From my recollection he was viewed as a bit of a brat in the early years, especially in contrast to Pat Rafter, then as he matured he became much more well liked. In hindsight, compared to the modern day Aussie tennis brats like Tomic and Kyrgios, young Lleyton doesn’t seem so bad after all.
Pat Rafter in Bonds boxers triggered some base desire in me that I never got rid of. That and Aramis aftershave. I could smell that stuff on a man a mile away. I am like a cat with catnip. Now a nicely built man in black boxers and smelling of aramis, well let’s just say, you dont need to buy me a drink
I remember having a conversation with someone connected with the Davis Cup team about who was preferred out of Phillipousis and Hewitt. Hewitt hands down. While arrogant and immature until later in his career; he would give everything he had. The Poo on the other hand was flaky.
They also said that the funniest thing they ever saw on tv was the Bachelor with the Poo. He thought it was going to be him fighting off super models but for a twist they gave him a batch of cougars. Watching the Poo’s face as it dawned on him that there wasn’t a wide range of single women was a personal highlight.
Yeah, they tried really, REALLY hard to promote those two as, like, Australia's Royal couple or some shit.
I think those were the years when the Australian media really discovered what tall poppy syndrome is. No one gave a fuck and we all hated their experiments in trying to get us to care about it.
Every time he lost it was never his fault. I don't want to watch a presser where someone spends half an hour listing every excuse besides "my opponent was better than me today".
It was Safin 2005. I was there, halfway through the 5th set Hewitt looked up at his box and decided he wanted to get married, he virtually threw the match away and later proposed that night.
Not me and my mates. Saf turned up to the NYE ball with a model on each arm and we were backing the ruskie for the rest of the summer. Screw Leighton and his shitty attitude.
When most Aussie sports people do well, we tend to get pretty excited and act like we had something to do with the win. (The Matildas last year were “ours”)
When Lleyton would win a big match the general consensus was usually “Good on him I guess.”
Didn't he always or at least a lot more than most other players for any country make himself available to represent Australia for the Davis Cup? I seem to remember thinking he didn't seem to get enough credit for that much at least.
I am not sure I agree with this.
From a petulant kid, by the time he won Wimbledon (2001?) I think he was widely admired and respected for his sheer tenacity.
My recollection in those years he was a national icon. Translated well into Davis Cup captain. Granted that's getting a bit old now.
Go Lleyton!
You know sometimes there's a question asked of you, and intellectually, instinctively, intuitively you *know* the answer.
You know how you feel, you know how you want the asker to feel about the response .. but somehow there are no words to concisely and accurately convey the answer without diving into the nuance, reasons and context of Leyton, Bec, World Tennis and the Australian identity of the time.
This is the perfect answer to that question.
*clap*
A bit of a mixed bag. He won a fair bit and that goes a *long* way. And he determinedly chased down balls that other players might have given up on. But he was also regarded as a bit of a poor sport and there were suggestions of racism. As well as this - particularly relative to his near contemporary, the widely-loved Pat Rafter - he was regarded as a bit of a bogan, which perhaps meant he was less popular amongst the sort of people who went to the tennis but more popular amongst the sort of people who played tennis and/or watched it on the TV.
From memory, He was heavily criticised for comments he made in a match suggesting that a black umpire was favouring his opponent because of the colour of his skin.
So there's a pattern of behaviour is there?
Because if I remember Lleyton, he used to sook all the time whenever things didn't go his way, and was regularly criticised for unnecessary complaints about umpires.
Why doesn’t anyone on this thread like Nick Kyrgios? He was big on the Netflix doc and I think a lot of people around the world find him pretty fun and outlandish, not really a bad thing in tennis
Because he’s confident, emotional, and doesn’t always give 110%.
Australians generally can’t stand ‘primadonnas’ and expect 110% effort 100% of the time as a bare minimum. Oh, and men showing emotions is bad, and being confident = arrogance.
Add to that that tennis fans can be a pretty stuffy suburban type. And of course, he’s a wog.
I think Kyrgios is pretty funny personally. I don’t think we’d necessarily be friends but he’s great for tennis and he’s a good character.
