Hewitt Not Soft But Very, Very Strong

In his occasionally petulant career, Lleyton Hewitt has fireproofed himself against total derision through the brilliance of his tennis - although quite what endorsing a brand of Australian toilet paper will do for his image abroad is not immediately apparent. But this is a country where sporting status is measured in how much money advertisers can throw at an individual for the ritual embarrassment of pretending to be in love with anything from mobile phones (Adam Gilchrist) to second-hand cars (rugby players you've never heard of).

Already, Hewitt is the youngest Australian to have his face on a postage stamp. So let's hear it for toilet paper.

The boy from Adelaide has gone through the other rites of passage peculiar to celebrities. There was the bust-up with the local tennis writers impertinent enough to suggest in his home town that his opponent could play a bit; an unfortunate outburst over a black official at the US Open; and a general air of brattishness that led Alex Corretja to observe last summer: 'Hewitt is an unfriendly guy.' Brad Gilbert said during Hewitt's progress to this year's Wimbledon title that some day someone in the locker room would 'whack the kid'.

Nevertheless, the 21-year-old kid has matured. A little. Maybe 19-year-old Kim Clijsters has had something to do with that. The lookalike girlfriend known Down Under as 'Our Kim' is universally loved in a Kylie sort of way. 'Australia is definitely my second home,' the Belgian said between applause at the Sydney International, a warm-up gig for this week's Australian Open in Melbourne.

It is difficult to understand from a distance what a star Hewitt is in his own country. Up close, you witness the full media overkill. Lleyton and Kim have taken over from the parted 'Nicole and Tom' as the paparazzi's couple of choice at first nights and airports, and, as Clijsters pointed out last week: 'I almost spend more time here than in Belgium.' Tough call there, Kim.

In fact the couple's playing schedule means they meet up only at grand slams and other moments they can squeeze in between major tournaments in the United States. He bought her a set of golf clubs for Christmas, a hint that she might like to join him on the course occasionally.

'I think he plays off six or seven,' she told reporters. 'I'll have to practise a lot [but] it's just too much walking for me. I think you have to walk around for five hours or something. I'd rather go shopping for five hours.'

So, as they polish their lines for a hungry media, go shopping - for golf clubs, toilet paper and whatever else celebrities do not already have too much of - Lleyton and Kim are growing up in public as best they can.

And tennis life could hardly be more perfect for Hewitt. When the glamour is stripped away, when the changing-room sniping is done with, the kid can play a bit. He is rated number one in the world and is a good bet to keep that ranking for a little while yet. It is hardly a shock that he is top seed for this week's Open, the first Australian to be so acknowledged two years in a row. More significantly, if he lives up to his seeding, he will become the first Australian to win his own Open since the unseeded janitor Mark Edmondson beat the number one seed John Newcombe in 1976.

The Open is Australia's version of Wimbledon - seemingly beyond the grasp of the locals. Hewitt, for instance, has never gone farther than the fourth round in six times of trying. Last year, recovering from chickenpox, he went out in the first round to the ordinary Spaniard Alberto Martin. But he comes here having beaten Martin's compatriot, Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-5 7-5 2-6 2-6 6-4 in a dramatic Masters Cup final in front of 9,500 gobsmacked Chinese fans in Shanghai. If ever a tennis match showed Hewitt's fighting spirit it was that one.

He is also the only seeded Australian, man or woman, in the Open, which might surprise those casual observers who imagine that this country is peerless at everything from marbles to cricket.

Hewitt, already a firm favourite, has had his price shortened further as a dozen of the world's leading players have again not bothered to make the journey, all citing injuries from the end of last season. (The patriotic Hewitt has been particularly scathing of the absent Greg Rusedski, slightly kinder about Tim Henman, who is at least trying to get fit for the Davis Cup tie in Sydney in February).

Tennis Australia were last week digging their heels in against suggestions by the International Tennis Federation and several players that their Open be pushed back a few weeks to give everyone a chance to prepare properly. This, said Andre Agassi, who always trains through Christmas, is the reason the likes of Pete Sampras do not take the 15-hour journey from the US. Sure it is.

Hewitt is another training zealot. While others have been earning money in the Sydney International, he has been spending long hours every day in Sydney fine-tuning his game with an array of physios and personal trainers almost as big as the England rugby union team's squad of experts. It is that striving for perfection that separates Hewitt (and Agassi) from the pack. 'That's the thing about Lleyton,' says Clijsters. 'When he walks on the court he wants to win every match he plays.'

Still, if Hewitt sees off the challenge of Agassi, his outrageously talented Sydney clone Todd Reid, and Carlos Moya - who beat him four times out of five last year - the endorsement offers will hit his agent's desk like gold bricks. And this kid is so popular he could get away with pushing haemorrhoid cream... so to speak.