‘Alicia in Wonderland’ at the ‘Little Lleyton Open’: selected Australian newspapers’ narratives about Alicia Molik and Lleyton Hewitt at the centennial Australian Open

Abstract

Three Australian newspapers’ narratives about Australian tennis players Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik competing in the centennial Australian Open Championships were examined. Articles in The Australian, The Age and The Times Herald were analysed during the two‐week period coinciding with the Open. Textual analysis was used to examine how the newspapers’ gendered narratives intersected with nationalistic discourses about the two hometown favourites. The narratives about Hewitt were complex and contradictory. Several journalists criticised his remonstrations against the court surface and the Australian tennis establishment. Early in the tournament Hewitt was portrayed as unpatriotic and petulant, in a ‘little big man’ oxymoron, which also served to question his aggressive on‐court demeanour and posturing, and by implication his hegemonic masculinity. However, as Hewitt progressed to the final many of the narratives praised his performance of hegemonic masculinity and defined him as a ‘patriot at play’, quintessentially Australian, with character traits that would resonate with the Australian ‘imagined community’. In comparison, the narratives about Molik generally defied the usual type of gendered language reserved for female tennis players. Molik was defined through her South Australian identity, her athletic ability, and her self‐belief, control and courage. These findings suggest that the selected newspapers’ hometown rooting or nationalistic discourses had at least, in part, subsumed the gendered narratives that frequently frame female and male athletes. This implies that in major international sporting events such as Grand Slam tennis tournaments the national identity of local competitors can override other identity markers such as gender.