Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the sit Down.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Trolope, a rat an editor for oz open
Speaker 1: dot com.
Speaker 2: And I'm Vic Runikov, a producer here at Tennis Australia
Speaker 2: and the Australian Open. And you might not know who
Speaker 2: I am because I am actually filling in for Viv
Speaker 2: who is currently at Roland Garross.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're missing Viv over at Roland Garross. But great
Speaker 1: to have you in the studio with his.
Speaker 2: Vic and Matt. Why are we sitting down with Leydon
Speaker 2: Hewitt this week?
Speaker 1: Well, actually, Vick, it wasn't us sitting down with Layton, Hiwart.
Speaker 1: It was Todd Woodbridge in the interviewer's chair and he
Speaker 1: got a chance to interview Layton at the recent night
Speaker 1: of Champions in the Plaza Ballroom under Melbourne's Region Theater.
Speaker 1: And this was an opportunity to reflect on Layton's glittering
Speaker 1: career spanned like twenty years, right back to when he
Speaker 1: was a teenager coming onto the scene really early with
Speaker 1: his Adelaide title and then went through his doubles triumphs
Speaker 1: and Grand Slam singles titles and his Davis Cup success.
Speaker 1: This was a chance for Layton to like go back
Speaker 1: in time and reflect on all of those amazing career
Speaker 1: moments with a lot of candor and a lot of
Speaker 1: incredible men more ease of that time. So, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is a really great opportunity for us to listen to
Speaker 1: one of the greats of Australian tennis to talk about
Speaker 1: an amazing journey.
Speaker 2: And how special that Todd was able to do the
Speaker 2: interview as well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, here's what Layton had to say.
Speaker 3: Well, ladies and gentlemen, how impressive are the numbers, the
Speaker 3: stats and you sometimes forget time moves quickly and you
Speaker 3: look back at it and it's quite an extraordinary career
Speaker 3: that Leighton was able to build. Would you please welcome
Speaker 3: welcome him to the stage, Layton Hewitt, have a seed.
Speaker 3: Thank you, it's great to see you, by the way, Thanks.
Speaker 3: Unusual for us to be hanging out in May together.
Speaker 3: That's that's not a tennis season. It certainly you didn't
Speaker 3: get the chance to see that video package just then,
Speaker 3: but it just highlighted everything you know in your career.
Speaker 4: And we're going to go through that tonight.
Speaker 3: We're going to take him from the very beginning all
Speaker 3: the way to where he is now, but just a
Speaker 3: bit of a quick reflection upon you know, some of
Speaker 3: the things that were up there, like eighty weeks of
Speaker 3: world number one, some major wins.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, it's.
Speaker 5: Something as a kid growing up that you don't think about.
Speaker 5: It's a dream really growing up in Adelaide, and you know,
Speaker 5: you want to get the most out of yourself and
Speaker 5: give yourself an opportunity to potentially get to the pinnacle
Speaker 5: of our sport.
Speaker 4: But not in my wildest dreams that I think I'd
Speaker 4: be able to achieve it. And well it's a good way.
Speaker 3: I'm going to stop you right there, excuse me, But
Speaker 3: the wildest dreams is a really lovely segue for me
Speaker 3: to get things started, because I want to take you
Speaker 3: back to that sixteen year old in Adelaide, rank five
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty in the world, and we're going to
Speaker 3: take a look at some vision.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 6: The sixteen year old had claimed some big scalps on
Speaker 6: his way to the semi finals. Now he was after
Speaker 6: one of the biggest of them all.
Speaker 4: That is a sensational shot by.
Speaker 6: The pressure mounted as the first set went to tiebreaker,
Speaker 6: but the teenager's nerves remained steely. He had the shots
Speaker 6: and the one love lead right in the second set,
Speaker 6: Agacy tried to regain his momentum, but Hewitt kept up
Speaker 6: the attack, proving he could win points from anywhere on
Speaker 6: the court. At six all in the second they faced
Speaker 6: another tiebreaker. Hewett pulled up a second surveys, then the
Speaker 6: American missed the line. Hewett threw to the final ambras.
Speaker 5: I has been a big fan of mine and I
Speaker 5: or as I was growing up, so I was just
Speaker 5: happy to be out in the same court as him.
Speaker 3: Have One of the things you should never do in
Speaker 3: broadcasting is actually ask how you feel. But tonight we're
Speaker 3: going to be trying to get a lot of those
Speaker 3: feelings out of later.
Speaker 4: And so when you look back at the little.
Speaker 3: Fella up there, so full of confidence, doing perfectly in
Speaker 3: front of the meter at sixteen, what goes through your head.
Speaker 5: I don't know about doing perfectly, no, but for me
Speaker 5: it was I was living at home, obviously sixteen years old,
Speaker 5: living at home in west Lake's there and driving into
Speaker 5: Memorial Drive, a place that I trained every day, you know,
Speaker 5: through my whole teenager years, and then I'm standing there
Speaker 5: playing Andre Agassy and I'm actually sleeping in my bedroom
Speaker 5: at home, and I've got this agacy rock and Roll
Speaker 5: tennis camp poster above my bed. And in the semifinals,
Speaker 5: it's really a pinch yourself moment. You know, I've got
Speaker 5: to go out there and play this guy that I've idolized,
Speaker 5: I've looked up to. He's a legend of our sport,
Speaker 5: not just with his results, but also the way that
Speaker 5: he carried himself, his charisma, the clothing that he wore
Speaker 5: on the court. You know, my generation loved that, you know,
Speaker 5: teenagers growing up. He was all our favorite player. So
Speaker 5: for me just to be sitting in the locker room
Speaker 5: before that match, and I'll never forget because the old
Speaker 5: stand under one of the stands there.
