Comprehensive information and links about Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt professional tennis player from Australia and the winner of the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon men's singles titles. Hewitt is known for his fierce competitiveness on the court as well as media battles off court. Hewitt wins most of his matches with his relentless aggression, fitness, consistent shots, and amazing footwork. Also, his serve has improved greatly in 2004-5. Hewitt spent much time in the late stages of 2004 working with his coach Roger Rasheed on bulking up his physique. His hard work paid off after he made it to the final of the 2005 Australian Open before falling to Marat Safin.

table

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Hewitt might well have followed in the footsteps of his Australian rules football-playing father. Instead, he became one of the youngest winners of an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament when, as an almost unknown youngster, he won the 1998 Adelaide Invitational, defeating Andre Agassi in the semifinals. Only Aaron Krickstein winning Tel Aviv in 1983 and Michael Chang winning San Francisco in 1988 were younger when claiming their first ATP title.

Over the next two years Hewitt quickly progressed up the world rankings, and culminated in his being ranked the world number one for two consecutive years. Hewitt's intense demeanour on court and characteristic shouts of "Come On!" when winning a crucial point have won him detractors as well as fans. Despite Hewitt's on-court antics, his tennis-playing abilities and on-court fighting spirit have earned him a begrudging respect amongst even the most sceptical followers of the game. During this time, he developed a "bad boy" reputation.

After winning a Davis Cup match the same year, when Yevgeny Kafelnikov had vowed to teach Hewitt a lesson, the later said he'd enjoyed "sticking it to some who mouths off."

In January, 2000 while competing in a home town event, he played against a fellow townsman. Upset after being heckled by members of the crowd when he disputed a line call, Hewitt claimed that he could not believe some people in the crowd were cheering for his opponent against him. "It's weird, but I think that's just the stupidity of the Australian public; you always knock the better players," Hewitt said. A month later the readers of Australian sports magazine, Inside Sport, rated Hewitt Australia’s least admired sports person.

Hewitt's first grand slam tournament win was at the US Open in 2001, where he defeated then-four time champion Pete Sampras in straight sets.

He followed his US Open win with a victory at Wimbledon in 2002, showing the world that though the tournament had tended to be dominated by serve-and-volleyers, a baseliner like Hewitt could still triumph on grass.

Hewitt was a part of the Australian Davis Cup team which won the Davis Cup in 1999 and 2003, and reached the finals in 2000 and 2001. At the age of 22, he had recorded more wins in Davis Cup singles than any other Australian player.

After his 2002 Wimbledon victory, Hewitt's game and his ATP ranking began to slip as he became engaged in a legal fight with the ATP and began focusing more on Davis Cup matches than on ATP events. Recently, however, he has reshaped his game and returned his attention to the ATP tour.

In 2003 as the defending champion, he lost in the first round of Wimbledon to a wildcard. Hewitt became the first defending Wimbledon men's champion since tennis turned professional in 1968 to lose in the first round. In fact, only once before in the tournament's 126-year history, had a men's champion lost in the opening round when in 1967 Manuel Santana was beaten by Charlie Pasarell. Hewitt picked up another unwanted record as he became only the third defending champion to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam, after Boris Becker in the 1997 Australian Open and Pat Rafter in the 1999 US Open.

In 2004, he became the first man in history to lose in each Grand Slam to the eventual champion. In the Australian Open, he was defeated in the fourth round by Swiss Roger Federer; in the French Open he was defeated by Argentine Gastón Gaudio in the quarterfinals; at Wimbledon, he was defeated by Roger Federer in the quarterfinals; and at the US Open, he was defeated in the finals, again by Roger Federer. Hewitt defeated Andy Roddick to advance to the final of the 2004 Tennis Masters Cup, but was defeated by defending champion Roger Federer.

In 2005, Hewitt reached his first Australian Open final by defeating World No. 2 Andy Roddick, but was defeated by Marat Safin. At Wimbledon he lost to Federer in the semifinal. Federer went on the win the event for the third time. Almost three months later he again lost to Federer in the US Open semifinal; this time he was able the take one set from the Swiss. Hewitt had at this point lost to the eventual champion at seven consecutive Grand Slams (he missed the 2005 French Open because of injury).

In late 2005, Hewitt was voted No. 5 on a La Nacion newspaper poll from Argentina listing the most hated sporting figures in that country. The poll results were published in the months after a explosive Davis Cup quarter-final between Australia and Argentina with insults traded by both sides. Again showing the polarizing effect he has, the same year TENNIS Magazine put him in 34th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

In January 2006 he was voted the 10th most-hated athlete in the USA by GQ magazine. He was the only non-US athlete to make the list.

He blamed his losses in the Australian Open in 2006 (as well as 2005) on unco-operative maintance of the courts by the tournament bosses. "I don't think there's been a lot of homework done on how the balls play on this surface," he said. "It seems to be bouncing higher and playing a lot slower even this year from last year. Mate, it could be slower than the French Open." Hewitt said he was disappointed Australian Open organisers had ignored his concerns about the courts. "I feel like I'm fighting with people that we should be working together to try and make Australian tennis better," he said.[1]

The three other Australians who took to the court that day all progressed.[2]

Criticism of Hewitt was to the tune that Hewitt himself couln't dominate on Rebound-Ace and shouldn't expect organisers to mould the court to his advantage just because he is the highest seeded local player. The court surface hadn't changed but neither had Hewitt. Even Australian tennis great, the much liked Pat Rafter commented that Hewitt needed to change his game.

Hewitt for some years dated highly-ranked Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters. Early on their courtship was gently mocked in that they looked alike. The two announced their engagement just before Christmas 2003, then seperated in October 2004. Shortly after losing the final of the 2005 Australian open, Hewitt proposed to Australian actress Bec Cartwright on January 30th, after they had been dating for six weeks. They married on July 21, 2005. Their first child, a daughter named Mia Rebecca, was born on November 29, 2005.

Hewitt pulled out of the Masters Cup Tournament in Shanghai in November 2005 so that he could be with Bec as the birth of his first child grew near. He was replaced by Gastón Gaudio. Hewitt has left Nike and joined Japanese sportswear company Yonex.

"Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis during a doubles match at the 2005 Queen's Club Championships"

Other facts about Hewitt

Lleyton is a keen supporter of Australian rules football, having played the game earlier in his career and is no.1 ticket holder for the Adelaide Crows. He once had a friendship with Crows star Andrew McLeod, however this recently broke down over much public controversy. In 2005 Hewitt married Australian actress Bec Cartwright. The couple's daughter, Mia Hewitt, was born later that year.