Description: MORE than four years have passed since his last Grand Slam, but Lleyton Hewitt clings to the belief that he has another major within him despite being comprehensively beaten by Andy Roddick in the US Open quarter-finals yesterday.
Hewitt is 25, often the cut-off age for major champions, and has seen his ranking fall to No.17 in the world, but he said he considers himself a top-five player.
"I think out of the guys that can win slams and push the best players, I think, yeah, I'm up there," he said after losing 6-3 7-5 6-4 to an impressive Roddick.
Hewitt then nominated next year's Australian Open as his priority. "I want to do a bit better than I did earlier this year," he said of his second-round loss to Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela.
He was disappointed to have lost at Flushing Meadows, where he always performs well, but he appeared philosophical considering the circumstances: a knee injury which hampered his US hardcourt season.
"I did everything possible to get on the court and left nothing in the locker room," he said. "Considering the doubt I was under coming into the tournament and the amount of practice I wasn't able to have, I felt I did pretty well to get to the quarters."
The Australian was cagey about whether he would play in the Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina in two weeks.
Hewitt, too, was secretive about his movements now that he is out of the US Open, but Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald told Argentine journalists earlier that he expected Hewitt to join Mark Philippoussis in Buenos Aires.