Speaker 4: At Memorial Drive was a really old locker room under there.
Speaker 5: By the time you get to the semifinals, the tournament
Speaker 5: really cleared out, there's no one really in the locker room.
Speaker 4: There's only a couple of people in and out of there.
Speaker 5: And I'm there and I'm sort of panicking and trying
Speaker 5: to get my bag ready and you know, vibration dampner
Speaker 5: in my racket and make sure everything's set. Andre sitting
Speaker 5: in the corner with his feet up reading a novel.
Speaker 5: I'm like, he looks awfully relaxed, like what's going on?
Speaker 5: And then I had Brad Gilbert, who was a former
Speaker 5: world number four before, but he was Andre Agasi's coach
Speaker 5: at the time, and he was an intense guy. And
Speaker 5: he's just sitting there in the corner giving me daggers
Speaker 5: and just staring at me the whole time, and I
Speaker 5: felt like I couldn't lift my head up and look
Speaker 5: anywhere otherwise I'm looking straight into Brad Gilbert's eyes.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I was shitting myself before I went out there,
Speaker 4: how you're feeling.
Speaker 5: And for me, it was really I remember walking out
Speaker 5: there just wanting to give my best and leave it
Speaker 5: all out there and have no regrets. And it's funny
Speaker 5: how it turns out, because you know, our best shots
Speaker 5: were our returner Serve Andrea and mind as it turned out,
Speaker 5: and there wasn't one breaker serve in that match.
Speaker 4: It was seven six, seven six, and in the end
Speaker 4: I was able to, you know, play the clutch points
Speaker 4: pretty well.
Speaker 5: And yeah, Andre tells a funny story after that actually
Speaker 5: when we catch up, because he thought, you know, either
Speaker 5: I got to start get ready to retire or this
Speaker 5: kid's going to be pretty damn good.
Speaker 4: So he was glad that it went one way.
Speaker 3: Well, the kid was pretty damn good you win that
Speaker 3: semi final, because you go on and you beat Jason
Speaker 3: Stoltenberg in the final to win your first tournament, and
Speaker 3: it didn't stop from there. During the week, I was
Speaker 3: on a chat with Jonnie Bjorkman and we were laughing
Speaker 3: because in the clip, you then head to Sydney and
Speaker 3: beat Jonas, who was the world number four in the
Speaker 3: next match. You know, well, I didn't know any of
Speaker 3: these things about special exemptions and all this, and I'd
Speaker 3: made the semi finals obviously of the Adelaide tournament, so
Speaker 3: all of a sudden I got a special exemption into
Speaker 3: the Sydney tournament, which was a slightly higher tournament, and
Speaker 3: Jonas Bjorkmann was coming off a semi final of the
Speaker 3: previous US Open actually, where he lost to greg Orzeski
Speaker 3: in the semis in ninety seven, and he was world
Speaker 3: number four, and I drew in first round of Sydney,
Speaker 3: and I was pretty exhausted, obviously after a massive week
Speaker 3: in Adelaide, and then two days later I come out
Speaker 3: and beat the world number four in free sets. So
Speaker 3: for me, it was kind of this unbelievable momentum. My
Speaker 3: ranking's gone from seven hundred odd to around one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty within six days. Was there a moment within
Speaker 3: this where it didn't feel real and perhaps you go,
Speaker 3: I'm going to wake up, But we were with you.
Speaker 3: We kind of knew that you had this self belief
Speaker 3: and it started there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the week before the Adelaide International that year, I
Speaker 5: actually were two weeks before I actually won the South
Speaker 5: Australian Hardcourt which was a tournament at Memorial Drive on
Speaker 5: Center Court, but it was for the local South Australian
Speaker 5: players that just played the pennant and Mark Woodford actually
Speaker 5: donated a little bit of the prize money to that
Speaker 5: event and he actually presented me with the trophy and
Speaker 5: the Czech on Senate Court. Two weeks before the Adelaide International.
Speaker 5: I wasn't meant to get a wild card into the
Speaker 5: Adelaide International. A late friend of ours, Colin Stubbs, who
Speaker 5: was the tournament director of Adelaide back then, I've Genny Kafelnikov.
Speaker 4: They were waiting on till the last minute.
Speaker 5: I was going to be playing qualifying and then you've
Speaker 5: Geenny declined the wild card invitation at the last minutes
Speaker 5: on the Friday night, right before qualifying draw was coming out,
Speaker 5: Colin had to make a decision who he was giving
Speaker 5: the last wildcard two And I'll forever be grateful to
Speaker 5: Colin that he gave it to a young up and
Speaker 5: coming you know, I guess junior player out of a
Speaker 5: local player out of Adelaide that opportunity. But the week
Speaker 5: before yourself, Stoltz would he invited me out to train
Speaker 5: with you guys, and I was somewhat competitive in practice
Speaker 5: sets against you guys, somewhat yeah, and that gave me, well,
Speaker 5: that gave me a lot of confidence and belief at
Speaker 5: least that I could go on the court and I
Speaker 5: wasn't going to get destroyed out there. But that's what
Speaker 5: the camaraderie was about of Australian tennis at the time
Speaker 5: as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, and it was it was very nice
Speaker 3: of you to mention Mark and myself because and stalts
Speaker 3: in the light, because I mean, I know that Mark
Speaker 3: and I felt that we really did play an important
Speaker 3: part in your development.
Speaker 4: Will you let me start your house? I know we did.
Speaker 4: I don't know why I did.
Speaker 3: I don't know why I did because because you know,
Speaker 3: I feel like the Woodies were a real important part
Speaker 3: about getting you right and getting you on the way,
Speaker 3: and you.
Speaker 4: Know, even so much as this moment right here. So
Speaker 4: the irony that's I do tell that story a lot
Speaker 4: to people, because the irony I double folded again.
