Hewitt Walks Open Road

So, we have met the future of men’s tennis. He is blue-eyed, blond, wears his cap backward, says “mate” and “bloody” a lot and looks as if he’d be perfect in the Olympic halfpipe.

Lleyton Hewitt may be 21 years old, but the youngster from Australia, who made a shambles of Tim Henman and the final of the Pacific Life Open Sunday, is, in men’s tennis terms, a youngster.

Like it or not, he is the leader of the new generation of the sport. He is fast and young and tireless and quick and plays with no conscience or fear, things that creep into one’s game with age and soreness.

The ATP tour has been running an ad campaign for the last few years titled “New Balls Please.” It was an attempt to promote the newcomers, and it was taken by some as a slap at Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, veterans who had done so much for tennis and weren’t exactly playing as if they were ready to buy condos in Sun City and play golf five times a week.

Now, it appears that the only sin the ATP committed with its campaign was starting a year or so early.

Hewitt is here. He is the leader of the pack that includes Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, Marat Safin, Juan Carlos Ferrero, James Blake and Mardy Fish and a few more we haven’t heard enough from yet to know.

If you tend to cling to the past, like some aging tennis writers you might know, get over it. (Where have you gone, Pete and Andre? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.)

The 1990s were wonderful for tennis, but the ‘90s are over.

Certainly, there are moments left for Sampras and Agassi, but not as many as there are for the likes of Hewitt, who is living the Carpenters’ song. He has only just begun.

There are a lot of things to say about Hewitt’s 6-1, 6-2 trouncing of Henman, a very fine player from England who must have felt as if he got hit by a truck.

* Henman’s main weapon is his serve-and-volley game. Henman didn’t hold serve once in the first set.

* Henman approached the net 38 times and lost the point 20 times.

* Henman won only 39 points, Hewitt 61.

* Hewitt had five double faults and 19 unforced errors and none of that mattered in the least.

In past years, the final in this event was always best-of-five sets. Television dictated this year’s to be best-of-three. For once, television got it right, even though the estimated crowd of 12,000 on a day that was finally the kind of warm-and-blue Palm Springs postcard weather that people here have come to take for granted, kept pushing Henman to extend the match. Sadly, another set would have been cruel and unusual punishment for the 27-year-old from London.

Hewitt is No. 1 in the world, and he’s not just hanging on to that rank.

“The scary thing is,” Henman said, “he’ll probably improve.”

Since he demolished Sampras in last year’s U.S. Open final, 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-1, Hewitt has run up a 33-4 record, including his last 11 in a row, a title match in San Jose two weeks ago against Agassi and his 6-2, 6-4 win over Sampras here Saturday afternoon.

Watching Hewitt’s dissection of Henman, No. 11 in the world, made it clear that Sampras and Agassi are still pretty good.

Agassi had two match points on Hewitt in the San Jose final, a three-setter, and Sampras, playing in a swirling wind that destroys his service toss, was much more in contention than Henman.

But there is no denying the current air of invincibility about Hewitt, who will be huge favorite to win the next tour stop at Miami, which is, like Indian Wells, one of the ATP’s nine Tennis Masters Series events.

Nor is there any denying that, despite the excellence of his back-court game and the lure of his invincibility, Hewitt has a way to go before he invades the public consciousness like Sampras and Agassi, and those before them. Hewitt has one Grand Slam title, the thing that ultimately counts most in tennis. Sampras has 13, Agassi seven.

Getting there is a process. The more Hewitt wins, the more he is exposed to the press and public. How he handles himself in those situations will go a long way toward determining his legacy.

Right now, he has a tennis game and little image beyond that. But at 21, neither Sampras nor Agassi, nor many players, were ready for the cover of Time magazine.

The veterans of this sport, the ones who leave the best memories, are reminiscent of the famous line once written about an aging athlete who had mishandled public relations until the twilight of his career. Of him, it was written: “He didn’t learn to say hello until it was time to say goodbye.”

Hewitt’s future is the great sports cliche. It is all ahead of him. He has the athletic skills, the drive, even the apparent toughness and strength despite being 5 feet 11 and 150 pounds.

Learning to say hello has nothing to do with backhands and forehands, but everything to do with his place in the future of tennis. As the leader of the new pack, here’s hoping Hewitt figures that part out as well as he has his cross-court angles.