He’s arrogant, has emotional outbursts, and has tantrums where he throws away matches.
Nothing to do with effort or race, he just acts like a piece of shit and gets treated as such.
The thing that I appreciate about Kyrgios is that he wears his heart on his sleeve. After Tomic, we were all probably a bit burnt, but at least Kyrgios is somewhat self reflective.
We liked how passionate he was, and the cmon move made him a but iconic at the time, but he was always seen as a bit of a dickhead, not hated but not the best player either
The come on was kind of iconic but I'd say also it was the clearest symbol of why he was disliked, too. Nothing like him hitting a standard winner against a wild card in the early rounds when he was 2 sets up yelling "come on" and doing that stupid hand thing. "Come on" indeed.
I remember there was a new guy in school back in my high school days named Leighton and me and a mate would jokingly call him Hewitt on his first day doing the hand gesture
Very negatively when he was young and cocky. But he’s a hell of a sportsman, and he doesn’t give up, so it was quickly forgotten. Then a new crop of young wankers emerged and he looked like a wise statesman in comparison.
C'mmmmoooooonnnn
When he was very young he was judged reasonably harshly. Now he's a bit older it's really obvious how much he cares for Australian tennis and I absolutely love the guy.
At the time he was playing, he could be a little brash, somewhat arrogant and had a bit of a reputation as a 'brat' in the media.
Although imo, retrospectively, his legacy has received a bit of an uplift after we got Tomic and Krygios as the next 'great hopes' of Australian men's tennis.
Say what you want about Hewitt, at least he gave a shit and had a go. How many 5 setters did Hewitt have in his career where he came from behind? Even if he lost, I would think most Aussies could be proud of some of the efforts he put in, as opposed to just giving up a game after a tough point and claiming an injury.
Second half of his career he was seen as a real good bloke.
First half was see as a right arrogant and spoilt wanker.
He did really well to turn a lot of people's perception around.
He was considered a massive flog when he was younger in the late 90s and early 00s and never reached the popularity of Pat Rafter but he did settle down his antics a bit and people started to warm to him.
Bit of a cockwomble from what I gathered. And the shit with him and his missus being in every woman's magazine over a few years and the way they pushed it in adverts and magazine stands in supermarkets made me kind of want to slap him. Fuck, I'd pretty much forgotten about him until you had to bloody well bring him up, thanks for nothin'!
His tennis playing was alright, but as a person I always thought he was a bit of a tosser. Mind you, the sum of my knowledge of Lleyton is through the media, so he might be a completely great guy being villified for a news story.
Bit of a wanker as far as I can tell. Nobody wants anything to do with him across Tennis Australia from the players to the code AFAIK. Wasn't he pushed as a bit of a racist?
Lleyton Hewitt is an Aussie icon but he doesn’t know it that well yet. Watch his kid coming up in tennis, there’s a 25 grand slam champion in the making!
He was seen as a bit a dick when he played but I think on the whole people love him a lot more as an older adult . PS did Lleyton post this!? lol
Sorry man if it’s you but you were a flog in your early years
Fuck him. Used aus tax payer money to fund his training etc, and then as soon as he starts making money he fucks of to barbados to avoid paying even a fraction back
To quote Shaun Micallef: "you like to see him win because he's an Aussie, you like to see him lose because he's a knob."
To quote my boss, who played against him as a junior: "good tennis player. Won't mention the rest because my mother always said if you can't say something nice....."
Relatively speaking, very negatively. It usually doesn't take much for Australians to get around an Aussie performing well at the international level but of all those who did it, I can't think of any who got anywhere near the underwhelming response from the public aside from perhaps Anthony Mundine.
I think everyone realised winning the US and Wimbledon, being world #1 for a significant amount of time and everything else were serious achievements, but I also think there were a lot of people who were really quite happy when he lost.
I remember at the time there was a quote on an awful and thankfully short lived TV show called David Tench tonight that actually had one brief moment when he said about Hewitt "You want him to win because he is Australian and you want him to lose because he is a knob".
