A champion moves out

It was a fond farewell for a champion on the opening day of Wimbledon Tennis 2015. Australia’s leading tennis star, Lleyton Hewitt had already announced that this would be his last appearance in Wimbledon. It was his 17th appearance in the prestigious tennis arena.

“I didn’t leave any stone unturned preparing,” he said after the 2015 first round match with Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen which he lost. He fought hard taking the match to a five-setter, the last one going to 11-9. It was an unforgettable match for him indeed – a match that took four hours to complete.

“The Australian champion bid farewell to Wimbledon with a trademark gutsy five-set roller-coaster against fellow veteran Jarkko Nieminen. His fight wasn’t enough to win the match, but it was enough to remind the sporting world what it loved about the scrappy lion-hearted 34-year-old,” a website reported.

“He has a vision of a world without alarm clocks, pain, rehabilitation, airports and expectations,” wrote a sports writer in the Australian paper The Daily Telegraph last Saturday, two days before his Wimbledon game. “At 34, Hewitt is a worn, remodelled version of the ruthlessly single-minded tyro who burst on to the international landscape at 16.”

Hewitt put Australia on the map by winning Wimbledon – the dream od every tennis player – in 2002. He won the US Open also the same year.

The South Australian hopes to play in the Davis Cup in a bid to win the Cup for Australia and then play in Australian Open early next year before retiring.

“Just being at home with the family,” was Hewitt’s reply when asked what next? He wants to spend more time with the kids aged 9, 6 and 4. He is waiting to find more time for golf. He is bound to be invited as a tennis commentator.

As it happens to many players, Hewitt too had his fair share of injuries. The most serious was a foot operation that required the fusion of bones and insertion of screws and a plate in 2012. At 31, he had to learn to walk and run again on a battered left foot. 

To quote The Telegraph news feature titled ‘The warrior exiting on his terms’: “Boris Becker predicted a long and glorious reign for a baseliner who traded on lightning speed, deadly counter-punching and chilling instinct to rule. Then Roger Federer, six months Hewitt’s junior, and a former doubles partner, happened along. Since that unforgettable afternoon when Hewitt rode roughshod over Argentine David Nalbandian in 2002, Federer has proceeded to 17 major titles while Hewitt failed to add to his two.”