Speaker 5: That's the second round of the US Opened doubles in
Speaker 5: two thousand and that was the last time the Woodies
Speaker 5: ever played a Grand Slam doubles patch together. They were
Speaker 5: getting ready for the Olympics, the Sydney Olympics couple of
Speaker 5: weeks later, and that was probably the most subdued that
Speaker 5: I'd ever been when I'd want to match, because I
Speaker 5: felt like Teddy hit a double fouled, he was going
Speaker 5: to wrap the racket around my throat. If I've said
Speaker 5: anything at the net, but no, You've always done a
Speaker 5: great thing for Australian tennis, and that certainly, you know.
Speaker 4: The good thing was I went on and won the tournament.
Speaker 3: You went on and won the tournament, You beat us
Speaker 3: along the way, and then you actually beat the Olympic
Speaker 3: gold medalists in Nessa and Laro in I think the
Speaker 3: semi finals.
Speaker 4: So that was the start.
Speaker 3: That was your very first Grand Slam title. And then
Speaker 3: twelve months later you go back to the US Open
Speaker 3: and this happens.
Speaker 4: Would this be the last Ram Slam final for Pete Surfras?
Speaker 4: That's really fair, that's it?
Speaker 7: Waitn hewittt so M Street sets waking Pete Surfris to
Speaker 7: amber match.
Speaker 4: Twenty years of age.
Speaker 3: So from sixteen in the first tournament you quickly win
Speaker 3: a first Grand Slam singles title. I saw you watching there,
Speaker 3: and I could see you thinking, what does it look
Speaker 3: like now to you? Does it feel different? Does it
Speaker 3: look different? What reflections do you have? Well, I hadn't
Speaker 3: seen that last game.
Speaker 5: I've only seen the match point really played over quite
Speaker 5: a few times. And Yeah, for me, the things I
Speaker 5: think about is, once again, this was a guy Pete
Speaker 5: Sampress that I grew up idolizing. At the time, he'd
Speaker 5: won the most majors that anyone had won. He'd won thirteen.
Speaker 5: He was the runaway favorite, he'd hardly been broken throughout
Speaker 5: the whole tournament, and walking out onto center court, it
Speaker 5: was a real surreal moment for me because I'm playing
Speaker 5: against Pete Sampress, who I've grown up only three or
Speaker 5: four years ago, thinking this guy's god out there and
Speaker 5: Ivanne Lendel is out there doing the coin toss for
Speaker 5: the two of us. I'm thinking that this doesn't feel
Speaker 5: right me. I should be the one doing the coin
Speaker 5: toss for these two planet Grand Slam.
Speaker 3: So how do you put that into perspective and go
Speaker 3: and play the way you did?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: You know, I had a lot of inner belief what
Speaker 5: I was capable of doing. I love playing the big moments.
Speaker 5: I knew all the hard work and training that I'd
Speaker 5: put in behind the scenes as well that was going
Speaker 5: to hold me in good stead. And going into that final,
Speaker 5: I felt like I got better with every match, and
Speaker 5: in the semi final I actually beat you, Genny Kafelnikov.
Speaker 5: So quarter finals you beat Roddick I think in five sets,
Speaker 5: and you Thrash in straight sets. And not many people
Speaker 5: probably saw the Kaffernikov match. It was the day match,
Speaker 5: and back then it was the Super Saturday, so you
Speaker 5: would play the semi both semi finals who played during Saturday,
Speaker 5: and then you wanted to try and get through as
Speaker 5: easy as possible to save energy for the final on
Speaker 5: Sunday afternoon, and playing with gen Kaferennakov, we'd normally always
Speaker 5: had a lot of battles out there. We played very
Speaker 5: similar game styles, and I played one of the best
Speaker 5: ball striking days I've ever had, and I think I
Speaker 5: gave him four games in three sets, And for me,
Speaker 5: that gave me so much confidence. The year before when
Speaker 5: I won the doubles at the US Open, I actually
Speaker 5: made the semis of the singles that same year, and
Speaker 5: I lost to Pete in the semifinals and I lost
Speaker 5: in three sets, but two out of the three sets
Speaker 5: were tiebreaks, and I actually felt like I was good
Speaker 5: enough to have won those and the match could have
Speaker 5: actually gone my way, And so that gave me a
Speaker 5: lot of belief as well. Plus I liked the fact
Speaker 5: that you know when someone doubted you. And I remember
Speaker 5: going in after my semi final and I won the
Speaker 5: semi final. I was feeling pretty confident about how I
Speaker 5: was hitting the ball, and the American journalists were pretty
Speaker 5: full of themselves, and they would talk up their players
Speaker 5: a lot, and they started saying, Pete Sanmpres hasn't been
Speaker 5: broken served so many times this tournament, you know, it's
Speaker 5: impossible how the hell can you beat him? You know
Speaker 5: you're gonna have to hope just a whole serve and
Speaker 5: get to a tiebreak, and you don't have the biggest earth.
Speaker 5: I said, well, we'll just have to wait and see.
Speaker 5: And so yet again I won.
Speaker 4: The coin toss.
Speaker 5: I choose to receive like I always did, and the
Speaker 5: first game I go out and breaking and break you serve.
Speaker 4: In my head, I'm thinking, yeah, it's not that hard,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 5: The silly thing was I got a little bit ahead
Speaker 5: of myself and actually got broken the very next game,
Speaker 5: and so we're back at one all after two games.
Speaker 4: But the first set, as you saw the score line.
Speaker 5: There, the first set was awfully crucial to get that
Speaker 5: tie break after the year before in the semi final
Speaker 5: losing two of those type tie breaks.
