Athletes are sometimes vain, narcissistic, definitely have a high opinion of themselves, usually arrogant, and in the twilight of their careers they make stupid calls, often embarrassing themselves and others when things don’t go according to [their] plan.
The way I see it, if a hockey, football, baseball, tennis, or soccer (really, just pick a sport) player can no longer cut the mustard because their talent and skill is diminished through injury and/or age, and it is obvious to the professional athlete, never mind sports fans like myself, than he or she should just suck it up and exit gracefully instead of not admitting that they are just not good enough anymore.
Why stick around and embarrass oneself when one no longer has the right stuff to play at an elite level? There’s nothing like exiting a career gracefully rather than being embarrassed out of [that] career.
Tennis pro Lleyton Hewitt should be asking himself that question instead of living in the lalaland that makes him think he can still compete at an elite level.
Not even thirty years of age yet, and as far as his tennis career goes, it has all but bottomed out, whether he is ranked inside the top 100 or not. Injuries have taken their toll on Hewitt during the past couple of years, and a result of the those injuries he is no longer able to compete with his peers at the best of times, but don’t tell him that.
Not that Hewitt was as good a tennis player as he was hyped to be to begin with, but for 75 weeks beginning in November 2001, he was ranked number one at just 20 years of age, and expectations were high for him. Of course he hasn’t lived up to those expectations in my opinion.
He has been able to play some good tennis over the years, but 8 years after being number one he is ranked no higher than 59, and I’m of the opinion that he’ll be lucky if he manages to make it in the top 30 in what is left of his career. Honesty, I don’t see him breaking into the top 50 now that he has recovered from hip surgery. I definitely don’t see any more championships in his future either.
Other than the early part of his career, the guy really hasn’t amounted to too much. Sure he has been a part of or has Australia’s Davis Cup team, who last won that championship 5 years ago, and while he is still a member of the team, the way it is looking for Australia’s Davis Cup team these days, they are a long way from bringing home another championship.
Thinking about it, Hewitt hasn’t been able to accomplish much since Australia’s last Davis Cup championship. That’s 5 long years of nothing for Hewitt.
In the past 5 years Hewitt has managed to win 9 tournaments, none of which were Grand Slam events, the last one being in Las Vegas 2 years ago. He has managed to win a fair amount of cash during those 5 years, but since 2006 his earning capacity on hard, clay and grass courts has diminished, and I really doubt future tournament winnings are going to amount to too much.
I really don’t see why Hewitt feels he needs to stay in the game anymore, he has nothing more to prove, and realistically speaking he has nothing more to gain.
He just doesn’t have [it] in him anymore and he is to self-absorbed and high on himself to admit that.
He should seriously consider packing away his tennis gear for good and choose another career path because the longer he stays in tennis in the form that he is, the more embarrassing it is going to be for him when he is FORCED to retire by some of the younger guns coming up through the ranks. Like I said, injury and age have taken it’s toll on Hewitt.
The way DSOS sees it, right now and the way it has been for the past couple of years (Las Vegas win in 2006 being the exception) Hewitt doesn’t have what it takes to continue competing with the best of the best coming up through the ATP, and those at the top.
It’s too bad Hewitt is too vain to see that for himself.
And what about his coach Tony Roche, if he was any kind of a friend to Hewitt, he would take Hewitt aside and talk some sense into him instead of living vicariously through Hewitt. Roche himself knows that Hewitt can no longer compete at the level that saw him win one U.S Open and Wimbledon Championship, and he certainly knows that he is no longer capable of competing at a level that will allow him to maintain a top 50 ranking, never mind top 10 one.
Roche knows that after 10 years on the pro circuit Hewitt doesn’t have what it is going to take to take on and defeat the cream of the crop anymore and the only reason Roche isn’t doing anything to help Hewitt see the light is because he needs the pay check. He doesn’t care one way or the other if Hewitt is embarrassed out of the sport or exits gracefully just as long as Hewitt continues to pay him for his coaching services, which when it comes right down to his coaching, amounts to very little.
Hewitt needs to get out of the game, and he knows that, but his pride is getting in the way.
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