Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt is a retired professional tennis player from Australia who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2021. He is the youngest player to hold the World No.1 spot, a ranking which he achieved in November 2001. He held the top spot for 80 weeks total. Throughout his career, he won 30 singles titles and 3 doubles titles. He holds three Grand Slam titles, two for singles and one for men’s doubles.

He was also a part of the Australian Davis Cup teams in 1999 and 2003. Hewitt also represented Australia in the 2012 London Olympics where he made it to the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event.

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Lleyton Hewitt
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Height / weight	1.78 m / 77 kg
Born	24 Feb 1981
Nationality	Australia
Playing Style	Right Handed

Player Profile

Lleyton Glynn Hewitt was born on February 24, 1981, in Adelaide, South Australia. He currently resides in Melbourne, Victoria with his wife Australian actress and singer Bec Cartwright, and their three children. His father was a former Australian Rules Football player and his younger sister Jaslyn Hewitt is a former tennis coach. He started pursuing tennis when he was thirteen.

He has had a number of coaches throughout his career, including Tony Roche and Jaymon Crabb. Some of his earlier coaches include Darren Cahill and Jason Stoltenberg. As a professional tennis player, he earned $20,889,965 in prize money and is the 22nd all-time leader in earnings.

Career

Hewitt’s professional career began in 1998. That year, he won his first ATP Tournament, the Generation Adelaide International, making him one of the youngest players to have done so. He started making headway in the Grand Slams in 2000 when he made it as far as the semifinals of the US Open. As a doubles player, he also won the US Open men’s doubles while paired with Max Mirnyi.

The following year, he would win the US Open men’s singles title, defeating Pete Sampras. He also won the ATP Tour Finals, which was held in Australia. The win led him to end his year as World No.1.

Hewitt became the youngest male player to reach the No.1 spot on November 19, 2001, at 20 years, 8 months, and 26 days. He would the position for 80 weeks in total, 75 consecutive. The following year, he won the men’s singles event at Wimbledon, beating David Nalbandian.

He also won the 2002 ATP Tour Finals. He was also still No.1 at the end of the year.

In 2004, he made it to the finals of the US Open and in 2005, he was in the Finals of the Australian Open. During his International Hall of Fame Induction in 2022, he stated he would not change anything about his career but would have preferred to win a Grand Slam on his home soil. He never made it past the finals of the Aussie Open.

Hewitt also represented Australia internationally. He played in the Olympics both in 2008 and 2012, making it to the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles event in the London 2012 Summer Olympics. He was also part of the Australian Davis Cup teams that won in 1999 and 2003. He was also on the Hopman Cup team that made it to the finals in 2003.

He announced his intentions to retire from professional tennis during the 2016 Aussie Open where he lost in the second round to David Ferrer. In March of that year, he came out of retirement to replace Nick Kyrgios, who was injured and could not play in the Davis Cup.

Although retired from singles tennis, Hewitt continued playing doubles and in December 2017, it was announced that he would come out of retirement and play in the 2018 Australian Open alongside Sam Groth in the men’s doubles event. They made it to the quarterfinals. He continued playing doubles tennis through to 2019. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame Class 2021.