Lleyton Glynn Hewitt

Date of Birth: 24 February 1981  (age 29)
Birthplace: Adelaide, South Australia
Residence: Nassau, Bahamas
Height: 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight: 77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Turned Pro: 1998
Plays: Right-handed (two-handed backhand)

Eldest child of Glynn and Cherilyn Hewitt, has younger sister Jaslyn.

Lleyton won numerous National titles as a junior and was ranked No 1 in Australia in 1996 after capturing the National Hardcourt and Grasscourt 18s titles.
Was the youngest qualifier ever for the Australian Open in 1997, aged 15.

In 1998 he became one of the youngest winners of an ATP tournament when as an almost unknown youngster won the 1998 Adelaide International defeating Andre Agassi in the semi finals.

In 1999 Lleyton won Delray Beach and was runner-up in 3 other ATP events. He was also a member of the winning Australian Davis Cup team. Please see Davis Cup.

The year 2000 saw Lleyton make five ATP finals, winning four of them, Adelaide, Sydney, Scottsdale and Queens. He also won his first Grand Slam title, teaming with Max Mirnyi of Belarus, to win the men’s doubles championships at the US Open. Lleyton represented Australia for the first time at the Olympics in Sydney and once again made the final of Davis Cup losing to Spain. He finished the year ranked No. 7 in the world.

2001 saw Lleyton successfully defend his titles in Sydney and at Queens as well as have victories in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and Tokyo. The biggest victory of his career to this date came in August/September at Flushing Meadows, New York where in defeating Pete Sampras in the final he became the winner of the men’s singles at the US Open. He followed this victory by wining the Tennis Masters Cup in Sydney and becoming the youngest ever male to be ranked World Number 1.

He lead Australia to another Davis Cup final only to go down to France.

Lleyton was awarded the ATP Player of the Year for the first time.

Lleyton stayed World Number 1 for all of 2002, winning along the way San Jose, Indian Wells and for the third straight year, Queens. It also saw him win the Wimbledon Men’s singles final defeating David Nalbandian and defend his Tennis Master’s title. For the second time running he was awarded the ATP player of the Year.

After 75 weeks straight Lleyton lost his No 1 ranking in late April 2003, for 2 weeks before regaining it again for a further 5 weeks. He won Scottsdale and Indian Wells before taking time off after the US Open and sacrificing his ranking so that he could train and concentrate of leading Australia to Davis Cup glory defeating Spain in the final. Lleyton ended 2003 ranked 16 in the world.

Lleyton was awarded Young Australian of the Year.

2004 saw Lleyton reaching 7 ATP finals and winning 4 of them, Sydney, Rotterdam, Washington and Long Island. He was also the runner-up in the men’s singles at the US Open to Roger Federer. Lleyton finished the year as World No 3.

In 2005 Lleyton won his fifth Sydney title to then go on and make the final of his home Grand Slam the Australian Open, losing in a tight struggle to Marat Safin. Whilst injuries plagued Lleyton with his tennis this year, off court he was experiencing incredible highs. On July 21 he married Australian actress Rebecca Cartwright at the Sydney Opera House and on November 29, Bec and Lleyton welcomed into the world their daughter Mia Rebecca. Despite an interrupted year, Lleyton still finished ranked No 4 in the world.
The TENNIS magazine put Lleyton in 34th place on its list of the 40 greatest tennis players since 1965.

Lleyton was once again hampered with injuries in 2006, making 3 ATP finals with once again winning Queens, for a fourth time equaling the record set by John McEnroe and Boris Becker. He missed a majority of the year and finished with a ranking of 20.

2007 saw Lleyton win Las Vegas and be the only current player who has won an ATP title annually for ten consecutive years. In July he announced that he was joining forces with legendary Australian coach, Tony Roche. Lleyton also changed his Yonex racquet for the first time since 1998. He finished the year ranked 21.

The start of 2008 provided an unusual highlight of tennis with Lleyton playing Marcos Baghdatis in the 3rd round of the Australian Open in the latest ever match in Grand Slam history, over 5 sets ending at 4.45am. Lleyton won the match, however was at a distinct disadvantage for his next match. Th rest of the year saw him make the 3rd round of the French losing once again to Nadal and the 4th round of Wimbledon going down to Federer. Lleyton then played the Beijing Olympics and in his match against Nadal his hip completely shut down and he had to have major hip surgery and would be out of the game for a good 4 months. An absolute highlight through this time was the birth of his first son Cruz.

2009 saw Lleyton returning slowly from his hip surgery, and taking his time to find his feet in the Tour. He won his 27th career title on clay in Houston in April, which set about an improvement to the year.A 3rd round loss to Nadal at the French followed by a quarter final at Wimbledon and a 4th rouond loss to Federer at the US Open, as well as two semi finals of Masters 500 events had Lleyton finishing the year ranked 22 in the world. The ATP Tour also announced Lleyton as its 3rd best player of the past decade behind Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.

Another loss to the eventual winner of a Grand Slam happened again at the Australian Open with Lleyton going down to Federer in the 4th round. Once again Lleyton had problems in the hip area requiring surgery on his other hip as well as some knee surgery, which kept him out for another few months. Playing Nadal again at the French Open eventuated in the 3rd round, but the fact he is back on court and moving well, looks promising for the remainder of the year.