WA star hails Hewitt's big heart
When Lleyton Hewitt takes the court this week for what could be his Davis Cup and WA swan song, one spectator will be more emotional than most.
Lesley Hunt, 64, the highest-ranked WA-born tennis player ever, led Hewitt on several overseas tours with national teams when he was a teenager.
Hunt also won the 1971 Federation Cup, the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup, with Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong in Perth.
After a 15-year career in which she was ranked as high as world No. 7, she came to know a young, up-and-coming Hewitt.
This weekend, Hewitt, 33, and his apprentice Nick Kyrgios, 19, will headline Australia's elimination tie against Uzbekistan at the Cottesloe Tennis Club.
Hunt gave a rare insight into the man who would become world No. 1 before he arrived with his famous catchcry 'Come on'.
"What a brilliant little boy he was," she said. "He was small but he had so much courage and I admired him so much.
"There were many players who could hit the ball as well as Lleyton. The difference was he refused to give up.
"He was just madly interested in gaining tennis knowledge and getting the best out of every bit of advice. He was a great role model for the others."
Hunt said she had been upset to see some fans mistake his self-encouragement for bad sportsmanship early in his career.
"He had to pump himself up and that's how he did it," she said.
"With his size, if he didn't have a gigantic heart, how was he going to compete against guys much taller and heavier than him?"
Hunt relished the opportunity to play for her country, just as Hewitt always has, especially at home.
Just over 43 years ago, she was part of the Australian Federation Cup team that dominated France and Great Britain at Royal Kings Park Tennis Club.
"I remember looking up in the stands and seeing so many familiar faces beaming at me," she said. "It felt like I was in heaven.
"I was very experienced by then and I wasn't expecting to be hit with that much emotion.
"I still have little vignette dreams about it."
Hunt, who once spent a year in the US as Farrah Fawcett's personal tennis coach, now teaches grassroots tennis at South Mandurah Tennis Club.
"I'm going to bring as many kids as I can to the Davis Cup so they can see the passion," she said. "Uzbekistan will be ready to cause an upset and we'll have our old champion and our new champion ready to stop them.
"Lleyton deserves everyone to get down here and cheer him on."
