Lleyton Hewitt’s final singles match, a quietly inexorable 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 loss to David Ferrer in Rod Laver Arena, was not one to add to his all-time highlight reel. The two aging workhorses did what they’ve done for decades: They set up camp at the baseline and ran each other from side to side; they rallied and rallied until Hewitt could rally no more. Yet there was a moment that, in its blend of defiance and fragility, summed up Hewitt’s career, and showed us again what made him an athlete to cheer and emulate.
It came roughly halfway through, and represented his last serious chance of turning a rout into a contest. Ferrer was serving up a break, at 4-3 in the second set. To that point, he had been in total control, and had even kept the restless Aussie Fanatics stuck in their seats. You had the feeling that it was now-or-never time for Hewitt, and apparently he had the same feeling. Hewitt bore down and began to turn the rallies in his favor for the first time. When he moved forward and put a volley away to reach break point, he pumped his fist and the crowd roared in response. Ferrer, who subsequently missed his first serve, looked like he might be rattled. As he tossed the ball for his second serve, Hewitt bent low and prepared to pounce.
And then he didn't pounce. Instead, as the ball spun into his strike zone, Hewitt took a tentative swipe at a forehand and dropped the ball into the middle of the net. He let out a groan, and the air went back out of the stadium.
That wasn’t the end of Hewitt’s push, of course. Again, at deuce, he moved forward and ended the point with a forehand winner. And again, on break point, he retreated and let Ferrer eventually hit the forehand winner. The pattern would be repeated seven times in all; each time Hewitt stepped forward aggressively at deuce, and each time he took a step back when he had a chance to break. The forehands that found the corner on one point would find the net on the next. After one of those misses, Hewitt’s mother, Cherilyn, flashed a wry smile before she went back to urging her son on. She’d seen this movie before, and she probably had a pretty good idea of how it was going to end.