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Lleyton Hewitt (born February 24, 1981, Adelaide, Australia), is
a former World No.1 professional tennis player from Australia and the winner
of the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon men's singles titles. Hewitt is known
for his fierce competitiveness on the court. Hewitt wins most of his matches
with his superior fitness and powerful shots including a serve much improved
in 2004-5. Hewitt spent much time in the late stages of 2004 working with
his coach Roger Rasheed on bulking up his physique. His hard work paid off
after he made it to the final of the 2005 Australian Open before falling
to Marat Safin.
Tennis career
Born in Adelaide,South Australia, Hewitt might well have
followed in the footsteps of his Australian rules football-playing father.
Instead, he became one of the youngest winners of an Association of Tennis
Professionals (ATP) tournament when, as an almost unknown youngster, he won
the 1998 Adelaide Invitational, defeating Andre Agassi in the semifinals.
Only Aaron Krickstein winning Tel Aviv in 1983 and Michael Chang winning
San Francisco in 1988 were younger when claiming their first ATP title.
Over the next two years Hewitt quickly progressed up the
world rankings, and this culminated in his being ranked the world number
one for two consecutive years.
Hewitt's first grand slam tournament win was at the US Open
in 2001, where he defeated then-four time champion Pete Sampras in straight
sets. He followed this with a victory at Wimbledon in 2002, showing the world
that though the tournament had tended to be dominated by serve-and-volleyers,
a baseliner like Hewitt could still triumph on grass.
He was part of the Australian team which won the Davis Cup
in 1999 and 2003, and reached the finals in 2000 and 2001. At the age of
22, he had recorded more wins in Davis Cup singles than any other Australian
player.
After his 2002 Wimbledon victory, Hewitt's game and his ATP
ranking began to slip as he became engaged in a legal fight with the ATP
and began focusing more on Davis Cup matches than on ATP events. Recently,
however, he has reshaped his game and returned his attention to the ATP tour.
In 2004, he became the first man in history to lose in each
Grand Slam to the eventual champion. In the Australian Open, he was defeated
in the fourth round by Swiss Roger Federer; in the French Open he was defeated
by Argentine Gastón Gaudio in the quarterfinals; at Wimbledon, he
was defeated by Roger Federer in the quarterfinals; and at the US Open, he
was defeated in the finals, again by Roger Federer. Hewitt defeated Andy
Roddick to advance to the final of the 2004 Tennis Masters Cup, but was defeated
by defending champion Roger Federer.
In 2005, Hewitt reached his first Australian
Open final by defeating World No. 2 Andy Roddick, but was defeated by
Marat Safin. At Wimbledon he lost to Federer in the semifinal. Federer went
on the win the event for the third time. Almost two months later he again
lost to Federer in the semifinal, this time he was able the take one set
from the Swiss. Hewitt had at this point lost to the eventual champion at
seven consecutive Grand Slams (he missed the 2005 French Open because of
injury).
Hewitt's intense demeanor on court and characteristic shouts
of "Come On!" when winning a crucial point have won him detractors
as well as fans. However, his tennis-playing abilities and on-court fighting
spirit have earned him a begrudging respect amongst even the most skeptical
followers of the game. In 2005 he was fined an undisclosed amount by the
ITF following Australia's Davis Cup match against
Argentina.
Hewitt for some years dated highly-ranked Belgian tennis
player Kim Clijsters. The two announced their engagement just before Christmas
2003, then split in October 2004. Shortly after losing the final of the 2005
Australian open, Hewitt proposed to Australian actress Bec Cartwright, after
they had been dating for just six weeks. On 5 May 2005 Lleyton and Bec announced
that they were expecting their first child; the baby is due to be born in
October. They married on July 21, 2005 at the Sydney Opera House, followed
by a reception at Taronga Zoo.
Hewitt has joined Japanese sportswear, Yonex.
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