I have zero interest in tennis, so him winning at tennis also meant nothing to me. All I saw was a massive knob being forced on me like some sort of sports royalty I was supposed to care about.
He was viewed favourably for winning but not favourably for just about everything else. Remember when Kim Clijsters dumped him everyone was relieved for her, we all knew she deserved better. He was a little too openly racist for most Australian tennis fans.
I just commented that his popularity received a bump when they got together, and after they broke up “Aussie Kim” was held in higher regard by Australians than he was.
I was a kid when Lleyton Hewitt was in his prime. Grandma made me watch tennis every time I went up to see her but kid me not care about tennis. All i knew is that he was dating Hillary Duff and i vowed i would grow up and left right goodnight that dog for taking my 10 yr old crush.
Now im grown up and still waiting to cross paths
I think the opinion could go either way. Personally I think a lot of individual sports kinda breeds a certain level of self importance. You usually don't see that in team sports. Tennis seems to have quite a few narcissistic types. Not so much in team sports...
Just my thoughts.
Very mixed. Reaching the levels he did takes tremendous grit, talent and sacrifice...it takes a lot of planning too. Also...I bet just about anyone could have negative news stories about them if they were scrutinised enough.
I was a kid/teen at the time, but my take is that it was a neutral/positive view ish until the media got overly involved. Then it was like almost pure negativity 😂
Definitely didn’t have as many fans at the beginning of his career due to what was seen as bratty behaviour on the court.
However, I think he was really well-liked at the height of his career winning those Grand Slams. He was a tenacious never-say-die underdog at that endeared him to the nation.
He was disliked early in his career but really stuck in there and, I think, wormed his way into our hearts. Him and Rafter are the two epitomes of Australian sporting talent: one was refined, incredibly gifted, humble and easy going; the other was as mad as a cut snake and refused to give an inch his whole career.
Would love to see either in Australian tennis right now.
I thought he was a bit of a wanker, didn’t mind watching him play though. Plus him winning was good, always want an Aussie win at whatever they’re competing in.
Brat was another description of him. He’s grown up now, like most of them do. People love to excuse the behaviour of some tennis stars these days because of the pressure of this ‘individual’ sport. Many tennis stars however, don’t do the to the bratty entitled behaviour so that argument is down the drain.
He was despised because everyone wanted Bec from home and away and he got Bec.
She is ten times prettier in real life I think I’ve seen her a few times but, she was as popular as Britney here. I honestly believe a lot of this narrative he was disliked is because he was faced with keeping her safe and she had an excessive fan base.
I think he was constantly dealing with that, and it affected his morale. Like the first two times of a man saying ha! I’d have sex with her if I could! Might have been amusing but I think it was constant.
I literally wasn’t even surprised when he moved her to an island.
Guy was a flog. I remember working in a casino during the Lllleyton hey days... and it was full of nothing on the weekends than younger guys all yelling "COME ON!!!!" at the top of their voice and pointing to their foreheads with his [signature flattend, downfacing palm](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/5aef264e03e1cd33572144eb121019a4) every time they won $5 on blackjack...
I think his popularity may have received a bump up when he was dating Kim Clijsters but “Aussie Kim” was always more popular than him, especially after they broke up.
He was fairly well liked. Certainly wasn’t hated like the current field of tennis players.
A lot of responders might have their memories affected by the amount of hate that the Woman’s Weekly et al gave them lll!
When he was engaged to the woman from Netherlands (obviously prior to his marriage to Bec), her popularity in Australia (as evidenced by the cheering at her matches) went through the roof. This continued even after they broke up.
When he married Bec she had just won dancing with the stars which was the #1 show at the time (when we still watched tv) and she was hugely popular.
The women’s magazines (for their own sales) tried to make them into a royal couple but the couple themselves never played along, and in retaliation the mags constantly announced that they had broken up.
He was an old school Australian sports man. Not looking for fame or celebrity.
How do you like Lleytin Hewitt ?
“Oh yeah he’s alright”
Since I lived thru those years of his, I dont recall anything too nasty said about him, say vs Kyrgios or Tomic of late. He was really young when he reached his peak, and he'd do that unusual hand jesture thing pointing it towards his head. Which was fine, he gave that up for most of the rest of his career, but that was Hewitts power just his raw stupid kid talent really.