Speaker 3: One of the things, you know, you were an amazing competitive,
Speaker 3: fiery but you'd like to have that energy, and New
Speaker 3: York seemed to be one of the places that you
Speaker 3: played your best.
Speaker 4: And the crowd can be difficult, but.
Speaker 2: Not for you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well you always knew playing an American that they
Speaker 5: were going to be against you. But I actually enjoyed
Speaker 5: playing a big match with atmosphere there even if the
Speaker 5: crowd was against me. I actually felt like mentally I
Speaker 5: could get in a zone out there and I could
Speaker 5: focus on what I needed to do. I found it
Speaker 5: hard to get up and about if you're out of
Speaker 5: court twenty four sometimes with a lot smaller crowd out
Speaker 5: there and not a great atmosphere. So for me, there
Speaker 5: was always a lot going on in New York. They're
Speaker 5: playing music, you know, during the middle of the game.
Speaker 5: Sometimes in the change of ends. There's a lot of noise,
Speaker 5: people moving. That stuff didn't worry me though. I actually
Speaker 5: fed off that, and I think deep down, if I
Speaker 5: wasn't playing an American, the New York crowd actually loved
Speaker 5: the way I went about it because they knew they
Speaker 5: were getting their money's worth every time they came to
Speaker 5: watch me play.
Speaker 4: I was going to leave it all out there, whether.
Speaker 5: I won or lost, and I think I had a
Speaker 5: lot of support, and that was you know, if you
Speaker 5: look at all my results over the years, that was
Speaker 5: the one tournament that I pushed deep most years.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Indeed, Well, of course, now you win a Grand Slam
Speaker 3: Singles title, extraordinary and you're on the rise. But there
Speaker 3: are places that we all love to play and one
Speaker 3: of the surfaces that you love is grass. So you
Speaker 3: go from the US Open to the next Wimbledon. Let's
Speaker 3: take a look at.
Speaker 8: That Hewett and enjoying a perfect art breaking now Bambian's
Speaker 8: first service humans. He then punished the nervous Argentine and
Speaker 8: early and often. Then the world number one came out
Speaker 8: by Roy Wow, beauty Heward straight sets winner, the new
Speaker 8: Prince of Wimbledon.
Speaker 4: That's worth a round of applause as well.
Speaker 3: It's pretty great footage and some great voices on that
Speaker 3: tape to including Fiery, Fred Starley and John nukeom and
Speaker 3: people that really when you would go to Wimbledon, would
Speaker 3: give you the feeling of how important that event was,
Speaker 3: what was it like to win it?
Speaker 4: It was unbelievable.
Speaker 5: Just back to that when you speak about especially Fiery there,
Speaker 5: but also Nuke in particular.
Speaker 4: Nuke played such a massive role in my career, Nuke
Speaker 4: and Tony Roach.
Speaker 5: But Nuke would be there commentating a lot of my
Speaker 5: finals in the Slams and he would actually make an
Speaker 5: effort every time to come in and see me before
Speaker 5: all of my matches at the Slams and just wish
Speaker 5: me good luck.
Speaker 4: In the locker room beforehand, and it was something that
Speaker 4: it gave me this.
Speaker 5: Extra confidence just to know that absolutely one of our
Speaker 5: greats and in the end, a guy that I had
Speaker 5: so much time for, a guy that helped me out
Speaker 5: so much. So I love that he was the call,
Speaker 5: the one calling my match points.
Speaker 4: There when I won my two major.
Speaker 3: It's really amazing to look at the vision because the
Speaker 3: court there was around the time that it started to
Speaker 3: change a little bit. It was it was worn in
Speaker 3: different places, the bouncers were a little irregular, and of
Speaker 3: course you come up against David now Bandon in the
Speaker 3: funnel and I think you'll agree that was a good draw.
Speaker 3: He had never played on the center court at Wimbledon
Speaker 3: before that final, and in fact, they broke tradition to
Speaker 3: let him warm.
Speaker 4: Up, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we argued that for a while, but yeah, No.
Speaker 5: It's funny because they talk about David now Banded and
Speaker 5: no one knew him.
Speaker 4: I knew him.
Speaker 5: We're the same age, so I knew him in juniors.
Speaker 5: I knew how good this guy was. So now Banding
Speaker 5: and Coria were two of the best juniors going around
Speaker 5: in my age group. I knew how confident now Bandiam
Speaker 5: was and it didn't surprise me at all that he'd
Speaker 5: come through that part of the draw because he's game
Speaker 5: suited grass. He had great return of serves, a good
Speaker 5: passing shot and his serve was underrated for his size
Speaker 5: as well. But for me, the semi final was probably
Speaker 5: the one where I put a lot of pressure on
Speaker 5: myself because it was like a battle of the ashes.
Speaker 5: I had to play my old sparring partner Tim Henman
Speaker 5: in the semis. I knew how much pressure Henners had
Speaker 5: about trying to make a Wimbledon final. I think he
Speaker 5: lost four semi finals of Wimbledon in his career and
Speaker 5: he ended up losing to the eventual winner all four times,
Speaker 5: but he'd come so close. And that rivalry of Australia
Speaker 5: against Great Britain it came out yet again and I'll
Speaker 5: never forget Henman Hill. They had called it where everyone
Speaker 5: sits on the mound there and watches the match on
Speaker 5: the big screen. I had a lot of Australian fanatics
Speaker 5: there supporting me at the time, so it was an
Speaker 5: incredible atmosphere. But for me, it was a rain delay
Speaker 5: on that Friday, so it was actually lucky that I
Speaker 5: was playing Hannah's in some way because we ended up
Speaker 5: getting put on at the same time both semifinals because
Speaker 5: there was no roof, so they were worried about one
Speaker 5: semifinal getting played and the other one not getting played.
