NEW YORK -- It's been a cruel summer for Lleyton Hewitt. The stuff got so thick before the U.S. Open that he wondered aloud if he might leave tennis and start playing Australian Rules Football.

	Lleyton Hewitt has slipped to No. 6 in the rankings and hasn't won a tournament in five months.

Reportedly, Hewitt was a 13-year-old terror playing for Immanuel College back in Adelaide and he remains the biggest fan of the Adelaide Crows. Still, it isn't likely he will quit his day job.

Hewitt lost the first set to Hyung-Taik Lee on Thursday with a typically disinterested beginning. He rallied to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, but he looked less than regal doing so. Lee has some big wins this year -- over Andy Roddick and Juan Carlos Ferrero -- but he is also ranked No. 69.

"I didn't feel like I was probably as aggressive at the start," Hewitt said. "Felt actually like the better I played, the better he played. I would have liked to have went out a little bit easier. But, you know, (I'm) still happy to get through."

No, it isn't easy being Lleyton Hewitt. When he became the youngest man to ever achieve the ATP's No. 1 ranking, there was nowhere to go but down. And so it has come to pass.

Hewitt, still only 22, has slipped to No. 6 and hasn't won a tournament in five months. He was the first defending Wimbledon champion in the Open era to lose in the first round -- to a qualifier, no less. The drive, the belief that carried him past players with far bigger weapons, seems to have dissipated.

Earlier this month, Hewitt had three match points in the Los Angeles final against Wayne Ferreira and failed to convert one. A year ago, that wouldn't have happened.

"I think it's a bit of the Tiger Factor," said Robert Lusetich, a correspondent for The Australian and a close observer of Hewitt. "Once you've gone down, you lose that invincibility. Prior to this, there was a feeling in the locker room that if you got into a third-set tiebreaker or a fifth set, there was no way this little guy was going to let you win.

"No one thinks that anymore."

Which begs the big question this year in men's tennis: Why?

Theories abound. The consensus opinion is that he is distracted by off-court issues.

The centerpiece of this argument is his ongoing dispute with the ATP. Hewitt was fined $193,065 for failing to do an interview with ESPN last year in Cincinnati. Although the fine was later reduced to $20,000, Hewitt is suing. He says the adverse publicity has cost him $2.5 million in income. The arguments will be heard in the South Australian Supreme Court after the U.S. Open.

And then there is Hewitt's unsettled coaching situation. Under Darren Cahill, he became No. 1, but Cahill left late in the 2001 season in a messy divorce driven by philosophical differences. Successor Jason Stoltenberg was sacked two weeks before this year's Wimbledon -- an awful piece of timing that probably contributed to Hewitt's loss there to Ivo Karlovic -- although it has been written that Stoltenberg walked because he could no longer bear the daily histrionics. Roger Rasheed, Hewitt's former fitness coach, has been handling the coaching duties, but his tenure appears tenuous. Peter McNamara is viewed as the favorite for the job.

When Hewitt was climbing the tennis ladder, some observers believed he would never become No. 1 because his game wasn't big enough. Oh, but it was. He won his first Grand Slam at the 2000 U.S. Open and finished the year at No. 1. He was the 2001 Wimbledon champion and again finished with the top ranking.

He won at Scottsdale and Indian Wells, but that was in March. Since then, he has digressed. The following players ushered him from his last eight tournaments: Francisco Clavet, Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Robredo, Sebastien Grosjean, Ivo Karlovic, Wayne Ferreira, Max Mirnyi and Xavier Malisse. Hewitt is listed at 5-foot-11, 150 pounds, but he is closer to 5-10, 140. Lately, in the absence of his trademark drive and determination, Hewitt's game has been downsized to merely formidable.

"It's a tough world out there," Aussie doubles icon Mark Woodforde told an Australian newspaper. "There are a lot of guys out there that see Lleyton Hewitt as a prime target. They want to beat him and Lleyton has to work hard in every match he plays. And over the summer he's come up a bit short."

Some believe that the rise of Hewitt's girlfriend, Kim Clijsters, to the No. 1 spot he once occupied also has been a factor. He watches her matches when he can and is clearly thrilled with her success.

Clijsters, for what it's worth, blames the media.

"The media, they're always going to try to break the player down as soon as it's not going well," Clijsters said. "I think that's definitely what's going on with him at the moment."

Noted tennis commentator John McEnroe had a fresh perspective on Hewitt's on-court troubles. According to McEnroe, Hewitt's father, Glynn, says his son is "too happy."

Perhaps when you reach the No. 1 ranking, bag a pair of Grand Slams and have a Slam-winning girlfriend, it's hard to stay angry at the world.

Another thing that may have skewed Hewitt's single-mindedness is Davis Cup. It's true that he led Australia to championships in 2000 and 2001, but with his game in remission Hewitt seems to have placed even more emphasis on representing his country. Hewitt's 3-0 record is a big factor in Australia's berth in the semifinals against Switzerland, to take place after the U.S. Open.

Most likely, it is all of the above. In the world of professional tennis, the daily margin for error is minuscule. The weight of all the changes in his life may have tipped the scales against him, however subtly.

In the end, it simply may be about confidence.

"The only difference I've seen this year is that he's playing a little more not to lose," Lusetich said. "I think Wimbledon shattered his confidence and you can see it in his results."

With the rise of Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, Hewitt will have to raise his level of concentration if he wants to push his Grand Slam total past two.

"You walk into this place, it's not like walking into Cincinnati or Montreal," Hewitt said. "This is a Grand Slam. This is what you play for. This is what tennis is all about. Not many people will remember what happened in Montreal or Cincinnati if you go out and win this tournament.

"I still feel like I've got all the weapons and all the strengths that I had back then. Right at the moment, I just feel like I'm not quite peaking. I think one match can turn that all around. I think if I get towards the quarters or the semis, that's probably when I'm at my most dangerous.

"If I can get ... myself into the second week, hit the ball, have that confidence going, I've been in that situation before."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.