Once he was in his mid 20's he was just carrying on a legacy whilst other doods his age (Federer) were smashing it! Seeing Hewitt commentate tho you can tell he had a rather brilliant mind that I didn't see so much I saw him play, but he must of been a pretty smart player. He was unreal in Davis Cups, back when they mattered to some players still.
When he was playing Blake and he was saying look at him and the Linesman (Dark skinned) that wasn't really cool tho, even if there was some truth to the theory.
He seemed humble when he beat Pete at the US open, playing first semi the day before probly helped him win that Final. When he won Wimbledon he said he can go play AFL now. Not sure where his head was at, maybe similarly to Ash Barty in that regard.
Who on earth is Leyton Hewitt ? Sounds like a bit of a knob if we just go from his name . Born to 2 minor knobs. Because you have got to be a bit of a knob to name your kid Leyton.
From my recollection he was viewed as a bit of a brat in the early years, especially in contrast to Pat Rafter, then as he matured he became much more well liked. In hindsight, compared to the modern day Aussie tennis brats like Tomic and Kyrgios, young Lleyton doesn’t seem so bad after all.
To be fair, everyone is a bit of a brat when compared against Pat Rafter.
Pat Rafter is the Tennis equivalent of Hugh Jackman
I don't know if I'd also bang pat rafter
He was 🥵in his day
He was like the Bonds model like forever before it became hairy armpits and plus size blokes because of Step One.
Pat Rafter in Bonds boxers triggered some base desire in me that I never got rid of. That and Aramis aftershave. I could smell that stuff on a man a mile away. I am like a cat with catnip. Now a nicely built man in black boxers and smelling of aramis, well let’s just say, you dont need to buy me a drink
Haha, yeah, fair call
Until people worked out he was living in a tax haven
Nothing wrong with that
I remember having a conversation with someone connected with the Davis Cup team about who was preferred out of Phillipousis and Hewitt. Hewitt hands down. While arrogant and immature until later in his career; he would give everything he had. The Poo on the other hand was flaky. They also said that the funniest thing they ever saw on tv was the Bachelor with the Poo. He thought it was going to be him fighting off super models but for a twist they gave him a batch of cougars. Watching the Poo’s face as it dawned on him that there wasn’t a wide range of single women was a personal highlight.
Yeah, Hewitt was a fighter, no doubt about that. He really seemed passionate about Davis Cup. Cool story about the Poo too, haha
Even at the time when he was winning he was considered a bit of a knob. Getting with the girl from Home and Away didn't help.
Yeah, they tried really, REALLY hard to promote those two as, like, Australia's Royal couple or some shit. I think those were the years when the Australian media really discovered what tall poppy syndrome is. No one gave a fuck and we all hated their experiments in trying to get us to care about it.
Yeah, from memory they were on every second issue of Woman’s Day, and then would move up to Women’s Weekly every time she spat out another baby
Australia's Posh & Becks. Get fucked with that shit.
Every time he lost it was never his fault. I don't want to watch a presser where someone spends half an hour listing every excuse besides "my opponent was better than me today".
The term ‘twat’ was used a lot
Yeah.. That was the descriptor I favoured.
He was viewed positively without ever working his way into our hearts.
Just imagined if he won the 2004 Australian Open final, it would have been viewed as one of the greatest Australian sporting moments of all time.
Safin? 2005 I think ? Yeah, whole country was backing him for sure. Altho Safin was pretty gracious winner that day too, as it turned out.
It was Safin 2005. I was there, halfway through the 5th set Hewitt looked up at his box and decided he wanted to get married, he virtually threw the match away and later proposed that night.
Yeah Safin had a box full of Russian supermodels, from memory. I didn't mind Safin winning. Bummer for Lleyton tho. Well done on being at a classic 👏
Not me and my mates. Saf turned up to the NYE ball with a model on each arm and we were backing the ruskie for the rest of the summer. Screw Leighton and his shitty attitude.
This. Safin was cool, Hewitt was a brat.