Speaker 5: So as soon as the courts were ready to play,
Speaker 5: they put myself and Hennah's on center court, and they
Speaker 5: put now Bandy in and Xavier Malise the other semifinal
Speaker 5: on court one at the same time. I was fortunate
Speaker 5: enough to win in straight sets. The other match actually
Speaker 5: went five sets, so they actually stopped at the end
Speaker 5: of day daylight at two sets all and had to
Speaker 5: come back on the Saturday and just play a one
Speaker 5: set shootout to see who would go through to the
Speaker 5: Wimbledon finals. So for me, there was a lot of
Speaker 5: different emotions because I gone from nine months earlier playing
Speaker 5: the US Open final against Pete Sampras, who at the
Speaker 5: time had won so many majors and I was a
Speaker 5: massive underdog, to then going in as the number one
Speaker 5: seed and having a lot of pressure and expectation coming
Speaker 5: from a country as well where we'd had so much
Speaker 5: success on grass playing it at Wimbledon, we'd had so
Speaker 5: many great champions that I saw that as the biggest
Speaker 5: tournament there was as well. So I felt like I
Speaker 5: slept a lot better the night before the US Open
Speaker 5: final than I did before the Wimbledon final.
Speaker 3: What was it like to put your name amongst the
Speaker 3: elite of that golden era of Australian tennis in a
Speaker 3: nuke laver and the like.
Speaker 5: It's a strange feeling when you're out there, because during
Speaker 5: the reign delays, that was actually the toughest time for me.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget. I actually felt like I was really
Speaker 4: edgy on the practice court warming up before the match.
Speaker 5: Jason Stoltenberg was my coach at the time, and I've
Speaker 5: spoken about it years later and Stoltz reckons, now you're
Speaker 5: hitting the ball great. But for me, I actually felt
Speaker 5: like I wasn't. I actually felt like I wasn't timing it.
Speaker 5: Things just weren't, you know, And I was kind of
Speaker 5: on edge a little bit. Stultz always said that he
Speaker 5: actually preferred me before a match when I was like that,
Speaker 5: I wasn't until I went out and I won the
Speaker 5: coin toss again and I chose to receive, and I
Speaker 5: made a point of I'm going to break this guy first.
Speaker 5: First game here and it's going to set the tone
Speaker 5: for the match. And I was able to do that
Speaker 5: against our bandying and really let him know that I
Speaker 5: was there from the start. For me, the rain delay
Speaker 5: when you're up a set and a break in a
Speaker 5: wimbledem final and to stay in the zone and not
Speaker 5: think too far ahead, that was the toughest.
Speaker 4: Thing to do.
Speaker 3: It's fascinating, isn't it When you just say yourself, well,
Speaker 3: I'm just going to break here in the first game
Speaker 3: of the little fire and you managed to do it.
Speaker 4: Not many people can. Well, it sets you up.
Speaker 3: Now you won two majors in short succession and we
Speaker 3: get to I think it's November of that year, and
Speaker 3: you set up the opportunity to become the world number one.
Speaker 9: Late and hew it against pat Rafter. This is an
Speaker 9: interesting one, Layton Hewitt, if he defeats pat Rafter, will
Speaker 9: become the youngest player to have reached the pinnacle of
Speaker 9: the sport to be number one at the end of
Speaker 9: the year.
Speaker 7: Another court frant in Swett's lighton hewittt Tonight, by virtue
Speaker 7: of this win, becomes the winner of the A to
Speaker 7: B Champions Race two thousand and one and the world
Speaker 7: number one.
Speaker 4: Does that give you goosebumps? Yeah, yeah, it does me.
Speaker 5: It's hard to believe you couldn't have written a better
Speaker 5: script when I look back on it, like, well, you
Speaker 5: got Pat and it was in Sydney. That's the funny part,
Speaker 5: because it went through a stage, the tour ending finals,
Speaker 5: they went they marketed as the Masters Cup for a period,
Speaker 5: and normally it was always played in Europe every single year.
Speaker 5: Then for some reason they decided to change it and
Speaker 5: actually playing different cities the end of season, and so
Speaker 5: Pat and I both knew that this one year at
Speaker 5: the end of two thousand and one was going to
Speaker 5: be in Sydney and we're only going to get one
Speaker 5: opportunity to play in it, and so for us, both
Speaker 5: of us, it was a massive goal that year to
Speaker 5: just get to the top eight and be able to
Speaker 5: play in Sydney, to play on that singles court as well.
Speaker 5: That sorry Todd, it didn't have the doubles lines. I
Speaker 5: know you'll take offense to that, but it was something
Speaker 5: unique that I'd never done before. And so for me
Speaker 5: to get the opportunity to play in an event like
Speaker 5: that in my home country and going in after I
Speaker 5: won the US Open that year. Going into the tournament,
Speaker 5: I knew I was in control of my own destiny
Speaker 5: because there were three of us, Andre Agassy, Gustavo Curtin
Speaker 5: and myself that if one of us won the tournament,
Speaker 5: we actually got world number one. It didn't matter what
Speaker 5: happened to anyone else in the event. And so I
Speaker 5: was focused obviously on trying to win the tournament. And
Speaker 5: that was my last round robin match was against Pat Rafter.
Speaker 4: He was in my group.
Speaker 5: I'd already beaten Grosjean and Agasy, and as it turned out,
Speaker 5: just before that, Curtin had lost his match, So it
Speaker 5: meant that Curtin and Agassy couldn't get through to the semifinals,
Speaker 5: and I was already through to the semifinals, and so
Speaker 5: it was kind of like I had two chances at
Speaker 5: it now. But I was going out to play my
Speaker 5: good mate Pat, who, as I spoke about with you
Speaker 5: and Mark and Stoltz, Pat was like an older brother
Speaker 5: to me.
