Hewitt’s worth the wait
Top seed Lleyton Hewitt had to wait more than five and a half hours to get on court but rapidly made up the time as he despatched little-known Austrian Julian Knowle in contemptuous fashion.
The razor-sharp Aussie produced an awesome show of power and precision against an outclassed opponent with a quickfire 6-2 6-1 6-3 victory that earns him a fourth-round meeting with another unseeded player, Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
Tim Henman, lying in wait at the semi-final stage, cannot fail to have been impressed by the form of Hewitt, even though his performance today must be measured alongside the paucity of his opponent’s play.
It was all over in one hour 28 minutes and the end came as merciful relief for the 28-year-old Austrian, who clearly looked overawed and out of his depth.
Knowle, ranked 95th in the world, held his serve in his opening two service games but that was as good as it got for a player who will quickly want to forget his first meeting with the Australian Open champion and his own Centre Court debut.
Hewitt won 13 of the next 14 games and, although Knowle came up with a belated rally in the final set, the crowd had by then demonstrated the lingering appeal of the Mexican wave.
If Knowle, playing only his third Grand Slam tournament, could do little right, Hewitt produced virtually the perfect game, with 16 aces and not a single double fault.
Yet to drop a set this week, he never gave his disillusioned opponent a sniff of a break point as, in trademark fashion, he rammed home 19 winners from the baseline.
There was mock applause when Knowle ended an eight-game losing sequence in the third set and the Austrian sportingly acknowledged the reception. He knew he had been beaten by a potential champion.
