I just had to get out: Hewitt
From Dave James in Paris
November 06, 2004
LLEYTON Hewitt today admitted that Paris proved to be the perfect bolthole
when his romance with Kim Clijsters hit the rocks last month.
The Australian, who has steadfastly refused to comment on the split with
the Belgian former world No.1, whom he was planning to marry in February,
temporarily let his guard down after being knocked out of the Paris Masters.
"I just had to get out of Australia, to tell you the truth," said Hewitt
after his 6-4 7-6 (7-2) quarter-final loss to Russia's Marat Safin.
"That's why I was in Paris early. I had nowhere left to practise so I thought
I would come here.
"But the courts weren't laid at Bercy, so I was at Roland Garros for a week.
Yeah, Paris is a nice place to be and ... I am happy that my game went up a
notch."
Meanwhile, Hewitt also believes Paris can help him and his countrymen lead
a revival in tennis in Australia where leading players, with the exception
of himself, are beginning to fall by the wayside.
Only Hewitt, at No.3, commands a place in the world's top 80, with veteran
Wayne Arthurs at 81, the unproven Todd Reid at 98 and the declining Mark
Philippoussis at 105.
Hewitt believes that the clay courts of Roland Garros could hold the key to
nurturing the next generation, and he has backed reported calls made by
doubles specialist Todd Woodbridge for Australia to replace some synthetic
grass courts with clay.
"It's something we need to do because even with the game that I have, I'm
not a natural clay court player purely because I didn't grow up on it,"
"I think it is lot easier for the good players to adjust if they are a clay
court specialist, to adjust to playing hard courts and grass courts rather
than vice versa.
"I try my best, but I'm not quite there movement wise purely because I
haven't grown up on that surface. The movement on clay is totally different.
I move like a hardcourt player."
Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald is also pushing to have more
clay courts built in the country to wean players off their reliance on
faster surfaces.
"John has put in a big push to try and get more clay courts. We have a lot
of synthetic grass, especially in Sydney," said Hewitt.
"But then again, to get European clay in Australia, it's pretty expensive.
So the best thing we can probably do is try and get a couple of courts in
each state right at the moment and get the best kids hitting on that from
a young age."
休伊特巴黎首談分手事件 渴望也能成為紅土專家
2004年11月06日17:40
新浪體育訊 儘管輸掉了與薩芬的比賽，也丟掉了在巴黎晉升為世界NO.2的希望，但
是休伊特明顯正在慢慢走出被克裏斯特爾斯“通知”分手的心理陰影，因為在賽後的發佈
會上他主動談到了這件事情，而在巴黎面對記者顯得這麼坦誠他還是第一次。
休伊特首先承認巴黎的確是他躲避這場感情災難的最佳場所，“坦白地說，我那時不
得不儘快離開澳大利亞，這也是為什麼我這麼早來到巴黎的原因，我實在是找不到其他可
以投入訓練的地方，因此我認為自己應該來這。但是由於比賽還未開始，訓練場館也沒有
開放，我只能先到羅蘭加洛斯去待了一個星期。巴黎是個非常棒的城市，儘管我今天輸了
球，但是我還是很高興自己發揮出了不錯的水平。”
休伊特目前已是澳大利亞男子網球界的唯一希望，自拉夫特選擇退役，菲力浦西斯在
去年重新煥發精神氣卻又在今年跌入第二次職業生涯低谷之後，萊頓已是同胞中唯一一個
世界排名在 ATP前80位的選手。對此，休伊特表示，澳大利亞網協是時候做出一些戰略性
調整了，就他個人而言，休伊特建議應將澳洲國內眾多的草地球場改成紅土球場，而這能
夠讓年輕一輩的澳大利亞小選手們從小就能夠非常全面的訓練，就好比法國和西班牙的小
選手們常年在本國的紅土賽場上訓練一樣。
對此休伊特表示，“我認為這是我們必須做出改變的，因為即使我在紅土場上的表現
並不能算是太差，但是我並不是個純粹的紅土場選手，因為我不是從小就在那裏訓練的。
我認為對於那些被認為紅土場專家的優秀選手來說，他們在打法網這類比賽時顯然更容易
適應和出好成績，相比之下，適應在硬地賽場和草地賽場上比賽則要簡單得多。要知道在
紅土場上比賽是非常不同的，尤其是步伐在移動時的調整，儘管每次比賽時我都盡了自己
的全力去比賽，但是顯得還不能做到最好，因為我在移動時就像還是在硬地賽場上打球，
而這顯得對比賽並沒有太多幫助。”
澳大利亞大衛斯杯代表隊的隊長約翰 -費茲傑拉德和雙打好手伍德布裏奇對此均表示
了肯定，他們認為澳大利亞國內的確需要建設更多的紅土球場。休伊特對此表示，“約翰
為此做了非常多的努力，他曾說過要解除年輕選手們對於快速球場的過多依賴。但是現實
是我們擁有太多的人工草地球場了，尤其是在悉尼。不過令人頭疼的一個問題是，如果要
把歐洲的紅土搬至澳大利亞，顯然成本費用非常高，因此目前最好的選擇就是在各地各州
都能分佈一些紅土場地，這樣孩子們就能在很小的時候就能儘早適應在紅土場比賽的感覺
。”
--
(小聲唸)之前不是"I've got no comment, mate," fired back Hewitt.
現在終於侃侃而談了阿....:>
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