Lleyton Hewitt - Australian Open Men's Tennis Players
The hopes of Australia will be pinned on Lleyton Hewitt to lift the Norman Brookes Trophy for the very first time in 2009. Lleyton is one of those players who the public loves to hate. He is also an exceptional talent, but since his professional debut in 1998, he has only twice taken home the biggest prize of all, a Grand Slam title.
He became the youngest male ever to reach the World no.1 tennis ranking, at the tender age of 21, in 2001. It was the year in which he claimed his first Grand Slam title on the courts of Flushing Meadows, New York. He defeated one of the greats of tennis, Pete Sampras in straight sets to claim the US Open title.
In 2002 he took to the grass courts of Wimbledon and defeated David Nalbandian to take the coveted title. Sadly he has never managed a repeat of those glory days. He did, however, set some pretty ignominious records thereafter. At Wimbledon 2003 he became the first defending men's champion in recent history to lose in the first round, he also became the first defending champion to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament – not something to be proud of!
His bad run of luck followed him into 2004. He set another unenviable record and became the first man in history to lose each of the four Grand Slams singles to the eventual champion:
- At the Australian Open he was defeated by Swiss master, Roger Federer in the fourth round
- At the French Open he lost to Gaston Gaudio in the quarterfinals
- At Wimbledon he was outgunned by Federer yet again
- At the US Open final, he was left gasping for breath when Roger Federer beat him in three sets. He lost two of the sets at love
His best showing at the Australian Open was in 2005 when he beat world no.2, Andy Roddick and made it to the final. Sadly Russian Marat Safin crushed his dream of winning his backyard Grand Slam.
Seeded 19th at the 2008 Australian Open, Hewitt lost out to the eventual winner Novak Djokovic 7–5 6–3 6–3 - adding yet another incident to his list of infamous records. After badly injuring his hip and aggravating the injury again at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he took the rest of the season off to go through hip surgery sending his ATP rankings into a dismal state - he is now ranked #59 in the world.
Lleyton Hewitt, Australian Open men's tennis player, has conquered some of the big names in tennis, but his form going into 2009 will have to be greatly improved if he is to be taken seriously.
Perhaps this is the year that an Australian will bring home the title, and it would be disingenuous to write off the homeboy, but the odds are that he again will start off the year empty-handed.
Do you know which of this year's Australian Open men's tennis players are heading for the finals? If so, then you make be successful at tennis betting.
