Tag: Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt has made it clear that this is not the last time that he is going to participate in the Australian Open.

Hewitt has not been at his best in the last few years and with him not getting any younger, there had been talks that this could be his last appearance in the Australian Open, but, the 32 years old veteran has denied all that.

Hewitt is believed to have put in a lot of effort to improve his fitness in the last few weeks and according to him, he is determined to do well in the Grand Slams and in the Davis Cup next season.

Talking to the reporters recently, Hewitt said, “It’s not going to be my last Australian Open. I am feeling good about my game at the moment and I have no plans of quitting.”

Hewitt will start the upcoming season by participating in the Brisbane International Tennis tournament. He might have to face one of the greatest players of all time Roger Federer at some stage in that tournament.

When asked about that, the Australian superstar said, “Roger is a quality player and he is one of those guys whom you don’t prefer to face especially at the start of a tournament. He is one of the greats of the game.”

During the last season, Hewitt had put up good performances in patches. He wasn’t consistent enough, but, he had got better of some players who are quite high in the world rankings and he believes that those wins have given him a huge amount of self belief.

Hewitt said, “To defeat Juan and Stanislas who are two of the top 10 players in the world, it has certainly boosted my confidence.”

Hewitt has so far won a couple of Grand Slam singles titles in his career.

Lleyton Hewitt has cruised into the final 4 of the ongoing BB&T Atlanta Open by defeating Ivan Dodig of Croatia. Hewitt won the match in three sets by 1-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Hewitt was not looking in good touch at the start and he was completely outclassed in the opening set. But, the Aussie star fought back after that and clinched the next two sets in style to win the contest.

In the post match interview, Hewitt said, “It was tough for me at the start. He was serving really well and was also spot on with his return shots. He had certainly got me under pressure.”

“However, I am glad that I managed to battle it out. It feels good to be in the semi finals. Hopefully, I will keep going well in the next match as well.”

In the opening set, Dodig began with a bang. With breakthroughs in the 2^nd and the 4^th game, he won the first 5 games in a row. Hewitt held his serve for the first time in the set in the 6^th game to make the score 5-1, but, that was too little, too late. Another serve hold by the Croatian player in the 7^th game sealed the set in his favour.

In the second set, both the players held their serve in the first 7 games and Hewitt was leading by 4-3 when the 7^th game ended.

The Australian player sneaked a breakthrough in the 8^th game and then, by winning his next service game, he clinched the set.

In the decider, Hewitt was at his peak. With some high quality shots, he made his opponent look ordinary. He secured a bagel and won the contest.

In the semi final round, Hewitt will take on the winner of the match between James Blake and John Isner.

Lleyton Hewitt has been defeated by Martin Alund of Argentina in the first round of the US men’s clay court championship. Alund won the match by 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Hewitt had a long journey from Uzbekistan to USA. He didn’t seem to be completely recovered from that. There were signs of tiredness in his performance and as the match progressed, his movements got slower and slower.

Hewitt was in Uzbekistan to represent Australia in a Davis Cup match. After helping his country winning that clash by 3-1, Hewitt took a flight to USA. That was certainly a long journey and Hewitt would have been completely exhausted. He needed rest which he didn’t get and as a result, his performance was poor in the match.

In the post match interview, Hewitt said, “It was tough to get going after such an exhausting journey.  I was always going to struggle. I tried my best, but, couldn’t pull it off.”

“I just had to win this match and then, I would have got a bit of rest before the next match, but, it didn’t happen unfortunately.”

On the other hand, Alund was looking happy after securing a win over Hewitt. The Argentinean said, “He was struggling a bit, but, still, he won the first set and that did pressurize me. But, he couldn’t really keep the intensity going and I took advantage of that.”

Hewitt got a breakthrough in the 7^th game of the first set to take a lead of 4-3. He won his next couple of service games after that and sealed the set by 6-4.

In the second set, Alund broke Hewitt’s serve in the 2^nd game, but, he was broken back immediately.

Alund got another breakthrough in the 6^th game and this time, he enhanced that lead by serving out the 7^th game. All he wanted after that was a serve hold and he got that in the 9^th game to win the second set.

In the final set, Hewitt got absolutely bamboozled by the Argentinean. All he won in that set was one game and ended up losing the match.

Lleyton Hewitt has said that he has put his first round defeat in the Australian Open out of his head now and he is looking forward to represent Australia in the Davis cup clash against Taiwan which is going to be played next month at Kaohsiung City.

Talking to the reporters about the upcoming Davis Cup clash, Hewitt said, “I am looking forward to it. We have got a decent squad and if we play up to our potential, we will definitely get better of them.”

“We have got depth in our line up. We have got a couple of doubles specialist in the form of Chris Guccione and Matt Ebden and then, we have got Marinko Matosevic who is a very good singles player.”

However, Australia will go into this all important clash without its top ranked player Bernard Tomic who is going through a suspension period.

