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Lleyton Hewitt Ends Retirement, Returns Next Week
17 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Scoop
By Scoop Malinowski
Lleyton Hewitt announced on Twitter he is ending his two year retirement from professional tennis and will return to action next week in Estoril, Portugal where he will play doubles with Australian teenager Alex Deminaur.
The former world no. 1 in 2001 and 2002, Hewitt played Australian Open doubles this year with Sam Groth and Wimbledon 2016 with Groth. He also played in Davis Cup vs USA two years ago, losing with John Peers to the Bryans in five sets. But this announced comeback sounds more serious than the previous one-shots.
Hewitt said today he plans on playing Estoril and several other events this year but did not specify if it will be limited to doubles action.
Hewitt, age 37, has a career ATP singles record of 616-262 including 30 ATP singles titles and of course major titles at US Open and Wimbledon.
His career doubles record is 128-98 with three titles. Hewitt has earned over $20 million in career prize earnings.
Hewitt played in Brisbane this year with Jordan Thompson, losing in the first round to Grigor Dimitrov and Ryan Harrison, 36 61 5-10.
In Melbourne, Hewitt and Groth combined to win three rounds – besting Istomin/Kukushkin, Rojer/Tecau, Andujar/Vinolas-Ramos – before falling in the quarterfinal Cabal/Farah 46 57.
Hewitt has been training with and coaching rising star Deminaur, who has been making steady progress up the rankings.
Scoop’s book “Facing Hewitt” is available at amazon for $9.99.
Dan Markowitz · April 27, 2018 at 1:58 pm
Very interesting, but if Hewitt just comes back and plays doubles, I don’t really think that counts so much as a comeback. Now if he came back and played some singles events with the idea of getting his ranking back to possibly playing slams next year, that would be something,.
Joe Blow · April 27, 2018 at 3:28 pm
Nobody wants to stay home and retire after globetrotting for 15 years, amazing..
He could probably get Wildcards to Aus. Wimpy and US…Though it’s not like golf where you seem to be able to play an event you won, until you can’t walk 18
Michael in uk · April 27, 2018 at 3:34 pm
Got to love Leyton! Clearly being coach and not on court was not for him.
Meanwhile in Barcelona on the clay, did you see Tsitsipass beat Thiem in the QF, faces Carreno Busta in the semi on Saturday. Go Stefanos!
Scoop Malinowski · April 27, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Dan, Hewitt is coming back because his competitive juices still flow and he wants back in the competitive arena. He’s not just there to play with his protege, he’s coming back to see if he still has it. Which he must think he does. There is still a lot of fire in the Hewitt tank and there’s only one way to treat it – get out there and battle at the highest level. QF this year in Australia shows that Hewitt can still get the job done and he can still win a doubles major. Singles would be a struggle one would think but with this guy you can never count him out.
Scoop Malinowski · April 27, 2018 at 4:58 pm
Joe, Hewitt will surely get a WC into Newport doubles, Hewitt is a ticket seller and still a big name who a lot of people still like to watch play. We will never forget his fighting spirit and remarkable ability to win tennis matches especially from the losing position.
Dan Markowitz · April 27, 2018 at 9:08 pm
What makes you think Hewitt can still win a doubles major? He only won one of those. Hewitt hasn’t been like Nadal, a great singles player who’s game seems to translate really well to doubles.
Besides, he’s not going to win any big titles in doubles partnering de Minaur. If he partners Kyrgios if he ever gets healthy again, that might be a different matter.
Duke Carnoustie · April 28, 2018 at 12:21 am
I think Hewitt has another motive in coming back. Bernard Tomic continues to drag his name through the mud. Hewitt is out to show that even as an old man he is more of a force in the current day than the disappointing Tomic.
Scoop malinowski · April 28, 2018 at 7:25 am
Hewitt never targeted doubles majors after winning us open w mirnyi. This yr he reached QF with a journeyman. He pushed Bryan to five sets in 2016 DCup. Doubles is wide open right now with guys like Marach and Cabal in top ten.
Joe Blow · April 28, 2018 at 9:29 am
Why doesn’t he go to the “ hit and giggle” seniors, and play against lots of his contemporaries, Roddick, Fish, Blake, and occasionally be the pawn in a JMac match?
Not enough competitive fire?
Duke Carnoustie · April 28, 2018 at 11:16 am
Anybody see the blowup between Grigor and PCB yeterday? Never seen Grigor so upset, though he was 100 percent n the wrong.
Tsitsipas into the final. First Greek in an ATP final since Nicholas Kalogeropoulos in Des Moines (????) in 1973. He will win five games in tomorrow’s match. Still an amazing feat.
catherine · April 28, 2018 at 11:34 am
WTA – CoCo’s on a roll into the Stuttgart final – sweeps aside Garcia in SS. I’m sure all CoCo’s fans here will be wishing her the very best 🙂
Seriously – Pat Cash is doing a good job.
Hartt · April 28, 2018 at 1:03 pm
I did see the blowup between Grigor and PCB. Grigor was that upset at least once before, although that time he took it out on his racquets instead of his opponent. It was when he lost to Schwartzman in Istanbul, and smashed 3 racquets in a row, and got point penalties that ended the match. It was so unfair to Diego, because he did not get his moment in the sun by beating Grigor in the normal way.
Scoop Malinowski · April 28, 2018 at 3:18 pm
I can see how Dimitrov could explode losing to PCB as that’s a match he would expect to win. The window of opportunity for Dimitrov to win that elusive major is closing quickly.
Joe Blow · April 28, 2018 at 8:03 pm
Kkizan goes from beating the Djoker to playing qualies the next week, where he takes out Ernie G
Scoop Malinowski · April 28, 2018 at 8:11 pm
This critical year of Gulbis is not going very well. Not going to be easy for Gulbis to dislodge Dan’s fork.
Duke Carnoustie · April 29, 2018 at 2:33 am
Coco will dump Pliskova and win the title now.
Huge matchup in Estoril with Sandgren taking on Tiafoe. Should be a nice grudge match.
Rubin v. Mmoh in a first-rounder in Savannah. D-Young lays Garin and Opelka plays a no-namer in Kirchheimer. Opelka needs to get back on track.
catherine · April 29, 2018 at 3:14 am
CoCo will win if she can keep her head together. Clay in Stuttgart but fastish indoor and both have good serves.
Not the final Porsche probably wanted but it’s what they’ve got.