A timeline of Hewitt indiscretions
January 2000: A teenage Hewitt, upset after his hometown crowd raucously cheered on his unheralded Aussie opponent Dejan Petrovic during the AAPT Championships in Adelaide, slams "the stupidity of the Australian public" at a press conference. Hewitt goes on to win the tournament but a month later, Inside Sport magazine rates him as Australia's least-admired sports person.
May 2001: Hewitt is fined US$1000 for calling chair umpire Andres Egli a "spastic" during a French Open fourth round match. Hewitt apologises, but declines an invitation from the Spastic Centre of Australia to visit one of its centres. "It's a great shame that having spasticity, which is one of the major conditions associated with having cerebral palsy, should be used in such a derogatory way," says Spastic Centre chief executive Rob White.
September 2001: Hewitt is accused of racism during a match against African-American opponent James Blake at the US Open. Upset at twice being foot-faulted, Hewitt approached the umpire demanding the linesman in question - also an African-American - be changed. "Look at him", Hewitt said, gesturing first at Blake and then at the linesman, "look at him and you tell me what the similarity is". Hewitt insists there were no racial overtones in his outburst, escapes punishment and wins the tournament, beating Pete Sampras in the final.
January 2005 and 2006: Hewitt blames his exits from the Australian Open on the slow and uneven rebound ace surfaces at Melbourne Park. "I don't think there's been a lot of homework done on how the balls play on this surface & I feel like I'm fighting with people that we should be working together to try and make Australian tennis better," he tells a press conference in 2006, insinuating that event organisers should be tailoring the surface to better suit his own game.
June 2008: Hewitt cops a US$1000 fine for unsportsmanlike behaviour during his first-round Wimbledon clash with Dutchman Robin Hasse. Ignoring a warning from chair umpire Fergus Murphy, Hewitt smashed his racquet on the ground and launched several verbal tirades at a line judge for foot-faulting him. When asked if Murphy was right to call his conduct unsportsmanlike, Hewitt says: "I would doubt it. No, I would be fighting that".