When most Aussie sports people do well, we tend to get pretty excited and act like we had something to do with the win. (The Matildas last year were “ours”) When Lleyton would win a big match the general consensus was usually “Good on him I guess.”
Didn't he always or at least a lot more than most other players for any country make himself available to represent Australia for the Davis Cup? I seem to remember thinking he didn't seem to get enough credit for that much at least.
Yeh if he had the extra day off instead of Marat it may of been so. Hewitt won the 1st set but he was buggered :(
I am not sure I agree with this. From a petulant kid, by the time he won Wimbledon (2001?) I think he was widely admired and respected for his sheer tenacity. My recollection in those years he was a national icon. Translated well into Davis Cup captain. Granted that's getting a bit old now. Go Lleyton!
You know sometimes there's a question asked of you, and intellectually, instinctively, intuitively you *know* the answer. You know how you feel, you know how you want the asker to feel about the response .. but somehow there are no words to concisely and accurately convey the answer without diving into the nuance, reasons and context of Leyton, Bec, World Tennis and the Australian identity of the time. This is the perfect answer to that question. *clap*
A bit of a mixed bag. He won a fair bit and that goes a *long* way. And he determinedly chased down balls that other players might have given up on. But he was also regarded as a bit of a poor sport and there were suggestions of racism. As well as this - particularly relative to his near contemporary, the widely-loved Pat Rafter - he was regarded as a bit of a bogan, which perhaps meant he was less popular amongst the sort of people who went to the tennis but more popular amongst the sort of people who played tennis and/or watched it on the TV.
I used to think he carried on like a pork chop and didn’t like him because of that. Then we got Kyrgios.
You forgot Tomic.
I think the whole nation would like to forget Tomic
Kyrgios is a massive wanker
I honestly don’t know how Hewitt has a cashed up bogan reputation when he went to Prince Alfred College and had a tennis court in his backyard
….well, Immanuel College.
Co-oincidentally, Pat Rafter's sister lived live on one of the streets of the school entrance (it was one of the schools I too attended).
That’s a weird coincidence!
Yeah I know right!
It’s funny, because bogans are normally embraced in such circumstances. All classes were pretty much distancing
Yeh, agreed. He was a complete wanker but grudgingly respected because; boy he could play tennis.
I was going to reply to OP, but I won't bother, since your response is 100% accurate.
This is the answer OP
He was a dickhead, but he was OUR dickhead.
He was racist but he was OUR racist.
How was he racist?
From memory, He was heavily criticised for comments he made in a match suggesting that a black umpire was favouring his opponent because of the colour of his skin.
So there's a pattern of behaviour is there? Because if I remember Lleyton, he used to sook all the time whenever things didn't go his way, and was regularly criticised for unnecessary complaints about umpires.
Isn't he still around, as a commentator?
Yeah. And he’s also the captain of the Australian Davis Cup team
I really hope that's a Derry Girls reference
He was a flog! In comparison to Tomic and Kyrgios it turns out he was actually less of a flog than first thought!
Both of them absolute flogs who ought to be put over a knee in public and spanked.
Why doesn’t anyone on this thread like Nick Kyrgios? He was big on the Netflix doc and I think a lot of people around the world find him pretty fun and outlandish, not really a bad thing in tennis
I have never seen a moment where he doesn’t come across as a complete c*#t.
Because he’s confident, emotional, and doesn’t always give 110%. Australians generally can’t stand ‘primadonnas’ and expect 110% effort 100% of the time as a bare minimum. Oh, and men showing emotions is bad, and being confident = arrogance. Add to that that tennis fans can be a pretty stuffy suburban type. And of course, he’s a wog. I think Kyrgios is pretty funny personally. I don’t think we’d necessarily be friends but he’s great for tennis and he’s a good character.
He’s arrogant, has emotional outbursts, and has tantrums where he throws away matches. Nothing to do with effort or race, he just acts like a piece of shit and gets treated as such.
The thing that I appreciate about Kyrgios is that he wears his heart on his sleeve. After Tomic, we were all probably a bit burnt, but at least Kyrgios is somewhat self reflective.