Speaker 4: He was someone I idolized, an unbelievable role model.
Speaker 5: We went in the Battle in Davis Cup singles so
Speaker 5: many times together, and it was bloody tough being out
Speaker 5: in the court with Pat. But I wouldn't change it
Speaker 5: for the world, considering that he had been world number
Speaker 5: one and then I was out there with him at
Speaker 5: the time when I.
Speaker 4: First got it.
Speaker 3: Well, he would be world number one for the one week.
Speaker 3: You went on to be for eighty weeks, which is
Speaker 3: quite extraordinary. Now, yes, eighty weeks is the world number one?
Speaker 3: Now you've you've just gone global, your number one in
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 4: The world is your.
Speaker 3: Oyster, and you, for some reason decide that you can
Speaker 3: expand into other parts of entertainment.
Speaker 4: This is a beauty everybody. I don't know what else say,
Speaker 4: but thank you from the both of us.
Speaker 8: I'm not the womb yet.
Speaker 4: He's already got his own gym. I need to denounce
Speaker 4: on a couple more investments and the money problems here
Speaker 4: only you could think of having too much money as
Speaker 4: a problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Josh, quick word will you?
Speaker 8: Yeah? Sure?
Speaker 4: Than all right? Well, mate, the main thing is you
Speaker 4: got the girl, but that was the end of your
Speaker 4: acting career. Yeah. I thought I deserved the LOGI, but
Speaker 4: you got one of those. They're easy to gain. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a bit cringe worthy when you look back on it.
Speaker 4: But how about Thor. I mean you were Thor of
Speaker 4: the tennis will be worth sitting? Well, it wasn't bad,
Speaker 4: was it? What happened to your lines?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 4: You cut it out? I did have a line? Oh
Speaker 4: you did, Yeah I did.
Speaker 5: We never found it for it and it's not up there.
Speaker 5: But it wasn't worth it anyway. But yeah, back then
Speaker 5: the tennis was on Channel seven. Beck was obviously working
Speaker 5: on Channel seven and in Home and Away, and yeah,
Speaker 5: they somehow convinced me straight after I'd made the Australian
Speaker 5: Open final that I think I said in an interview
Speaker 5: actually on court to maybe Jim Courier that you know,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't mind having a milkshake in the diner of
Speaker 5: Home and Away one day, And sure enough that's how
Speaker 5: it happened. So yeah, you got to be careful what
Speaker 5: you're say in those interviews.
Speaker 3: Well, it's actually interesting that you point out that it
Speaker 3: went to air after this shame and Open in twenty five,
Speaker 3: which was one of the We've seen a lot of highlights.
Speaker 4: This is still a highlight, but it didn't go your way.
Speaker 4: Let's take a look at that Ao.
Speaker 9: The who the gay?
Speaker 10: Oh good? Yeah, sudden sucking six time like one six
Speaker 10: sixteen months it takes hit three year worlder and wins
Speaker 10: a second Slayer.
Speaker 4: Lately, arts are struggling open join ms just that.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we get that around of applause because
Speaker 3: the last male to make the final. Now we've been
Speaker 3: applauding all the successes. Did that match hurt the most
Speaker 3: within your career losing that one? Yeah, yes and no
Speaker 3: there's there's other ones as well. In Davis Cup that
Speaker 3: at the time probably hurt just as much. But it
Speaker 3: was it was up there, but physically I was done,
Speaker 3: like I was exhausted. I had a small and my
Speaker 3: hip at the time. I'd won Sydney the week before
Speaker 3: and then going out and I felt like I was
Speaker 3: playing this epic match every two days. At the Australian Open,
Speaker 3: I was just riding this wave of emotion.
Speaker 5: And to be honest, when the Australian Open, you start
Speaker 5: at that seven o'clock timeslot and the conditions are completely
Speaker 5: different to when the sun goes down and it's dark,
Speaker 5: and you see I won the first set there and
Speaker 5: the conditions were lively. The ball was still reacting and
Speaker 5: that suited my game a lot more. Playing a guy
Speaker 5: like Marat that has so much firepower from the back
Speaker 5: of the court. Once the wind sort of settles, and
Speaker 5: it's a dead conditions out there for someone like Marat
Speaker 5: that just hits the bill so hard from the back
Speaker 5: of the court. It suited his game style and I
Speaker 5: wasn't quite able to nullify his power. As the match
Speaker 5: went on, he got more and more confident, and then
Speaker 5: you know, in the end, I wasn't able to find
Speaker 5: a way to really put in a dent into his game.
Speaker 4: It's a mighty effort. Who get that far.
Speaker 3: And you mentioned Davis Cup, and there's been no bigger
Speaker 3: giant in Davis Cup. You hold all the records for
Speaker 3: the Australian team for most tires plays, most wins, most
Speaker 3: singles wins. I had more doubles wins, just to throw
Speaker 3: it in there, and we did play together in that
Speaker 3: as well. But let's take a look at some of
Speaker 3: your Davis Cup highlights.
Speaker 4: So at the moment they've been waiting for, you've got
Speaker 4: their hands.
Speaker 2: On the cup.
Speaker 3: Another two great broadcasting voices right there, Sandy Roberts and
Speaker 3: Bruce McAvaney, And you know I sit here being a
Speaker 3: part of that. But one of the great things about
Speaker 3: being in a Davis Cup team with Leyton Hewitt was
Speaker 3: that you never had a person that tried harder, that
Speaker 3: would put more on the line and give everything, and
Speaker 3: not every great player would do that.
Speaker 4: Why did you do that?
