Australian Open 2012 live stream

Where did all the years go?

Can this really be Lleyton Hewitt’s 14th Australian Open? Is it really five years since he reached the final here, the human cyclone who blew through the draw in a whirlwind of fist pumps and c’mons? Surely not.

These days Hewitt is a sedate family man of 28, a father of two and one of the elders of the game. True, he still has a level of intensity on court that can terrify even the bravest of men and a stare that can turn an errant line judge to a pillar of salt, and in typical eye-popping, vein bulging style, he clobbered Donald Young 7-6(3) 6-4 6-1 to reach the third round. That set up another Saturday night appointment with Marcos Baghdatis, a replay of their all-night drama of two years ago.

It was as if Hewitt took one look at the young American hopeful in front of him and thought: “Mmm, I remember what it was like to be where you are now, mate. Let me show you how it’s done”.

Where Young would blow hot and cold, his body language going from cocky to dejected in the space of a game, Hewitt was focused and unwavering. He may not be quite the physical force he once was, but he has a lifetime of experience to draw upon – he simply sized Young up, stepped up a gear, and ran away with the match. It was as good a day’s work as Hewitt could have hoped for at this stage in the tournament.

“I felt like I got out of the blocks well,” he said. “He started serving a lot better and he mixed up his game very well. He's very flashy with his forehand. He can generate pace from anywhere on the court. When he's actually got time to run onto the ball, because he is so quick, he actually comes up with some pretty good shots.

“He was returning well, and I wasn't serving as well as I would have liked early on. My serve got better as the match went on and that definitely put me in a better position to be a little bit more aggressive on his service games.”

Hewitt and Young are polar opposites. When Australia’s feistiest son was but a scrap of a lad, he still oozed confidence and fury from every pore. He may have been slight of frame, but he was fuelled on pure adrenaline. What he lacked in weight of shot and experience, he more than made up for in speed around the court and a dogged determination not to lose a point, much less a match.

Young, on the other hand, is a wonderfully gifted player, one who can do as he pleases with racquet and ball. He was a little on the short side as a teenager but now that he is 20, he has grown into a sturdy six-footer and has the muscle power to give the ball an almighty thump. But natural talent is only half the battle – it is knowing what to do with that talent that turns players into champions, as Hewitt could surely tell him.

From the moment Young started playing junior events, he was tipped as the next, great American hope. Such luminaries as John McEnroe forecast that the young man from Atlanta would soon be taking the world by storm. At the age of 15, he became the youngest winner of a junior Grand Slam title, picking up the silverware here at Melbourne Park. With every rally, the expectation was mounting.

Eager to be the first to showcase Young’s talents, the tournaments fell over themselves to offer him wild cards into their main draws, and suddenly Young, who was still trying to crack the Futures and Challenger circuits, was now in the first round of Masters events and majors and facing the likes of Novak Djokovic and Tim Henman. For two-and-a-half years, he traipsed around the world and never won a match on the main tour and, with every loss, his confidence sank a little lower.

He broke the cycle in 2007 at the age of 18 by beating Amer Delic in the first round in New Haven and going on to reach the third round of the US Open a couple of weeks later. His ranking pushed up to 73 in 2008 but then dropped back, and now he is down to a lowly 195. For all the talent, he still has not found a way to kick on to the next level and stay there.

“He plays a little bit different,” Hewitt said. “He's flashy and rides a bit of a wave for a few games, and then throws in a couple of suck games out of nowhere. But he's a lot better playing than his ranking is right at the moment.

“He obviously struggled with the expectation of being the next great hope for America for a while. He's been 70-odd in the world, and won't be long before he's back there.”

This was Hewitt in generous, almost fatherly mood. He knew exactly what Young was going through, but he also knew that by the time he was Young’s age, he had already won his first Grand Slam title. Whether Hewitt has another major title in him remains to be seen, but it will still take a lot to stop him here on his home patch, far more than Young had to offer.