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Friday, July 18
Hewitt never varied his strategy
By Patrick McEnroe

MELBOURNE, Australia -- As the match went on between Lleyton Hewittt and Younes El Aynaoui on Monday, you could see Hewitt was feeling some of the pressure of being the top seed. I've rarely seen him not change a losing strategy. He stuck with his same game plan and allowed El Aynaoui to dictate play. That caused Hewitt to lose 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-4.

McEnroe's Take
Patrick McEnroe
McEnroe
Former ATP Tour pro Patrick McEnroe is providing ESPN.com with in-depth analysis during the Australian Open. McEnroe, a tennis analyst for ESPN, is the U.S. Davis Cup team captain.

El Aynaoui had to play great tennis to beat the world No. 1. He finished with 33 aces and hit 71 percent of his first serves. Hewitt was completely dumbfounded by El Aynaoui's serve.

I have never seen Hewitt aced so many times. He's always able to get his racket on the ball. He was just flat-footed on the serve. He never tried to give El Aynaoui a different look by backing up or changing his strategy. This guy was having the serving day of his life and when a player gets in a zone like that, you have to do something to get them out of it. I think Hewitt probably was just shell-shocked and sort of froze. Clearly, by the end, he was flustered as he threw in a double-fault at break point in the fourth set.

Andy Roddick's five-set 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 victory earlier was clearly what we'll think of, someday when we look back at his career, as a milestone victory. For him to come back from two sets and a break down against a player, Mikhail Youzhny, who is his age and who he'd never defeated before, was impressive. Forgetting about how Roddick does in this tournament, this is one of those matches you put down as a milestone in a young player's career. He was being completely outplayed in hot conditions. Yet, he was able to keep his composure, vary his game plan and dominate the last few sets.

I don't think there's any question Roddick is much happier playing El Aynaoui than Hewitt. His game matches up well with El Aynaoui because he has as big a serve and as big a forehand. Obviously El Aynaoui is dangerous, but Roddick will win this quarterfinal match.

I spoke to Roddick after the match and he has the right mentality. He knows this victory was just another step. I like that he's put pressure on himself to do well in the Grand Slams this year, and I like that he feels he's got a couple of more matches to play -- maybe three more.

James Blake lost his fourth-round match to Rainer Schuettler. It was always going to be a difficult match for Blake against the underrated Schuettler. I think Blake felt the pressure that most people thought he should win.

He needs to learn to play his game. Instead, he came out a little bit tentative. But this is another step in his learning process. He has more game than Schuettler, he just didn't put it together. But I still feel that Blake is going to have a great year.

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Top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt is ousted by Younes El Aynaoui.
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