Let's Go, Rusty

There's one thing about the Aussie sports fans, they never give up on their country players. I have seen this happen on the cricket field, where the Aussie cricketers - albeit rarely - would be crumbling, but the chants of the crowd would be as vociferous as ever. It's as though the players might be down but the fans are never out.


Watching Lleyton Rusty Hewitt take on German Cedrik Marcel-Steba in his first round match at the Australian Open, I was once again struck by this unwavering and unstinting support and belief that Australian fans show towards their players. Throughout the course of the match, hollerings of 'Let's Go Rusty' could be heard, without a drop in the intensity or with a defeatist attitude. The latter should have definitely come into the picture when the 83rd ranked German was serving to take the match into a nerve-wrecking five-setter. But it never did, and as the fans' beloved Rusty came rallying back to win the set and the match three sets to one, the crowd was at its feet, with the ululations and hollerings quadrupling in their saturation. 


Experts argue that Hewitt's best has gone untested and untried on account of injury problems and repeated periods of absences from the game. But these arguments do not matter to his fans nor do the debilitating facts that stare at them boldly. Hewitt, who is playing his 16th slam Down Under has come back to the game after a lay-off of almost eight months with a ranking of 181 in the world. But to his fans, he is still their beloved Rusty whose nickname is quite paradoxical as compared to his spunk, which is visible in copious amounts even today. 

As a fan hearting a favourite, the world's has a lot to learn from the Aussies. Not that the other nations' sports fans are mellowed, toned down or sceptical about their countrymen, it's just that the Australians are a different genre altogether when it comes to fandom and rooting. This makes them unique and worth admiring, from any remote corner of the world.