Speaker 5: I love team sports. I grew up from an Australian
Speaker 5: rules football background. My father, uncle, grandfather all played Australian
Speaker 5: rules football professionally in Adelaide and Melbourne and my dream
Speaker 5: was to play AFL football and you play for the
Speaker 5: Crows one day. That's what I wanted to do. And
Speaker 5: at the age of fourteen to fifteen, I had to
Speaker 5: make the tough decision to give up football because tennis
Speaker 5: was starting to take over with junior trips. And when
Speaker 5: I look back on and the tennis matches, my favorite
Speaker 5: match to watch always was Pat Cash against perm Force
Speaker 5: at Kuyong, coming back from two sets to love down
Speaker 5: in the eighty six final, and that was the fourth
Speaker 5: match and no offense to Paul mcnameee, but he probably
Speaker 5: wasn't going to win the fifth rubber, so Cashi had
Speaker 5: to win that fourth match and he found a way
Speaker 5: with Neil Fraser on the sidelines urging him on to
Speaker 5: come back and beat this guy, and I had that
Speaker 5: on the VHS over and over and over, and I
Speaker 5: just wanted to get that opportunity one day to be
Speaker 5: able to wear the green and gold and represent my country.
Speaker 5: And so when I got the chance and the call
Speaker 5: up to come and be an Orange boy in ninety seven,
Speaker 5: around you guys, pat Rafter won from two sets to
Speaker 5: love down against Cedric Pierline at White City. That really
Speaker 5: made the start of pat Rafter's Davis Cup career that
Speaker 5: win as well, and I saw what it meant and
Speaker 5: to have to mentors and role models like John Newcoman
Speaker 5: and Tony Roach, I feel so fortunate. I owe so
Speaker 5: much to those two guys. They went out of their
Speaker 5: way to fast track me through the Davis Cup system
Speaker 5: and the Davis Cup squad training with you guys, and
Speaker 5: they believed the hell of a lot in me that
Speaker 5: if I was given the tools to go out there
Speaker 5: and compete and represent Australia, that I was going to
Speaker 5: be a good player. And they had a lot of
Speaker 5: belief in me. And then I had another great captain
Speaker 5: who's here tonight, and we saw there on the screens
Speaker 5: John Fitzgerald who took over.
Speaker 4: He had hair there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he looked a bit different Fitzy, But some of
Speaker 5: my greatest moments we were with Fitzy on the court.
Speaker 3: Can I just talk about the grace I chose to
Speaker 3: for that video clip there? One was in Spain, obviously,
Speaker 3: in the final you beat Costa in five sets, and
Speaker 3: the other one is a more modern version of the
Speaker 3: Pat Cash comeback against Roger Federer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the one in Spain was a tough one.
Speaker 5: It was brutal playing Albert Costa and you know, clay
Speaker 5: court specialists having twenty odd thousand Spaniards screaming against you,
Speaker 5: throwing their seat cushions on the court when you're about
Speaker 5: to serve for the match in the fifth set. Waking
Speaker 5: up that morning and the Spanish newspaper in Barcelona and
Speaker 5: you get it out the front of your door and
Speaker 5: it has my face on the front page with a
Speaker 5: massive bull's eye over it. You know, in some ways,
Speaker 5: you know, the first thing you said to me at
Speaker 5: breakfast is did you get a paper? You know, he
Speaker 5: knew those little things. You know, with some guys, they
Speaker 5: would have gone into their shell. With me, you know,
Speaker 5: that was you know, firing up the bear. That was
Speaker 5: one of my great wins. Beating Roger in that match
Speaker 5: with Fitzi on the court was obviously one of my
Speaker 5: great wins. Roger had just won Wimbledon only a couple
Speaker 5: of months before that, his first Grand Slam title. I'd
Speaker 5: lost my world number one ranking after that Wimbledon as well.
Speaker 5: And Roger played for the first two sets. He played
Speaker 5: incredible tennis.
Speaker 4: I really was outplayed and it was pure and nearly
Speaker 4: the third as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the third I was down five to three thirty
Speaker 5: all I think him serving for it to win in
Speaker 5: straight sets. And when I actually broke that games came
Speaker 5: at the change of ends. Fitzy actually said to me, mate,
Speaker 5: you're not far away from turning this around. You don't
Speaker 5: understand how close you are to turning this whole thing around.
Speaker 5: It sounds like Einstein now making it time. And yeah,
Speaker 5: I fed off that, and we looked at it best
Speaker 5: of five set matches. You've got to focus on the
Speaker 5: small things, and for me, it was just about somehow
Speaker 5: hanging in there and finding a way to get through
Speaker 5: that third set.
Speaker 4: And I was able to do that in the end.
Speaker 5: And you know, it is a partnership out there when
Speaker 5: you're playing and you have your captain on the side
Speaker 5: of the court, and that's something I fed off as
Speaker 5: well with my captains in Davis Cup.
Speaker 4: And that's why I love being.
Speaker 5: Such a part of it now because I feel like
Speaker 5: I can play a small part in these guys and
Speaker 5: helping them hopefully achieve their dream one day.
Speaker 4: But yeah, there is one other Davis Cup match.
Speaker 5: Fists and I were talking about it earlier that not
Speaker 5: a lot of people saw in Australia, and I actually
Speaker 5: think it was probably my greatest tennis match of all time.
Speaker 5: And we went to Florinopolos in Brazil, and Gustava Curtin
Speaker 5: at the time was one of the greatest clay court
Speaker 5: players going around. He'd won three French Opens, he was
Speaker 5: world number one, and I hadn't really done anything on
Speaker 5: clay ever. And we found out ourselves two one up
Speaker 5: in this tie and I had to play Googer and
Speaker 5: Florinopolis is actually the town that Goog's from, and so
Speaker 5: we had police escorts everywhere. We weren't allowed to go
Speaker 5: anywhere by ourselves because I was worried something was going
Speaker 5: to happen to us. And somehow I came out and
Speaker 5: didn't lose serve for the match and actually beat Googer
Speaker 5: in straight sets to put us through to the semi finals.
