Did Lleyton Hewitt Just Play His Last Match At The Australian Open?

by Tom Gainey | January 22nd, 2015, 9:03 am
  • 15 Comments

Benjamin Becker did it again. The man who ended Andre Agassi’s career nine years ago on his home court at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2006 US Open may have done it agains Thursday at the Australian Open stunning Lleyton Hewitt from two sets down.

Hewitt was playing in his 19th Australian Open, and at 33 with so many health problems the last few years and a sliding ranking, the question of retirement came up.

“I’ll sit down and think about it,” said Hewitt who only reached the quarterfinals once in Melbourne. “As I’ve said the whole time, I haven’t thought about anything. But obviously the Davis Cup is the next main thing. Now that we’ve got some guys playing really good tennis at the moment, it’s an exciting time. Yeah, we have a good chance to possibly pull off an upset away. That’s the next focus.”


Hewitt ranks 87 this week and last year he did win not one but two titles. But playing in a 20th Australian Open doesn’t really matter much to him, not after a tough loss tonight, his fifth defeat in his last six five set matches.

“I don’t know,” he said of playing 20. “As I said the whole time, I haven’t been kidding anyone, really I don’t know. I’ve just tried to focus on what I’ve wanted to do, to get the best out of myself this year. I’ll sit back and assess everything after this tournament.”

Hewitt ranked No. 1 for 80 weeks and won two Slams at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon.


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15 Comments for Did Lleyton Hewitt Just Play His Last Match At The Australian Open?

SG1 Says:

Quite a meltdown. Hard to believe he could go down this way after basically destroying Becker for 2 sets. I’ve never been a big fan of Hewitt and his game but he’s an entertaining player to watch. Lost a lot of respect for him after that incident with James Blake (…I think). Anyways, I won’t lose too much sleep over his retirement given his very large bank account as well as his very attractive significant other. The truth is, Hewitt hasn’t been a major factor on the men’s tennis landscape for 5 or 6 years.


RZ Says:

I can see Hewitt leaving tennis this year. He’s got to feel good about the state of Australian tennis right now with so many promising young guys.


Jack Says:

Correction… Hewitt made it to the finals of the open in 2005… So he has been past quarterfinals


Gee Says:

He was overrated just like roddick in the worst era in history (2001-2006).

At least evil hewitt beat federer in masters cup & Davis cup.

Roddick is still a spoiled brat who claims that harassing opponents, lineswoman & umpires made him more entertaining than seeing Novak & fedal win with no disrespect. Lmao!!


queen Says:

Ha ha ha look at that Roddick hater. Let him rest in peace man.


skeezer Says:

Here we go again about the worst or weak era’s. lol. Let me guess, the year Rafael Nadal starting playing pro was the start of the strongest era ever known to mankind?

Hewitt won 2 Slams, and 2 Tour finals when Sampras, Agassi, Safin, Fed, Nole, Rafa(granted, his first year 2001, but he was winning Slams @ 2005) were playing pro. Now? Who is real tough outside the top 4? Oh, excuse me, nowadays some of the best era ever top players are losing to QF and WC, and old men…..must be a real tough era! And who is Wawrinke, Cilic? Such a tough era compared to back then? Poppycock and tweedley doo. Every era as its weaknesses and strengths, these guys don’t have the luxury to choose what era they play in, or who they play, they just play. It’s about winning, not winning the era. So play on and enjoy what is happening now.
____

Btw Hewitt has had 2, not 1, major hip surgeries in his career, so him playing at a competitive level is frankly amazing. I never cared for his “c’mon” shout outs or his game style but the guy is/was a great competitor.


Wog Boy Says:

I feel sorry for Jim Courier once Hewitt retires, rather very soon, he will have to share commentators room with Hewitt, he already signed a deal with channel 7, and Hewitt doesn’t stop talking, he is one of those that wants to show you how much they know about tennis and is always in overkill mode.
Sorry Courier, if Hewitt keeps talking the way he does now I’ll have to switch to Foxtel channel, I’ll miss you.


Wog Boy Says:

skeezer, with all due respect, and I have respect fir you, Hewitt win these GS titles and was #1 when Sampras and Agassi were on their last tennis breath and new players didn’t step in (2001/2), after that he made that one final at AO (?) and wasn’t really main factor in the game of tennis. Good on him, he used his chances when they were presented to him but you have to be his fan to call him great player, he wasn’t great player, great competitor, yes.


skeezer Says:

Any player that wins a Slam and gets to #1 is a great player, better than most.
Sampras? Last breath? He won Slams in 2000 and 2002 Agassi? Last breath? Won the AO in 2001 and 2003. With all due respect.
__
My post was mainly in reference to the comment “..in the worst era in history (2001-2006)”. Don’t think so.


Wog Boy Says:

Well, we have different opinions, I wasn’t talking about 2001/6, or week era, just about Hewitt winning two slams and #1 in the world 13 /14 years ago, as 20 years old and then basicaly nothing for the rest of his career, not quite a great player? His injuries came well after those brake through years so can’t be used as an exuse for not achieving more.
Would you call Nole great player if he won nothing after AO 2008? I wouldn’t.


Wog Boy Says:

Just to correct myself, Hewitt made USO final in 2004 too, and ended up (in his prime) losing it with two bagels against Federer, hiw often you lose GS final with two bagels?


skeezer Says:

Hewitt has the stats to be called at once a great player. Fed? He is just greater, obviously ;)
—-
BTW if you wiki the 100 greatest players of all time you’ll notice many of them only attained 2 or 3 Slams in their career. Now, this can be argued, but its there. And, there is a difference here also, as this is “the greatest” not a “great player”.

>slicing the onion very thin here ;)


Wog Boy Says:

“Hewitt has the stats to be called at once a great player. Fed? He is just greater, obviously ;)”

You mean, he is the “greatest” not just “greater”.:)

Yes, the stats are funny thing, if you look only the numbers, Hewitt has 30 titles against his name, but if you look closer, 22 of them are 250 titles, same as Roddick, they were piling up 250 tournaments so their resime says 30+ titles, now, when you check Nole’s first 30 titles you realise how heavy they were, he didn’t and doesn’t care about 250 titles.


skeezer Says:

Agreed,
All those 250 titles don’t carry much weight…but, Slam titles do.


Daniel Says:

Indeed stats are misleading but kind of agree with Skeeze, 2 Slams plus three more finals and 50+ weeks at number #1 with 30+ titles to me is great. Not amazing, awesome, a decent modest great so to speak.

I think tou are comparing Hewitt with the wrong player, Novak is on the way to be a top 5 player potentailly with double difit slams, to me right now Hewitt is better than Murray who has 0 weeks as number 1. Ok, Murray has 7 major finals several masters titles and mutliple wins over Fed, Nadal and Djoko but I consider #1 a big stat and year end #1 also. In his spam Hewitt was the best and most consistant player, that at a young age. Murray as it is shaping out to be, may never reach #1 in hos career, ever. Really hope he does it eventually, winning this AO could make it happen for him, but until he do it we have to give credit to other players. Hewitt is better than almost any other 2 Slam win player and above all that have only 1 major so if you count he is probavly in a top 20 list.

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