Roland Garros Paris
Nadal-Hewitt Showdown Tonight
When grit meets panache
Afp, Paris
Lleyton Hewitt will summon his street-figh-ting instincts to slug it out with champion Rafael Nadal when the two fiery stars clash in a mouth-watering French Open fourth round duel on Monday. The gutsy Australian has lost both his career claycourt meetings with the Spaniard, but insists he could be the man to shatter Nadal's Roland Garros record of 17 wins in 17 matches at the second Grand Slam of the season. His confidence stems from the realisation that he sees a lot of himself in the swashbuckling, fearless Mallorcan left-hander who is being tipped to emulate Bjorn Borg and pull off three wins in a row at the gruelling event. "I like the guy," admitted Hewitt. "I think he's got a great attitude. He has that never-say-die attitude in his game. "He's not afraid of anyone which I think is great." Hewitt, a former world number one and Wimbledon and US Open winner, has already had to grind his way into the fourth round in Paris. In the second round, he came back from a two-set deficit to beat 2004 champion Gaston Gaudio. In Saturday's third round, he was totally outplayed by Finn Jarkko Nieminen in the first set before he launched one of his trademark comebacks to reach the last 16 for the second successive year. Twelve months ago, his hopes of making a second career French Open quarterfinal were thwarted at the same stage by Nadal. But he took a set off the Spaniard then just as he did last month when he won the opening set of their Hamburg Masters semifinal before Nadal prevailed. "I feel like I have played two pretty good matches against him," added Hewitt. "There's no doubt though that as good as he is on other surfaces, he's a lot better on clay. Movement-wise, he can get to a lot of balls. It gives him a little more time to get something on it." Nadal turned 21 on Sunday and is still regarded as the overwhelming favourite to win a third French Open and prevent, for another year at least, world number one Roger Federer from completing the famed Grand Slam. The two are seeded to meet for a second successive year in next Sunday's final, but it's the battling Hewitt, five years his senior, who currently occupies his thoughts, not the elegant Swiss master. "Hamburg was a very tough match," recalled Nadal of his most recent dirtball clash with Hewitt. "He likes to win. He fights a lot. I respect him. In Germany, I didn't play very well because he didn't let me play."
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