'MORE MEDIOCRITY'

The John Newcombe medal , awarded to Australia's best performed Tennis player of 2013 was awarded to Lleyton Hewitt just recently , not sure why , what did he do ? He won nothing , sure his ranking rose , so did Nick Kyrgios , but only around 700 places , this obviously wasn't good enough to sway the judging panel though . What about a tie between Australia's best performed Women's Doubles team of Casey Dellacqua and Ash Bartey or weren't their efforts of reaching 3 of the 4 Grand Slam finals quite enough either ? Apparently Hewitt's 'outstanding' year was in fact more 'outstanding than the others though , his ranking went up around 23 places and he beat World number 6 Juan Martin Del Potro at The US Open and World number 8 Stanislav Wawrinka at Wimbledon . Do these wins however constitute  what the John Newcombe Medal is all about and that is once again 'Australia's Best Performed Tennis Player'? The answer is simple , no, it's laughable that Lleyton Hewitt's year was the best of any Australian Tennis Player , an embarrassment to the whole Award and the Great Man himself Mr Newcombe should feel rather silly that it was won by a Man who had an 'average' year, compared to others.
I wonder what this decision has done to the morale in Australian Tennis and surely Dellacqua and Barty would be wondering what on earth they needed to do to both receive the medal this year , these two were a 'standout' team. Surely young Nick Kyrgios with his 700 odd places up the ladder was just as impressive if not as impressive as the girls efforts , so getting back to morale.
Lleyton with his rather over the top court antics and arrogant demeanour hasn't put himself in everyone's favorite Tennis player basket since he first burst onto the scene as a 15 year old kid , in Australia or else where for that matter. This Award victory for him will do nothing to endear himself to anyone , and anyone who knows anything about the game will be having a quiet chuckle at this latest accolade , a reward for Mediocrity of the biggest kind . Surely Hewitt himself will be feeling a little guilty at the whole thing and deep down he knows that there were better performed players from Oz. To give just a small example of lleyton's popularity in the World of Tennis , the veteran American Michael Russell didn't hold back after he himself made the Semi Finals of a Tournament in the US that Hewitt made the final of . Hewitt had the audacity to say that he 'had the tougher draw' than guys on the other half , that's just plain stupid , even if it's true you don't say it , it's disrespecting your fellow Pro's ability.
Russell didn't miss him , calling Lleyton a 'dousch bag' and a 'racist' , referring to another not so smart comment that fell out of Hewitt's mouth at The US Open one year when playing black American former top ten player James Blake.
Personally I am not a fan of Hewitt's , I am not alone either , quite obviously as others have voiced their opinions regarding his arrogant ways . Hopefully next year common sense will prevail at the John Newcombe Medal awards night and Mediocrity will not be rewarded , Tennis doesn't work like that , it only rewards consistent results and Hewitt's year in no way resembled this.......