Lleyton Hewitt
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| The [Neutral point of view>neutrality] of this article is [NPOV disputedisputed]. Please see the discussion on the [February 24, 1981, Adelaide, Australia), is a former World No.1 professional tennis player from Australia and the winner of the 2001 U.S. Open and 2002 Wimbledon men's singles titles. Hewitt is known for his fierce competitiveness"[Profile, statistics and background]", lleytonhewitt.biz. URL accessed on July 1, 2006.Sanjiva Wijesinha, "[Hewitt — superhero or superboor?]", The Tribune, October 6, 2001. URL accessed on July 1, 2006. and verbally abusive languageChris Lehourites, "[Australia Leads Argentina at Davis Cup]", San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2005. URL accessed on July 1, 2006. on the court as well as media battles off court "[Hewitt - love him or hate him]", The Age, January 16, 2006. URL accessed on July 1, 2006."[Hewitt leaves rivals standing]", BBC Sport, 21 August 2002. URL accessed on July 1, 2006., which caused him to lose even fans of the Australian public at one point "[Hero Hewitt or Satan Lleyton?]", BBC Sport, January 15, 2003. URL accessed on July 1, 2006.. Hewitt has also been fined on numerous occasions for not attending press conferences"[Hewitt considers legal action]", BBC Sport, August 17, 2002. URL accessed on July 1, 2006.. Hewitt wins most of his matches with his relentless aggression, fitness, consistent shots, and amazing footwork. Also, his serve has improved greatly 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. Lleyton Hewitt is considered among the top players of the past 10 years. He is well supported by Australian cheer squad The Fanatics. Contents
Tennis careerBorn 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 International, 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 eventually became the youngest person in the history of tennis to be ranked number one (20 years old). This culminated in him being ranked the world number one for two consecutive years. A total of 80 weeks. Hewitt's intense demeanour on court and characteristic shouts of "COME ON!" when winning a crucial point have won him detractors as well as fans. Despite Hewitt's on-court antics, his tennis-playing abilities and on-court fighting spirit have earned him a begrudging respect amongst even the most sceptical followers of the game. During this time, he developed a "bad boy" reputation. After winning a Davis Cup match the same year, when Yevgeny Kafelnikov had vowed to teach Hewitt a lesson, the latter said he'd enjoyed "sticking it to somebody who mouths off." In January, 2000 while competing in a home town event, he played against a fellow townsman. Upset after being heckled by members of the crowd when he disputed a line call, Hewitt claimed that he could not believe some people in the crowd were cheering for his opponent against him. "It's weird, but I think that's just the stupidity of the Australian public; you always knock the better players," Hewitt said. A month later the readers of Australian sports magazine, Inside Sport, rated Hewitt Australia’s least admired sports person. 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. The US Open was also the site of one of Hewitt's many controversies. In a five set match with James Blake, a Black man, Hewitt complained to umpire Andres Egli and asked for a black linesman to be moved after being called for two foot-faults in the third set. "Look at him," Hewitt said, gesturing at the linesman. "Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is." Some witnesses, including Blake, had suggested that the "similarity" referred to the colour shared by Blake and the linesman. Hewitt was asked about the incident after the match and vehemently denied that the remark was racist. [link] Hewitt claimed he had merely pointed out that the same linesman had foot-faulted him on both occasions, while other officials had made no such calls. The umpire also inferred no racial overtones to Hewitt's complaint. He followed his US Open win with a victory at Wimbledon in 2002 defeating David Nalbandian, 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 became the first baseliner to win the tournament since Andre Agassi did it ten years earlier. Hewitt was a part of the Australian Davis Cup 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 2003 as the defending champion, he lost in the first round of Wimbledon to qualifier, Ivo Karlovic. Hewitt became the first defending Wimbledon men's champion since tennis turned professional in 1968 to lose in the first round. In fact, only once before in the tournament's 126-year history, had a men's champion lost in the opening round when in 1967 Manuel Santana was beaten by Charlie Pasarell. Hewitt picked up another unwanted record as he became only the third defending champion to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam, after Boris Becker in the 1997 Australian Open and Pat Rafter in the 1999 US Open. Hewitt then didn't play for the rest of the 2003 season in order to add more muscle to his beefy physique. After spending hours in the gym for months, Hewitt added 7kg of muscle to his weight. Hewitt then led the Australian Davis Cup team to a victory in 2003 after he defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero in the opening rubber 3-6 6-3 3-6 7-6 6-2. 