>By Sports.com's JECINTA NOBLE
Australian Lleyton Hewitt flew out of New York on Monday night, safe in the knowledge that his tennis career had just escalated after defeating Pete Sampras in the US Open final.
But when he touched down on home soil on Wednesday, he was greeted with the devastating news of the attack on New York that he said left him feeling sick to the stomach.
Hewitt signs autographs for the US crowd before flying home (Allsport)
"As soon as I heard, you got a sick feeling in your stomach," Hewitt said.
"It's unbelievable, it really is shocking news, you can't get much worse. I think everyone feels for the victims."
The attacks on New York occurred just hours after Hewitt's plane had taken off, but the pilots had decided not to inform the passengers until they landed in Australia.
The 20-year-old Australian produced some of the finest service returns ever seen in New York to consign Sampras to his second consecutive final defeat on Sunday.
Hewitt then spent his final day just being a tourist, walking and driving the streets of Manhattan with the U.S. Open trophy in his hands, stopping to pose for photographs and sign autographs.
Hewitt then left the city late on Monday night, on what turned out to be the last flight home before the attacks, boarding a plane to Los Angeles before transferring to the flight to Sydney.
"To think that I was at New York airport going to Los Angeles, like a few of those flights were, only probably five or six hours before those people," Hewitt said.
"And all day yesterday I was travelling around in a car holding the U.S. Open trophy around those streets...it sort of throws everything into perspective a little bit more.
"It's great that I won a few tennis matches but there is a lot more larger than tennis matches, that's for sure, when you look at the bigger picture and life in general."
Once the plane had landed the Australian Federal police boarded his plane in Sydney, informing the shocked passengers of what had occurred while they were in air and asked them to fill in questionnaires over their visits to New York. |
