Emotions High With Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

Written by: Staff on 22nd January 2012

Emotions High With Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

REPEATING epa03070777 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia reacts after winning his third round match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 21 January 2012. Hewitt won. EPA/MARTIN PHILBEY REPEATING WITH CORRECTED BYLINE - AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

(Courtesy of the ATP – Original link: http://www.atpworldtour.com )

Emotions were running high on Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night when former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who hardly played in 2011 due to injury, dispatched Milos Raonic to reach the fourth round, and none were more pleased for the 30-year-old Australian than Roger Federer and Nadal.

“I fist pumped when he won yesterday,” said Federer, who confirmed he would be watching Hewitt’s clash with Novak Djokovic on Monday night. “I was really happy for him, because he hasn’t gotten a fair chance to prove still how good he is. Some judge him on his ranking, which is obviously not telling the truth. I think he’s been playing really well still the past two years. Just didn’t get enough matches and never really got on a roll because he was always interrupted the whole time. Now there’s nothing to lose, which is nice for him, as well. I’m sure he’s going to do well against Djokovic.”

Nadal added, “I really got emotional when he finished. He was really showing out his emotions. So it’s something fantastic at this moment of his career, after having a fantastic career, to keep having this motivation and this (belief) to win a third-round match. I always liked him, his spirit of competition. Today he is an example to follow for a lot people. After having five, six surgeries, to keep having the motivation to run, to fight for every ball, even if the body doesn’t have the perfect answer, (that) is something fantastic. He deserves all the respect of the people who love this sport and respect and admiration of everyone.”