When asked about the exclusion of Tomic from the squad, Hewitt said, “Tomic is a fantastic player and we would have loved to have him in the team, but, because of some issues, he is out of the team at the moment. Hopefully, those issues would be sorted out soon and he would be available for the further clashes.”

When asked about the Taiwan team, Hewitt said, “I haven’t been told the name of the Taiwan players who will compete against us. But, I have played against a couple of Taiwan players in the past and I think they will be a part of the Taiwan squad for this clash.”

When asked about his first round loss in the Australian Open, Hewitt said, “I was a bit upset about that loss, but, now, I have put that out of my system. Currently, my focus is only on the upcoming Davis Cup clash.”

Lleyton Hewitt has been defeated by Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in his opening match in the Australian Open 2013. Tipsarevic won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(7-4), 7-5, 6-3 and knocked Hewitt out of the competition.

A large no. of people turned up to watch the match and cheer for Hewitt who is a superstar in Australia. But, Hewitt didn’t provide them the entertainment that they had come to see. Although, Hewitt played well in patches but, he wasn’t able to hold his nerves on crucial occasions and ended up being defeated.

Neither of the two players managed to get a breakthrough in the first 12 games in the first set and the set went into the tie breaker. Hewitt was off to a great start in the tie breaker and took a lead of 4-0, but, he lost that advantage. Tipsarevic won the next seven points on the trot to seal the opening set.

In the next couple of sets, Hewitt won the first three games on the trot, but, he didn’t manage to maintain that lead in any of the two sets. His service was broken thrice in the second set and twice in the third set.

After the match, Hewitt said, “It’s disappointing to be knocked out from the opening round. I think I started well in all the three sets, but, I wasn’t able to maintain the intensity throughout the set.”

“When you play against a player who is in the top 10, you can’t afford to miss the chances. I lost too many opportunities which proved to be costly at the end.”

“Tipsarevic is a fantastic player and today, he was certainly at his best. Even after being trailed in the last two sets, he didn’t get nervous and bounced back beautifully.”

The former Australian Open champion, Lleyton Hewitt, has denied the reports that he is going to announce his retirement pretty soon. The performance of Hewitt in 2012 has been pretty poor.

Hewitt has started this season pretty well and in the Australian Open, he had won his first three matches before being defeated by the current world no. 1 Novak Djokovic in the fourth round. But, as the season progressed, Hewitt’s form deteriorated.

The Australian tennis superstar didn’t manage to win even one match in the French Open and the Wimbledon Championship. His performance in the US Open was a bit better. In US Open, Hewitt won his first couple of matches and went to the third round, but, was defeated in the third round match by David Ferrer. Hewitt won two matches in London Olympics as well.

In the Campbell’s tennis Championship played at Newport, Hewitt’s performance was quite good and he managed to reach the finals of that tournament. However, he failed in winning his first title of the year. In the final, he was defeated by John Isner in the straight sets by 7-6(1), 6-4.

Hewitt played 33 matches in this season out of which he won 17 and lost 16. His performance in the previous season was also pretty similar. Out of the 26 matches that he had played in the last season, he had won 14 and had lost 12.

When asked about the retirement, Hewitt said, “I don’t think this is the right time for me to quit tennis. This is certainly not my last season. I can see myself playing throughout the next year and then, in the Australian Open in 2014. My body is still good enough to soak the pressure of playing at this level.”

Lleyton Hewitt has been defeated in the third round of the Men’s tennis singles tournament of London Olympics by Novak Djokovic. Djokovic won the match by 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Hewitt fought very hard and didn’t let Djokovic run away with the match. At one point of time, it seemed that Hewitt might pull off a big upset. But, the power game of Djokovic was too much for Hewitt at the end. With this victory, Djokovic secured a place in the quarterfinals.

In the first set, both the players were not able to get a breakthrough in the first eight games. In the ninth game, Hewitt broke the service of Djokovic and then held his service in the next game to win the set 6-4. Djokovic was stunned after losing the first set. However, he made a come back and broke the service of Hewitt in the eighth game of the second set and the scorecard was showing 5-3. Djokovic had to hold his service in the next game to win the second set, but, Hewitt didn’t let that happen. He got a breakthrough in the ninth game and then hold his service in the next game to level the score 5-5. But, Djokovic didn’t get nervous and hold his nerves. He showed his class in the next two sets. He broke Hewitt’s service in the eleventh game to make the score 6-5 and then by holding his service in the next game, he won the second set. After winning the second set, Djokovic looked a different payer in the third set. He broke the service of Hewitt twice in the final set and won the set easily by 6-1.

After the match, Hewitt said that he tried to give his best in the match, but, unfortunately, he wasn’t able to go past Djokovic. Djokovic praised Hewitt a lot after the match. He said that Hewitt is a big match player and he showed that he can still play high quality tennis.