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Novak Djokovic Meets Lleyton Hewitt For Quarterfinal Spot
By Richard Pagliaro
© Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA
(June 25, 2010) Novak Djokovic calls grass his most demanding surface. The degree of difficulty Wimbledon's lawns pose is about to grow dramatically when Djokovic takes on tennis' lawn mower man for place in the quarterfinals.
A resurgent Lleyton Hewitt continued his spirited run on grass and will take on Djokovic in a fourth-round battle of former Grand Slam champions on Monday.
"If I go out there the way that I've been playing and hitting the ball, I can give him a run for his money," said Hewitt.
The 2002 Wimbledon winner stretched his grass-court win streak to eight matches in dissecting the elastic and endlessly entertaining Gael Monfils, 6-3, 7-6(9), 6-4.
The 29-year-old Hewitt, who rallied from a set down to beat Roger Federer in the Halle final earlier this month, scored his 101st career grass-court win, the most among any man still standing in the field, including six-time Wimbledon champion Federer.
Djokovic played perhaps his best match in months in overwhelming 28th-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
Former Australian Open champ Djokovic has already gone head-to-head with Hewitt during this fortnight — in the locker room as Australia upset Serbia in the World Cup.
"We joked around in the locker room. He said, 'What, we are not good enough for you guys now?' " Djokovic said. "No, no, of course, I mean, they deserved to win because they were the ones who were attacking."
London's lawns are far removed from the South African pitch, but the sentiment may be the same for this fourth-round meeting. The player that takes care of serve — and both served well today though both are vulnerable to producing low first-serve percentages and growing double faults — and takes the first strike in rallies should have the edge.
That was the case in their last meeting at Wimbledon as Djokovic served 71 percent compared to 50 percent for Hewitt and had 17 aces, 10 more than Hewitt, in a
7-6(8), 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(5) fourth-round win three years ago. Djokovic, who has beat Hewitt three times in four matches, went on to reach the final four that year.
Though he's been plagued by a hitch in his serve that has made that once formidable stroke fairly flaky, Djokovic believes his serve is going "in the right direction" — in the service box.
"I'm happy with the way my serve goes right now, comparing to the serve that I had in last couple of months that I struggled with," Djokovic said. "I know everything that has been going on. It's been more of the mental fight. But it's going in the right direction. It's giving me now more confidence on my service games. I'm getting more free points. That's what matters."
Hewitt has played with pure passion during his winning run and raised the emotional stakes considerably after saving three set points in the second-set tie breaker.
The long-armed Hewitt used his reach to end a lengthy baseline rally in ripping a forehand winner down the line to save the third set point. Changing direction again, Hewitt drove a backhand down the line to draw an error.
Depositing a brilliant drop volley winner that softly settled into the line, a fired-up Hewitt leaned low, looked at wife Bec Cartwright in the support box, and pulled the rip cord on his imaginary lawn mower to celebrate the second set win.
Djokovic calls grass his most demanding surface and it's been Hewitt's most successful surface in recent years. In addition to his win over David Nalbandian in the 2002 final, Hewitt has won Queen's Club four times and Halle once.
"He's been a little bit up and down over the years," Hewitt said of Djokovic. "I played him at Queen's once the year that he made the final against Rafa at Queen's. I thought he played bloody well on grass that year in particular.Then he came and lost to Safin second round I think here at Wimbledon, which was surprising. So he's been a little bit up and down on grass."
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