Jimmy Connors<\/a> grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois. His mother and grandmother raised him to have a chip on his shoulder. He was from the wrong side of the tracks and anyone who dared to step between him and victory was taking away his God-give right to the American dream. Never mind that his grandfather had been the mayor of East St. Louis and his mother had been a successful tennis player.<\/p>\n In his book, Jimmy Connors Save My Life<\/a>, Joel Drucker recounts a story from Connors’ juniors career. An opponent was concerned because he\u2019d heard that Connors cheated on line calls. He decided to wait until Connors actually cheated before he called a linesman. While he was warming up for the match he heard Connors’ mother ask Jimmy, “We hear this guy cheats. Do you want me to get a linesman?”<\/p>\n Connors’ mother chose a coach for her son who had an outsider status she could relate to: Pancho Segura.<\/p>\n We know where Jimmy Connors learned to win tennis matches by any means necessary but what is Lleyton Hewitt\u2019s<\/a> excuse? His parents seem to be perfectly nice people. They don\u2019t run onto the court after a match like Maria Sharapova\u2019s father, they haven\u2019t been banned from tournaments like Jelena Dokic\u2019s father, they don\u2019t hold up signs during the match or make incendiary comments to the press like Richard Williams. What is Lleyton\u2019s problem?<\/p>\n He applauds his opponent\u2019s errors, plays to his fanatical fans and ignores his opponent, he celebrates with the lawnmower<\/a> and he flashes the vicht<\/a>. Opponents have spat at him and tried to drill him on the fly with their serve. Even a gracious competitor like Andy Roddick<\/a> took an illegally long clothing break in a grand slam semifinal to piss Hewitt off.<\/p>\n Didn\u2019t work. He\u2019s a runt. He\u2019s the kid who is too small and slams and smashes his way to the top to prove everyone wrong. He has the same attitude as Connors: there is my crew and there is everyone else. And everyone else is the enemy.<\/p>\n He is supremely combative, fighting drives him. Here is a guy who was the youngest man to reach the number one ranking, at age 20, dropped all the way back to a ranking of seventeen and recreated his game to get back to a solid number two. Before, he had to spin his serve wide to find an ace. Now he regularly busts aces down the middle. The only player in the top ten with more aces is Andy Roddick. He used to be allergic to the net. Now he attacks regularly.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Serving at 5-4, 0-15, Coria hits a ball into the net and Hewitt comes out with another \u201ccome awn\u201d. Applauding an opponent\u2019s error, uh oh, the battle begins. Hewitt wins the game to get the break back and the set goes to a tiebreaker. At 4-4 in the tiebreaker, Hewitt approaches with an inside out forehand then hits a deep volley that forces Coria to put up a lob. Hewitt tracks down the lob and hits a passing shot down the line but Coria hits a beautiful slicing volley beyond Hewitt\u2019s reach. Coria immediately turns to the Argentinians in the crowd with a fist pump and a primal yell. No doubt to annoy Hewitt. Coria is a fighter, a willing combatant.<\/p>\n