Happy memories for Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt drew on the memories of his epic Davis Cup victory over Roger Federer in September to will himself through an “arm-wrestle” of a match against Spain’s Juan-Carlos Ferrero and give Australia a 1-0 lead in the final.

Hewitt has not played since that five-set thriller against the Swiss star, when he came back from two sets down to seal Australia’s place in the final, and the experience remains fresh in the mind.

While Ferrero did not hold a two-set lead at any point today, he twice forced Hewitt to rally from a set down before the Australian finally clicked into gear in the fourth set tie-break to run out a 3-6 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7/0) 6-2 winner.

“It was the last time I played a competitive match and there are a lot of similarities from that match,” he said.

“This was a big match against one of the best players in the world. Coming back, I guess not from such a big deficit this time, but knowing the situation, that you are playing Davis Cup and how big a match it was.

“In a lot of ways those memories – and they were good memories for me - helped me out a lot.”

Hewitt struggled for timing and rhythm after eight weeks without a competitive match, but what he lacked in sharpness the former world number one made up for in sheer determination.

He adopted a deliberate ploy of taking the game to Ferrero and, while it meant a raft of unforced errors, Hewitt was delighted by the number of winners he peeled off.

“I was going for it a lot more than I normally do. I tried to take it to him. I may have had more unforced errors than I normally have but there were a hell of a lot more winners than I normally have,” he added.

“If you look at my winners at the end of the match, my forehand winners were 21, my backhand winners 22.”