Hewitt’s Performance in Melbourne is Proof He is Not Retiring

Written by: Staff on 25th January 2012

Hewitt’s Performance in Melbourne is Proof He is Not Retiring

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in action during his men's singles third round match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 21 January 2012. EPA/MAST IRHAM |

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Lleyton Hewitt’s determined run to the Australian Open’s last 16 might have caused him immense pain but it has also breathed a renewed lease of life into the former world no.1’s career.

Before the current Australian Open began there was a widely held belief that the tournament could serve as a last farewell to Hewitt as the one time Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, who had sunk to 181st spot on the ATP World Tour rankings, was struggling to overcome injury issues with a crippled toe.

Hewitt’s manager David Drysdale has confirmed the 30 year-old has already been offered wild card entries into the upcoming SAP Open in San Jose and Memphis’ Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. Now he is negotiating with the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and Miami’s Sony Ericsson Open.

“I will start going about that later this week or early next week, but I think Lleyton’s performances here will assist with the wildcards,” said Drysdale, mindful Hewitt’s ranking is predicted to rise back up to around the 130 mark. ”People would have been waiting to see how he went here, and I think that he’s done incredibly well, actually. We’ll just have to see how he pulls up in the next few days.”

Having taken a set from world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, after beating injured Andy Roddick and 23rd seed Milos Raonic, Hewitt has more than demonstrated his competitive instincts are still very strong.

But the injury issues are not going to disappear. In a fortnight’s time, Hewitt is due to line up alongside Bernard Tomic in Patrick Rafter’s Australian Davis Cup team for the Asia/Pacific Zone Group One match against China in Geelong.

”It’s still a bit of an unknown,” said Drysdale. ”Lleyton’s got to work out how much pain he can continue to play with and go from there.

”Whilst he was a little bit disappointed last night, because he felt like he was getting back in the match, everybody else is extremely proud of what he’s achieved these past two weeks. He just gets out there and keeps on going. What he’s put up with is just amazing. Is there anything that’s going to stop this guy?

”The amount of feedback we’re getting from fans and everybody else is that people don’t want him to retire and he’s proven that he can still mix it out there, that if he can move well enough he will do OK. His ball striking is great; it’s just a matter of whether he can keep moving well enough.”

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Topics: Atp, Australian Open, Lleyton Hewitt