Lleyton Hewitt

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Lleyton Hewitt : biography

24 February 1981 –

Hewitt began his 2010 season partnering Samantha Stosur at the Hopman Cup. The Australians were the top seeds for the exhibition tournament. They, however, fared worse than expected, losing ties against Romania and Spain, and therefore failing to reach the final.

He was seeded fourth in the Medibank International and, like the previous year, reached the quarterfinals, losing to eventual champion Marcos Baghdatis. At the 2010 Australian Open, he lost to Roger Federer in the fourth round.

A week after his exit from the Australian Open, Hewitt announced at a press conference at Melbourne Park that he underwent another hip operation similar to his left hip operation this time on his right hip on 28 January 2010 in Hobart.

Hewitt returned to the tour at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships as the singles defending champion. He won his first match since the Australian Open, partnering coach Nathan Healey in the doubles, defeating James Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin, but lost to top seeds the Bryan brothers in the semifinals. Hewitt received a first-round bye, as he was seeded fourth in singles. In his first match, against lucky loser Somdev Devvarman, Hewitt dropped the first set, before battling to win in three sets. He then lost to Juan Ignacio Chela. Hewitt’s next tournament was scheduled to be the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. However, he withdrew due to a recurring injury.

Hewitt then reached the second round in Barcelona, before losing to Eduardo Schwank, and lost in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia to Guillermo García-López. Hewitt then travelled back to Australia to parcicipate in a Davis Cup tie against Japan, winning his two singles matches.

At the French Open, Hewitt reached the third round, before losing to Rafael Nadal, who went on to win the title without dropping a set and take the no. 1 ranking.

On 13 June, Hewitt defeated Roger Federer in the final of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, a grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon Championships. The win was Hewitt’s first over Federer since 2003 and snapped a 15-match losing streak against the Swiss.

At Wimbledon, Hewitt was seeded 15th and lost to third seed, Novak Djokovic in the fourth round. After dropping the first two sets, Hewitt took advantage of a stomach illness had by Djokovic to take the third set. However, Hewitt could not mount a comeback, and ended up losing in four sets.

At the Atlanta Tennis Championship, Hewitt lost in the first round to Lukáš Lacko. After receiving a first-round bye at the Legg Mason Classic, Hewitt retired in the second round due to a leg injury. He pulled out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto in order to recover, and returned in Cincinnati. Hewitt defeated Yen-Hsun Lu in the opening round, before losing in three sets to fifth seed Robin Söderling.

Hewitt was 32nd seed at the US Open and lost his first-round match to Paul-Henri Mathieu in five sets. It was his earliest exit at the US Open. He withdrew from the Asian hard-court swing due to a wrist injury suffered during the Australian Davis Cup playoff loss to Belgium.

2011

Hewitt began his 15th season on the ATP Tour at the Hopman Cup in Perth. He defeated his Belgian opponent Ruben Bemelmans and went on to win the tie for Australia with a three-set victory in the mixed doubles, partnering Alicia Molik. He next played world no. 3 Novak Djokovic, but lost in straight sets. For his final singles match of the tournament, he played Kazakhstani Andrey Golubev, defeating him in straight sets.

After the Hopman Cup, Hewitt competed in the AAMI Kooyong Classic, an exhibitional tournament in the build-up to the Australian Open. He started the tournament solidly, taking out third seed Mikhail Youzhny. In the second round, he defeated Russian Nikolay Davydenko. In the final, he defeated Frenchman Gaël Monfils. It was the first time that Hewitt had played in the tournament.

At the 2011 Australian Open, Hewitt was defeated in the first round in five sets by Argentina’s David Nalbandian. Hewitt was up two sets to one and during the fourth set had the chance to finish off the match, when the scores were 3–1 and 0–40 in Hewitt’s favour, but failed to capitalise on the situation. Furthermore, Hewitt had two match point opportunities in the final set to close out victory. However, one of these was met with an excellent drop shot from Nalbandian, and he went on to save the other, securing victory.