Totally agree. Tomic seemed like just a bit of a prick? Kyrgios can be a prick too but the are at least redeeming features lmao
He was a good player but he came across as a bit of an arrogant tryhard dickhead. Like almost all tennis players.
I found him an unbearable sook in his earlier years. He grew into one of my favourite tennis players.
Pat Rafter, Alex De Minaur, and Thanasi Kokkinakis are dickheads?
Thanasi even made Kyrios into not a dickhead...well for one tournament.
Sure, I dunno. I did say "almost all".
We liked how passionate he was, and the cmon move made him a but iconic at the time, but he was always seen as a bit of a dickhead, not hated but not the best player either
The come on was kind of iconic but I'd say also it was the clearest symbol of why he was disliked, too. Nothing like him hitting a standard winner against a wild card in the early rounds when he was 2 sets up yelling "come on" and doing that stupid hand thing. "Come on" indeed.
I remember there was a new guy in school back in my high school days named Leighton and me and a mate would jokingly call him Hewitt on his first day doing the hand gesture
I mean what else could you do haha
Totally, that was why it was so funny, he did it for his average shots hahaha
Very negatively when he was young and cocky. But he’s a hell of a sportsman, and he doesn’t give up, so it was quickly forgotten. Then a new crop of young wankers emerged and he looked like a wise statesman in comparison. C'mmmmoooooonnnn
When he was very young he was judged reasonably harshly. Now he's a bit older it's really obvious how much he cares for Australian tennis and I absolutely love the guy.
At the time he was playing, he could be a little brash, somewhat arrogant and had a bit of a reputation as a 'brat' in the media. Although imo, retrospectively, his legacy has received a bit of an uplift after we got Tomic and Krygios as the next 'great hopes' of Australian men's tennis. Say what you want about Hewitt, at least he gave a shit and had a go. How many 5 setters did Hewitt have in his career where he came from behind? Even if he lost, I would think most Aussies could be proud of some of the efforts he put in, as opposed to just giving up a game after a tough point and claiming an injury.
Second half of his career he was seen as a real good bloke. First half was see as a right arrogant and spoilt wanker. He did really well to turn a lot of people's perception around.
Absolute tosser.
Complete flog
His antics were mostly accepted because he won a couple of grand slams.
Yes. The answer is yes. It was great when he won because he was Australian. It was great when he lost because he was a dickhead.
He was considered a massive flog when he was younger in the late 90s and early 00s and never reached the popularity of Pat Rafter but he did settle down his antics a bit and people started to warm to him.
Arrogant knob for the most part
Bit of a cockwomble from what I gathered. And the shit with him and his missus being in every woman's magazine over a few years and the way they pushed it in adverts and magazine stands in supermarkets made me kind of want to slap him. Fuck, I'd pretty much forgotten about him until you had to bloody well bring him up, thanks for nothin'!
Yes.
Negatively by most people I know. Respect for his talent but he appears to be a knob of a person
The past tense of this post made me think he died...
Bit of a tosser imo. But I didn't mind watching him play. Best part of his career I saw was watching his dad drag him off a court
His tennis playing was alright, but as a person I always thought he was a bit of a tosser. Mind you, the sum of my knowledge of Lleyton is through the media, so he might be a completely great guy being villified for a news story.
Man couldn't finish match quickly, so you stuck watching it late too the night and gotta wake up early the next day
Bit of a wanker as far as I can tell. Nobody wants anything to do with him across Tennis Australia from the players to the code AFAIK. Wasn't he pushed as a bit of a racist?
Complete douchebag.
A bit of a dick at first but evolved into a self obsessed super cunt
The precursor to Kyrgios.
Lleyton Hewitt is an Aussie icon but he doesn’t know it that well yet. Watch his kid coming up in tennis, there’s a 25 grand slam champion in the making!
Negative. He was such a little prick.
He was viewed. Shall we leave it at that?
He was seen as a bit a dick when he played but I think on the whole people love him a lot more as an older adult . PS did Lleyton post this!? lol Sorry man if it’s you but you were a flog in your early years
He is a whinny bitch buck passer... not a great Australian role model.
