Lleyton Hewitt (original) (raw)

Lleyton Hewitt (born February 24, 1981), is an Australian professional tennis player, the winner of the 2002 Wimbledon men's singles title, perhaps the most prestigious of the four Grand Slam in tennis tournaments.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Hewitt may well have followed in the footsteps of his Australian rules football-playing father. Instead, he became the youngest winner of an ATP tournament when, as an almost unknown youngster, he won the 1998 Adelaide Invitational.

In the next two years he quickly progressed up the world rankings and has been the top-ranked player at season's end for the past two years.

Hewitt's game is based primarily around his superior reaction time, fitness, and court speed - almost a male version of Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario - and, at his best, even more difficult to get around. Such a game would be expected to favour the slow clay courts of the French Open, but Hewitt's first grand slam tournament win at the grass courts of Wimbledon demonstrate his all-court potential (with Pete Sampras and Pat Rafter retiring perhaps the last of the great serve-volley exponents have gone, perhaps making it even easier for Hewitt)

Hewitt has a decidedly mixed reputation with tennis fans. His fist-pumping and endless calls of "C'mon!" to himself annoy some fans. More seriously, he was accused of racism when at the 2000 (?) US Open, he reportedly implied that a black linesman was favouring a black opponent, (James Blake). He later apologised to both the linesman and the opponent (who reportedly are quite satisfied). In Australia, he is certainly not feted by the public in the same way that Pat Rafter was.

In a well-publicised relationship, he dates highly-ranked Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters. The two announced their engagement just before Christmas 2003.