By LINDA PEARCE

            Pat Rafter led the way, out along the red carpet and through the throng spilling onto White City's grass centre court. Lleyton Hewitt followed a few steps behind his elder and senior, a player he admires like no other.

            It was the last respect Hewitt would show on a cool and windy day that blew away Rafter's final chance of sustained match play before next week's Australian Open. The Sydney International crowd was largely in Rafter's corner - "that stands for itself, he's Patrick Rafter and I'm ranked 100 in the world", said Mr 104 - but all form and confidence was stashed in Hewitt's.

            The 17-year-old had beaten big names before: Andre Agassi was his first superstar scalp during that amazing run at the Australian hardcourt championships last year, Jonas Bjorkman succumbed in the corresponding match here last year when the Swede was the second-seeded world No4 drawn against the upstart from Adelaide.

            But nothing was as big as this. Rafter, the dual US Open champion and Australian No1, on home soil. First round, straight sets. An astonishingly decisive 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 defeat in 81 minutes. Even considering that Rafter admitted he was "underdone", Hewitt's domination was complete.

            "I feel like I'm hitting the ball the best I've ever hit the ball," he said, facing an Adelaide rematch against German Nicolas Kiefer in the second round. "It started really a few months ago when I lost to [Marcelo] Rios in the quarter-finals in Singapore and it's kept rolling on from there. I've lost once match since then, to [Thomas] Enqvist last week, so that's great."

            As against Enqvist in Sunday's three-set hardcourt final, Sydney saw a relatively calm and subdued Hewitt.

            He hurled his racquet only a couple of times, but there was little to be churlish about. His hero was at his mercy. And the kill was swift.

            "He probably doesn't look at his best, I s'pose," Hewitt conceded. "At the US Open he was really looking his best and very eager. He hasn't had the matches, though, under his belt and that's what he had going into the US Open, but I'm sure come next week he'll be all fired up ready for the Aussie."

            To Rafter, Hewitt appeared quick and eager, his game suited to the slow conditions, his potential healthy. But there was no claim of likeness between the late-blooming Rafter at 17 and the early-achieving Hewitt, the third youngest title-holder in ATP Tour history, at the same age.

            "Nothing like it," Rafter said. "I was shithouse. I was a very ordinary 17-year-old, mate. He's a good player. Not even a contest."

            Nor is there any competition in the who-plays-best-at-home stakes. Hewitt thrives on the attention; Rafter feels heavily burdened by the expectations and demands on his time. He plans to go soon to Melbourne, to practice and to haunt the secret hiding places he has been unable to find in Sydney.

            "You're right, he loves it [attention]," Rafter said of Hewitt.

            "Another person who was excellent at it was Pat Cash. Some people are great at it, some people aren't. I'd like to think I can turn it around, but after so many tries I guess you've got to start getting a little more realistic and saying 'well, maybe I can't deal with it'."

            Rafter has a week to learn, and yesterday's drubbing should increase a sense of urgency that is already reaching crisis proportions.

            The hard preparation he had sought had been reduced to three matches for one win over a Japanese qualifier in Adelaide. Hardly the stuff of which grand Australian Opens are made.

            Which meant it was Hewitt, nine years his junior, who jauntily led the way from the court, waving to the crowd and stopping to sign autographs along the edge of the red carpet.

            Rafter, his head down, busied himself with his ponytail as he headed for the dressing-room. No respect, he might well have been muttering, but plenty of concerns.