16th May, 1999

FRENCH CROWN WITHIN HEWITT'S GRASP

NO Australian man has won the French Open since Rod Laver 30 years ago and the drought could be broken this year. One player who could surprise everyone at Roland Garros from tomorrow week is Lleyton Hewitt.

He has become an amazing player at only 18 - he already has two titles after winning in Delray Beach on clay this week.

I have always thought Lleyton would be a top 30 player and now that he is ranked 41 in the world, he is playing better than a top 30 player.

When Lleyton burst on to the international scene last year there were a lot of people who thought he might hve been a flash in the pan. He was still in school, but out on court he was beating Jason Stoltenberg and Andre Agassi.

He has consolidated this year and reached three finals. He thrashed Cedric Pioline at the Australian Open and Pioline is a US Open and Wimbledon finalist. Lleyton continues to come up with these sorts of incredible results.

He has a great attitude and wants to learn all the time. Lleyton can not wait to play Davis Cup and I am sure his chance will come soon. As for him and me, he has beaten me the last two times, so I owe him a couple.

THERE'S been a lot of talk about Pete Sampras struggling this year and even suggestions he might be past his best. The doubts have arisen because of Pete's injuries and inconsistent form.

It's true, Sampras hasn't had a super start to the year, but he's still a great player. There's no doubt he's definitely in a slump and, at this stage, he hasn't shown the form of previous years. But as the winner of 11 grand slam titles, Pete is not somebody you can afford to muck around with.

I've been fortunate enough to have beaten him the past two matches, but there are plenty of other guys I'd rather play. You still have to be very careful around him and you just know that he's going to come back at some stage.

I WILL team up with Mark Philippoussis at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf this week in the lead-up to the French Open. "Flip", lost early in the Italian Open in Rome, but has since been in Paris training before he heads to Germany. This will be the first time we have played this event together and it will be a bonus to have at least three matches on clay.

We have patched up differences we had over "Rochey" (coach Tony Roche) from the US Open a long time ago. There was never any major issue - we simply had different views about what happened in New York. And the fact Mark is back in the Davis Cup team - and is happy to be there - says a lot about him, too. Hopefully we can put it all together this week, win the tournament and go into Paris with confidence.

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