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 yet again defeated by defending champion Roger Federer. In 2005, Hewitt won his only title at the Sydney Medibank International and 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 three months later he again lost to Federer in the US Open 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). In late 2005, Hewitt was voted No. 5 on a La Nacion newspaper poll from Argentina listing the most hated sporting figures in that country. The poll results were published in the months after an explosive Davis Cup quarter-final between Australia and Argentina with insults traded by both sides. Again showing the polarizing effect he has, the same year TENNIS Magazine put him in 34th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era. In January 2006 he was voted the 10th most-hated athlete in the USA by GQ magazine. He was the only non-US athlete to make the list. He blamed his losses in the Australian Open in 2006 (as well as 2005) on unco-operative maintenance of the courts by the tournament bosses. "I don't think there's been a lot of homework done on how the balls play on this surface," he said. "It seems to be bouncing higher and playing a lot slower even this year from last year. Mate, it could be slower than the French Open." Hewitt said he was disappointed Australian Open organisers had ignored his concerns about the courts. "I feel like I'm fighting with people that we should be working together to try and make Australian tennis better," he said.[link] The three other Australians who took to the court that day all progressed.[link] Criticism of Hewitt was to the tune that Hewitt himself could not dominate on Rebound-Ace and should not expect organisers to mould the court to his advantage just because he is the highest seeded local player. The court surface had not changed but neither had Hewitt. Even Australian tennis great, the much liked Pat Rafter, commented that Hewitt needed to change his game. Hewitt for some years dated highly-ranked Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters. The two announced their engagement just before Christmas 2003, then separated in October 2004. Shortly after losing the final of the 2005 Australian open, Hewitt proposed to Australian actress Bec Cartwright on January 30th, after they had been dating for six weeks. They married on July 21 2005. Their first child, a daughter named Mia Rebecca, was born on November 29, 2005.
Hewitt pulled out of the Masters Cup Tournament in Shanghai in November 2005 so that he could be with Bec as the birth of his first child grew near. He was replaced by Gastón Gaudio. Hewitt has left Nike and joined Japanese sportswear company Yonex. After a fairly frosty start to 2006 (many stating his new born baby as the cause), Hewitt was beaten in the second round of the Australian Open, after getting to the finals the previous year. After some time out he seems to have found some form, getting to the finals of San Jose and Las Vegas losing to British youngster Andy Murray and American James Blake respectively. Later on in 2006, Hewitt played Davis Cup for his country against Belarus. He defeated Vladimir Voltchkov who, before the match, made a remark saying "Hewitt has no weapons to hurt me." Hewitt then struck back by saying "Voltchkov doesn't have a ranking (of 457) to hurt me." Hewitt then humiliated Voltchkov on court as he thrashed him 6-2 6-1 6-2 in just 91 minutes, taking Australia into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup. Lleyton won his first tournament of 2006 (after a 17 month hiatus from winning a tournament) when he beat American James Blake in the Queen's Club Championships 6-4 6-4 for his 4th title there, equalling the records of John McEnroe and Boris Becker At the 2006 Championships at Wimbledon, Lleyton Hewitt survived a five-set scare against South Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee that continued on over two days. He then disposed of Olivier Rochus and David Ferrer before losing to Marcos Baghdatis in the quarterfinals. Grand Slam singles finalsWins (2)
Runner-ups (2)
Awards
Titles (26)Singles (25)
Singles Finalist (14)Grand Slam finals in bold text.
Other facts about HewittLleyton is a keen supporter of Australian rules football, having played the game earlier in his career and is no.1 ticket holder for the Adelaide Crows. He once had a friendship with Crows star Andrew McLeod, however this recently broke down over much public controversy. In 2005 Hewitt married Australian actress Bec Cartwright. The couple's daughter, Mia Hewitt, was born later that year.Hewitt was featured in one of the episodes of Prince of Tennis(anime/manga). See alsoReferencesExternal links
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