Lleyton Hewitt burst on to the scene just when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi had started declining, and the Australian even dominated Roger Federer at the start of their rivalry. While injuries hampered his career in the second half of the decade, Hewitt had already crafted a fantastic career by then. Lleyton Glynn Hewitt AM is an Australian professional tennis player and former world No. 1. He is the most recent Australian to win a men's singles Grand Slam title. In November 2001 Hewitt became the youngest male in the ATP era to be ranked world No. 1 in singles at the age of 20 years, 8 months and 26 days.
Hewitt was born in Adelaide, South Australia. His father, Glynn, is a former Australian Rules Football player, and his mother, Cherilyn, was a physical education teacher. His younger sister is Jaslyn Hewitt, a former tennis coach and bodybuilder and his brother-in-law is Rob Shehadie. Hewitt also played Australian Football until the age of 13, when he decided to pursue a tennis career.
Hewitt commenced his professional career in 1998. He became one of the youngest winners of an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament when he won the 1998 Next Generation Adelaide International, defeating Jason Stoltenberg in the final, having defeated Andre Agassi in the semi-finals. Hewitt then left Immanuel College to concentrate on his tennis career. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. He finished his professional tennis career on 24 January 2016 after 20 straight Australian Open appearances. His last professional singles match was against David Ferrer in the second round of the 2016 Australian Open at the Rod Laver Arena on 21 January 2016.
Hewitt won 30 singles titles and 3 doubles titles, his highlights being the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon men's singles titles, the 2000 US Open men's doubles title, back-to-back Tennis Masters Cup titles in 2001 and 2002, and the Davis Cup with Australia in 1999 and 2003. Hewitt was the runner-up at the 2004 US Open, where he was defeated by Roger Federer. Between 1997 and 2016, he contested twenty consecutive Australian Open men's singles tournaments, his best result being as runner-up at the 2005 final where he was defeated by Marat Safin.
Hewitt was a defensive counterpuncher. He typically likes to stay back towards the baseline during a rally and will usually approach the net only to catch a short reply or drop shot from his opponent. Hewitt's lack of penetration in his groundstrokes, most notably in his forehand, a typically dominant shot in most male players, forces him to rely on placement rather than simply dominating the point.
In December 2017, it was announced that Hewitt would come out of retirement and accept a doubles wildcard with compatriot Sam Groth at the 2018 Australian Open. Hewitt and Jordan Thompson accepted a wildcard to play Doubles at the 2018 Brisbane International. They lost in the first round to Grigor Dimitrov and Ryan Harrison 3–6, 6–1.
Hewitt then played in the fast4 exhibition in Sydney where he lost to Grigor Dimitrov. Hewitt and Kyrgios then went on to win the doubles beating Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov. After that, he played the Tie Break Tens in Melbourne where he won his opening match against Novak Djokovic, before losing to world No. 1 Rafael Nadal.
Australian open: F (2005)
French Open: QF (2001, 2004)
Wimbledon: W (2002)
US Open: W (2001)
Australian open: QF (2018)
French Open: 2R (1999)
Wimbledon: 3R (1999, 2012, 2014, 2015)
US Open: W (2000)
