★★★★★ 0/5

Nailbiter as Hewitt goes down

It stretched on for nearly five hours, but finally Lleyton Hewitt succumbed to the might of Argentina's David Nalbandian.

30
Leave a comment

Tennis fans were given a marathon session last night as Lleyton Hewitt and Argentinian David Nalbandian battled at the Australian Open centre court.

The match stretched on for nearly five hours, ending just before 1:10am AEDT.

In the end Hewitt was defeated 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 9-7 but the game dragged on unable to split the two tennis stars. No sooner would one hit the front did the other match them. Even at the eleventh hour in the fifth set it appeared that Hewitt could snatch victory.

The see-saw battle saw the game stretch on and on before a pensive crowd until the Argentinian finally triumphed.

Hewitt’s demise leaves Bernard Tomic the last remaining Australian in the men’s singles draw, which is bad news for Seven.

Seven may yet be in for a viewer backlash as viewers outside Sydney and Melbourne were forced to watch the nailbiter on delay. It would have ensured a very late night for sports fans right around the country, but will almost certainly result in bumper ratings for the network today.

Hewitt, whose 2005 Australian Open final is still the highest rated show since OzTAM ratings began, will also commentate for Seven.

30 Responses

  3. What Secret Squirrel chose to leave out in his/her post was the fact Nalbandian has suffered much worse injuries than hewitt in the last 12 months and in fact played even less then Hewitt. Hewitt stated he is fitter and never more prepared for AO at the start of the tournament. Nalbandian stated he still felt “underdone”. So Hewitt’s loss says a lot more than at first glance.

  4. He’s a spent force. Time to give some exposure to some younger players and hopefully he will retire gracefully rather than a slow, steady decline that will be painful to watch.

Leave a Reply