Hewitt on guard against gifted youngster

Eyes wide open, Lleyton Hewitt is awake to the danger his gifted second-round
opponent poses at the Australian Open on Thursday.

Hewitt takes on Donald Young for a place in the last 32 at Melbourne Park conscious
that the 20-year-old American is growing in confidence after finally learning to
stand on his own two feet.
Young has been living off the generosity of grand slam officials ever since winning
the Australian Open junior championship as a 15-year-old back in 2005.
A wildcard here, a wildcard there, but precious few notable victories to validate
his free rides at the majors.
But Young, ranked 195th in the world, has won the respect of Hewitt after earning
his spot in the main draw in both Melbourne and at the most recent slam in New York
in September.
"There's been big tickets on Donald for quite a number of years now," Hewitt said.
"By him qualifying and starting to make it through into some of these grand slams,
he's obviously starting to fulfil that potential."
Young said his problems had been all in the head.
"It was mental," he said. "When I'm feeling good about myself, I play better. When
I'm feeling down and things are not right, I don't play too well.
"I'm a lot better player than I was last year. I've got confidence. I've won some
matches and I'm feeling better myself and tennis is really about confidence."
Hewitt beat Young 7-5 6-2 in their only previous meeting on a hard court in
Washington last August.
"He's definitely a lot more of a shot-maker and probably likes the big occasion a
little bit more," Hewitt said.
"He's a bit of an up-and-down player. He can hit a lot of winners, but he can make
some unforced errors as well."
While Hewitt cruised into the second round with a three-set victory over Brazilian
qualifier Ricardo Hocevar on Tuesday night, Young didn't finish his match against
Christophe Rochus until close to midnight because of a bizarre 40-minute delay.
"The ball kid peed on himself. It was unfortunate," Young said.
"It took a while (to clean up and replace him). Then they had to put the saw dust
down, or whatever you put down when somebody throws up.
"Then they had to use the blower (to dry the court) but the blower had no gas in it,
so that took even more time."
Young, 20, was up two sets to one and had just broken Rochus to establish a 2-1 lead
in the fourth when the incident occurred.
"Rochus hit a serve out wide, the ball boy went to catch it and it was just ... I
don't know what happened. I just looked back and it was all just dripping on the
court and he had this look on his face. He was surprised.
"He ran off and it dribbled across the whole back of the court."
Should Hewitt win, he will face either Spanish 17th seed David Ferrer or in-form
Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in the third round on Saturday.
Australia's two remaining players in the women's draw also have second-round matches
on Thursday.
World No.13 Samantha Stosur plays unseeded German Kristina Barrois, while wildcard
playoff winner Casey Dellacqua is up against Croatian Karolina Sprem.