Australia is without a singles representative in the third round of either tennis draw after Lleyton Hewitt last night followed Casey Dellacqua and Sam Stosur out of the tournament. Hewitt fell 6-1, 6-2 to second seed Rafael Nadal and although doubles had always appealed as the best hope of a medal, only doubles is now left.
Restricted by a left hip injury to just four tournaments since March, Hewitt was backing-up from Monday night's record-breaking 3-hour, 15-minute doubles win with Chris Guccione, the longest best-of-three-set men's match in Olympic history and one in which the Australians finally triumphed over Argentines Agustin Calleri and Juan Monaco 18-16 in the third set.
Nadal who had never beaten Hewitt in three previous hardcourt attempts, but has now squared the career ledger at 4-4. If the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion is the best player in the world at the moment, Hewitt is far from being the player he was, with a ranking that has sunk to 37th and worse damage soon to come. Nadal, meanwhile, will on Monday take over from Roger Federer at No.1, and a gold medal playoff between the old king and the new one is the match Olympic tennis both wants and needs.
Even if Hewitt was fully fit and prepared, he would - like every one of his peers - struggle to match the powerful young Spaniard, and under these circumstances the result was utterly predictable. Hewitt held serve on twice in 90 minutes, and .
Earlier, Dellacqua was eliminated 6-2, 6-2 by 12th seed Victoria Azarenka but still managed two more games than Stosur could muster against eight-time grand slam champion Serena Williams, who monstered Stosur 6-2, 6-0.
The Queenslander has made solid progress since returning in April from an extended illness lay-off to be on the verge of earning direct singles entry to this month's US Open once her Olympic doubles duty with partner Rennae Stubbs is done. But she lasted just 44 minutes against Williams, who won the last 10 games to gallop into her third round clash with 15th seed Alize Cornet.
"At 2-all, I was playing great," Stosur said. "I had two really good service games, as she did, and one double-fault gives her break point. Then all of a sudden I'm 5-2 down in about two minutes and then the match is over in about another two.
"I mean, it's hard. I don't really feel as though I played badly. I made one mistake basically at that point of time and then couldn't get it back. Obviously against top players you can't afford to make one mistake, but it's not very often where you just absolutely get blown off the court like 20 minutes later."
Dellacqua was forced to change her sweat-soaked shirt on court during the second set after being refused permission to seek the privacy offered by a courtside fence. Players must wait for the end of a set or take a bathroom break to . Dellacqua could not do the first and chose not to interrupt the match by opting for the second course.
"So I just thought 'I'll just strip'," said Dellacqua, acting on the suggestion of teammate Rennae Stubbs. "I couldn't play, because I had sweat dripping down my leg and for guys it's OK, because you can sit there and just take your shirt off, but for girls you've got to be a bit lenient."
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