantha Stevenson, and Richard Williams next year. For regular readers, you know very well that tennis parents have been a continuing sore point for me over the years. For the most part, the daughters have somehow been able to handle their unruly parents impeccably when it comes to their on-court performance. The Williams sisters continue to excel despite their limited schedule, Jelena Dokic had a wonderful latter half of the year and ended the year with a career high Top 10 ranking, and Alexandra Stevenson has returned to the Top 60 after spending much of the year trying to qualify for tournaments and ranked in the 100s.

Perhaps these players somehow thrive on the seemingly negative attention. But one wonders what would happen if they did not have to deal with their parent's actions and words. Prior to traveling abroad after the terrorist attacks, Alexandra Stevenson received some parental advice from the unlikeliest of sources. Alexandra was one of the first (and few) Americans to travel abroad during this time and in telephone conversations quoted in a recent ESPN article Venus Williams expressed dismay over her friend's travel plans. Venus expressed her own reluctance to travel and told Alexandra to be careful and added "tell your mom to zip it." Needless to say, Samantha did not. Upon arriving to Russia prior to the WTA Moscow event she allegedly demanded to speak to Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, when Alexandra's hitting partner was detained by customs. But one can not get over the irony, over the "zip it" comment coming from Venus. One hopes, and certainly this Mr. Ed does, that parents start listening to their children.


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