Some time has gone since Lleyton Hewitt was compared to Bjorn Borg for his foot movement, after raising US Open cup in 2001 over Pete Sampras. 20 years old, he already looked like a veteran on the Tour. The illusion was to continue: the Wimbledon triumph, two Masters Cups and two year-end n.1 spots in a row… Lleyton must have thought he could sit back and relax for a moment.

But he chose a bad year. 2003: the upcoming of the new generation. Federer, Roddick, Ferrero. One year later Nadal’s explosion, to end an era with no real leadership. That’s how Lleyton’s dream to become a tennis legend faded away. He let the momentum go, in a sport where you can never lose your grip on your opponents.

Yesterday, a claycourter like Agustin Calleri was enough to beat Hewitt in the second round of the US Open, his beloved tournament, where he had never gone out so early. A perfect match with 65 winners for the Argentine.

But would the Hewitt we all knew, the one who used to scream “C’mon” even after the first point of the match, ever lose on hardcourt to a player he had always beaten comfortably before, the last time even on clay earlier this year in Hamburg? There was a time when the Autralian seemed to have put his bad moment behind him.

In 2005 he had climbed back the rankings up to the third place in the world and he looked the only real threat to Roger Federer, along with Safin. But after his fatherhood, his fighting spirit has definitely gone.

Or maybe Lleyton has thought it’s no longer time to act as the bad boy.

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