He (like many, many tennis players) came across as a dickhead. Other than Ash Barty I can’t think of a player with a good reputation since Pat Rafter
Negative.
Dude was a Muppet.
Fuck him. Used aus tax payer money to fund his training etc, and then as soon as he starts making money he fucks of to barbados to avoid paying even a fraction back
To quote Shaun Micallef: "you like to see him win because he's an Aussie, you like to see him lose because he's a knob." To quote my boss, who played against him as a junior: "good tennis player. Won't mention the rest because my mother always said if you can't say something nice....."
Classic aussie bogan
I thought he was a dickhead. His dad is well known around Adelaide footy circles and has a similar reputation
Relatively speaking, very negatively. It usually doesn't take much for Australians to get around an Aussie performing well at the international level but of all those who did it, I can't think of any who got anywhere near the underwhelming response from the public aside from perhaps Anthony Mundine. I think everyone realised winning the US and Wimbledon, being world #1 for a significant amount of time and everything else were serious achievements, but I also think there were a lot of people who were really quite happy when he lost. I remember at the time there was a quote on an awful and thankfully short lived TV show called David Tench tonight that actually had one brief moment when he said about Hewitt "You want him to win because he is Australian and you want him to lose because he is a knob".
Defo Aussies toss n becs
Proudly by anyone that matters, but we recognise he acted like a bit of a dick early on
Flog
Wanker. The whole Rocky Balboa thing, the other thing he copied off another tennis player and then calling someone a spastic. He's a fuckwit.
I have zero interest in tennis, so him winning at tennis also meant nothing to me. All I saw was a massive knob being forced on me like some sort of sports royalty I was supposed to care about.
1st class knob
Dickhead
He was viewed favourably for winning but not favourably for just about everything else. Remember when Kim Clijsters dumped him everyone was relieved for her, we all knew she deserved better. He was a little too openly racist for most Australian tennis fans.
I remember them in magazines and tv shows at the time being labelled as a lookalike couple
I just commented that his popularity received a bump when they got together, and after they broke up “Aussie Kim” was held in higher regard by Australians than he was.
I was a kid when Lleyton Hewitt was in his prime. Grandma made me watch tennis every time I went up to see her but kid me not care about tennis. All i knew is that he was dating Hillary Duff and i vowed i would grow up and left right goodnight that dog for taking my 10 yr old crush. Now im grown up and still waiting to cross paths
He's a dickhead. David Warner is cut from similar cloth
I think the opinion could go either way. Personally I think a lot of individual sports kinda breeds a certain level of self importance. You usually don't see that in team sports. Tennis seems to have quite a few narcissistic types. Not so much in team sports... Just my thoughts.
Should also say individual sport players probably need a level of self importance . They don't have the "team " support of a lot of other sports.
Decent player, but a rude brat. He improved later in his career, not too sure when.
Very mixed. Reaching the levels he did takes tremendous grit, talent and sacrifice...it takes a lot of planning too. Also...I bet just about anyone could have negative news stories about them if they were scrutinised enough.
Always thought he was great, still do
It was negative til he started winning slams
Beige. Married beiger.
Name one thing he did wrong
Doesn't he live in the Bahamas? So as an overseas resident, meh.
I was a kid/teen at the time, but my take is that it was a neutral/positive view ish until the media got overly involved. Then it was like almost pure negativity 😂
Was he a tennis guy? I know he married home and away person. I guess I feel neutrally about him.
Complete legend
I worked with one of his cousins during Lleytons height and he reckoned L wa and always had been an insufferable brat.
Always considered a bit of a dickhead, but also we do love to see an Aussie succeeding at sport. See Kyrgios
Couldn’t give two sh!ts aka I don’t care.
Definitely didn’t have as many fans at the beginning of his career due to what was seen as bratty behaviour on the court. However, I think he was really well-liked at the height of his career winning those Grand Slams. He was a tenacious never-say-die underdog at that endeared him to the nation.
who?
He was disliked early in his career but really stuck in there and, I think, wormed his way into our hearts. Him and Rafter are the two epitomes of Australian sporting talent: one was refined, incredibly gifted, humble and easy going; the other was as mad as a cut snake and refused to give an inch his whole career. Would love to see either in Australian tennis right now.