Speaker 5: And yeah, it was a bad time zone for Australia
Speaker 5: to watch that match, but for me, in that environment
Speaker 5: on that court, playing against one of the all time
Speaker 5: great Clay Quarders, was probably one of my greatest wins.
Speaker 3: It's a very hard thing to do when you've had
Speaker 3: so many magic moments. Can you pick your favorite moment
Speaker 3: out of your career?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 4: No, No, it's really hard.
Speaker 5: No, it is because as a kid growing up, you
Speaker 5: know the three things it's to win a Grand Slam, obviously,
Speaker 5: to touch the pinnacle of the sport, to get to
Speaker 5: world number one. But for me, Davis Cup with something
Speaker 5: special and I look back and even when we after
Speaker 5: I beat Roger in that semi final, we still had
Speaker 5: a final to play against Spain on grass and the
Speaker 5: first week of December and I decided to take twelve
Speaker 5: weeks off and I didn't play a tournament between after
Speaker 5: beating Roger to playing the Davis Cup final in Melbourne
Speaker 5: at rod Laver Arena where we put the temporary grass
Speaker 5: court in to play Spain, and I knew I had
Speaker 5: to play one Carlos Ferrero, who was number one in
Speaker 5: the world at the time on day one of that tie,
Speaker 5: and I literally spent ten weeks every day at Couyong
Speaker 5: hitting on grass just to get ready for that one match.
Speaker 4: And for me, that's what Davis Cup meant, you know,
Speaker 4: and there was something special.
Speaker 5: About going out there and wearing the Green and gold,
Speaker 5: and I wouldn't change it in any way, you know,
Speaker 5: winning that and winning in Australia in front of a
Speaker 5: packed house like that's what I feel bad for the
Speaker 5: Davis Cup system and how the tires are played now
Speaker 5: and to get that home court advantage and to be
Speaker 5: able to play in front of fifteen thousand streaming Australian
Speaker 5: fans in Australia and to watch back in eighty six
Speaker 5: cash you do it against Sweden. That's what we're missing
Speaker 5: out on and hopefully one day it gets back to that.
Speaker 5: But that was one of the great things about Davis Cump.
Speaker 3: We're edging ever so close, so it would seem before
Speaker 3: I let you go and we get onto the main course,
Speaker 3: life has moved on. You are in Davis Cup, You've
Speaker 3: got Cruise playing. Both your girls are doing well. Beck
Speaker 3: and everyone's healthy, going along well in life. But what
Speaker 3: would you like your legacy to be in this sport
Speaker 3: and how do you want people to think of you?
Speaker 5: Well, I think I always wanted to be a remember that,
Speaker 5: someone that absolutely gave everything and got the most out
Speaker 5: of themselves. For me, it was always about going out
Speaker 5: there and giving one hundred percent. That was the Australian way,
Speaker 5: you know, to go out there and battle backs against
Speaker 5: the wall. And if someone told you you couldn't do it, well, no,
Speaker 5: proven wrong, fine way to do it. And I think
Speaker 5: that's why the Australian public really got behind me. And
Speaker 5: every time I went out there, I wore my heart
Speaker 5: on my sleeve and they knew what they were going
Speaker 5: to get whether I won or lost on the court.
Speaker 5: And someone that left it all out there for Australia,
Speaker 5: you know, playing for their country was number one priority
Speaker 5: for me. I think that's probably the most meaningful thing
Speaker 5: for me that I've been remembered as someone that did that.
Speaker 4: But now in the role that I have now is I.
Speaker 5: Want nothing more than my charge and young chargers to
Speaker 5: get an opportunity to hold that silverware and get their
Speaker 5: hands on it one day and that's why I do
Speaker 5: this role. You know, I don't need to do the role,
Speaker 5: but I feel like I can help these young guys
Speaker 5: in some way. And I know what Nuken, Roach and
Speaker 5: Fitsie and these guys did for me at a young age.
Speaker 5: If I can instill that into the next group of
Speaker 5: Australian players coming through, then Australian tennis is going to
Speaker 5: be in a much better place. And our culture of
Speaker 5: Australian tennis is where I want it to and I
Speaker 5: think that's the most important thing. And yeah, it's not
Speaker 5: an easy role sitting on the side of the court,
Speaker 5: and I'm someone that wants to be in control of
Speaker 5: everything and I think all top professionals do. But I
Speaker 5: feel like I can play a small part in helping
Speaker 5: these guys achieve their dream where.
Speaker 3: You've played a very big part in Australian sporting culture.
Speaker 3: You are an absolute champion, you are a legend. What
Speaker 3: we've seen tonight is the opportunity to remind us all
Speaker 3: of what you have done in our sport. I think
Speaker 3: your legacy is safe. You've achieved all of the things
Speaker 3: that you've talked about. Would you please put your hands
Speaker 3: together for Layton Stewart, Thank you, Thanks you well.
Speaker 1: Vic. The thing that struck me about that interview was
Speaker 1: how much attention to detail and incredible recall Layton has
Speaker 1: about moments in his career and what a journey it.
Speaker 2: Was, definitely, and you know, there's all the tennis side
Speaker 2: of things that we got to hear about, but also
Speaker 2: hearing about him on Home and Away, which is a
Speaker 2: bit exciting too.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 1: He showed himself to be a man of many talents.
Speaker 1: I'll be back again with another episode of The sit
Speaker 1: Down next Monday. Please make sure to subscribe so that
Speaker 1: you never miss an episode when it lands in your feed,
Speaker 1: and if you could leave us a rating or review,
Speaker 1: we'd love that too. See you next week, Vick.
Speaker 6: See you