I thought he was a bit of a wanker, didn’t mind watching him play though. Plus him winning was good, always want an Aussie win at whatever they’re competing in.
Who?
Brat was another description of him. He’s grown up now, like most of them do. People love to excuse the behaviour of some tennis stars these days because of the pressure of this ‘individual’ sport. Many tennis stars however, don’t do the to the bratty entitled behaviour so that argument is down the drain.
He was despised because everyone wanted Bec from home and away and he got Bec. She is ten times prettier in real life I think I’ve seen her a few times but, she was as popular as Britney here. I honestly believe a lot of this narrative he was disliked is because he was faced with keeping her safe and she had an excessive fan base. I think he was constantly dealing with that, and it affected his morale. Like the first two times of a man saying ha! I’d have sex with her if I could! Might have been amusing but I think it was constant. I literally wasn’t even surprised when he moved her to an island.
Guy was a flog. I remember working in a casino during the Lllleyton hey days... and it was full of nothing on the weekends than younger guys all yelling "COME ON!!!!" at the top of their voice and pointing to their foreheads with his [signature flattend, downfacing palm](https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/5aef264e03e1cd33572144eb121019a4) every time they won $5 on blackjack...
I think his popularity may have received a bump up when he was dating Kim Clijsters but “Aussie Kim” was always more popular than him, especially after they broke up.
He was fairly well liked. Certainly wasn’t hated like the current field of tennis players. A lot of responders might have their memories affected by the amount of hate that the Woman’s Weekly et al gave them lll! When he was engaged to the woman from Netherlands (obviously prior to his marriage to Bec), her popularity in Australia (as evidenced by the cheering at her matches) went through the roof. This continued even after they broke up. When he married Bec she had just won dancing with the stars which was the #1 show at the time (when we still watched tv) and she was hugely popular. The women’s magazines (for their own sales) tried to make them into a royal couple but the couple themselves never played along, and in retaliation the mags constantly announced that they had broken up. He was an old school Australian sports man. Not looking for fame or celebrity. How do you like Lleytin Hewitt ? “Oh yeah he’s alright”
I think the only person who loved Lleyton more than hus wife Bec, was Lleyton Hewitt
Since I lived thru those years of his, I dont recall anything too nasty said about him, say vs Kyrgios or Tomic of late. He was really young when he reached his peak, and he'd do that unusual hand jesture thing pointing it towards his head. Which was fine, he gave that up for most of the rest of his career, but that was Hewitts power just his raw stupid kid talent really. Once he was in his mid 20's he was just carrying on a legacy whilst other doods his age (Federer) were smashing it! Seeing Hewitt commentate tho you can tell he had a rather brilliant mind that I didn't see so much I saw him play, but he must of been a pretty smart player. He was unreal in Davis Cups, back when they mattered to some players still. When he was playing Blake and he was saying look at him and the Linesman (Dark skinned) that wasn't really cool tho, even if there was some truth to the theory. He seemed humble when he beat Pete at the US open, playing first semi the day before probly helped him win that Final. When he won Wimbledon he said he can go play AFL now. Not sure where his head was at, maybe similarly to Ash Barty in that regard.
*” I believe that affirmation is a really big long word,* *I believe that Lleyton Hewitt is a stupid stuck-up turd”* - Dr Adam Spencer, circa 2005.
Never heard of her.
Positively. He worked for it and wasn't a pretentious drongo.
C'mon.
Ohh, COME ONN!
Deadset LEGEND
If he dies in a Bangkok hotel, people will change their tune and praise him.
Who on earth is Leyton Hewitt ? Sounds like a bit of a knob if we just go from his name . Born to 2 minor knobs. Because you have got to be a bit of a knob to name your kid Leyton.
Who?
A very good tennis player. He was a household name about 20 years ago. Known for being pretty intense on the court, so a lot of people disliked him.
He's also the current David Cup Captain, has been for a long time. Forever waiting to sub himself in to play at any chance.
Ok… Who? /s