Lleyton Hewitt

Came upon this - expect it'll be of interest to those like me who are proud of the little Aussie battler - it's a pretty good wrap for Lleyton and a testament to his superb tennis brain:

Young Canadian Milos Raonic admits that two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt's experience and know-how was one of the keys to the Aussie’s 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 third round victory over him at the Australian Open. "I started out nervous," Raonic said. "I struggled more with him than I did with anything else really. He was keeping the ball very low. He was hitting always constant pace and quite low. Even when he was defending, he was always defending low. You could see his belief start to grow more and more. He's a very smart player. He knows how to win. When he smells a little bit of weakness, he just really pounces on it and he knows how to expose it. He's not the type of person that will give you really anything. Doesn't matter how hurt he's been, how old he is, he's as much of a competitor as he ever was. He got me with that."

Tennis Magazine.

Update on Lleyton's struggles to get on the court:

He's been lauded as the toughest competitor in tennis and now Lleyton Hewitt is ready to fight through the pain barrier once more at next month's Australian Open.
Hewitt has assured his close-knit team he is ``100 per cent'' certain to line up for a 16th consecutive tilt at Melbourne Park glory despite ongoing concerns over his chronic foot injury.
A specialist last week told Hewitt his battered left big toe was the ``worst he'd ever seen'' and expressed surprise the former world No.1 was walking around, let alone preparing for a grand slam tournament.
Hewitt, though, considers the grim medical assessment a badge of honour and will soldier on without even using pain killers as they upset his stomach.
The 30-year-old's show of grit is no surprise to his vastly experienced coach Tony Roche.
``Look, he'd be the toughest competitor that I've seen,'' Roche told AAP earlier this year.
``He's had a lot of setbacks the last couple of years but he keeps bouncing back.''
Hewitt hasn't played since Australia's Davis Cup loss to Switzerland in Sydney in September.
But he has proven time and again he can return at a high level after long breaks from the game.
Last year, Hewitt was sidelined for almost four months following a second round of hip surgery and a knee operation before he toppled Roger Federer on grass in the Halle final.
He reached the quarter-finals of the 2006 US Open despite carrying a knee injury that had threatened his participation and famously beat Rafael Nadal in five sets at the 2005 Australian Open while battling a hip injury.
Despite languishing at 186th in the rankings, father-of-three Hewitt insists retirement is not in his plans.
``This year's been frustrating with the foot injury,'' Hewitt said this month.
``The rest of my body feels great, so that's probably even more frustrating. If I was breaking down in a lot of different areas, then you can sort of put up with it.
``So if I can get over this foot injury, I feel great at the moment in terms of my ball striking. It's as good as it's been in a long time.
``As long as my foot holds up, I'll keep going.''
Hewitt will launch his 2012 campaign at the Hopman Cup in Perth starting on Saturday before contesting both the Sydney International and Australian Open as a wildcard entrant.

AAP.

Aussie great Ken Rosewall on Hewitt's prospects:

http://tvnz.co.nz/tennis-news/lleyton-hewitt-one-injury-away-retirement-4645777

He's still out there and still fighting - what a competitor.

From AAP:

Former finalist Lleyton Hewitt has been given a wildcard into next month's Australian Open in a decision organisers say is the easiest they have had to make.
Hewitt, whose struggle with on-going injuries this season has reduced his ranking to No.188 in the world, says he intends to make a concerted bid to resurrect his status in 2012.
Open tournament director Craig Tiley said the former World No.1 was an obvious option for the first men's wildcard selection.
``Who better than Lleyton, who was a finalist here in 2005 (to Russian Marat Safin),'' Tiley said.
``He has had a rough year with injuries but it hasn't taken away the impact that he's had on Australian tennis.
``He knows now that he has the wildcard and he can focus his preparation over the next month-and-a-half into the Australian Open to get himself as ready as he possibly can be for January.
``He can obviously put to rest now any speculation that's out there about whether or not he's going to be in the main draw.''
Tiley said Hewitt had already begun preparing as he puts his rehab behind him.
``He's been practising the last couple of weeks and if you know Lleyton he'll like nothing more than to come to January and do well.
``He's very focused on getting the job done for really where he wants to be in 2012.''

For Hewitt fans:

The competitive fire still burns brightly for Lleyton Hewitt as he counts down the days to a 15th straight Australian Open campaign.
The 30-year-old has done it tough in an injury-cruelled 2011 as his world ranking slipped to No.189.
But the former world No.1 has no plans to call it a day just yet.
``I'm more hungry now than a few years ago purely because I've had to fight back from the surgeries,'' Hewitt told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
``The great thing about tennis is that it's an individual sport and I can call time on it whenever I want to.
``It's not like I'm going to get sacked or pushed out of the game or dropped and it doesn't matter what anyone writes, it's up to me and how motivated I am.''
Hewitt has fought back from a string of injuries, including hip surgery in 2009, leg and wrist problems in 2010 and a niggling ankle complaint earlier this year.
``As you get older you're always more prone to getting injuries,'' Hewitt said.
``Mentally I've had to come back from some solid injuries the last couple of years so I've been pretty mentally tough and done all the right things, so apart from the foot, the body feels great.''
He will begin his domestic summer campaign at the Hopman Cup in Perth starting on New Year's Eve, followed by the Sydney International and the Australian Open.
However Hewitt doesn't pretend it's going to be easy.
``This year's going to be tough, there's no two ways about it. I haven't played that many matches,'' he said.
He played just nine tournaments and two Davis Cup ties this year, with his best results being two quarter-final appearances.
Hewitt said he would love to win a fifth title in Sydney before tackling the opening grand slam event of the year, where he is certain to receive a wildcard from Tennis Australia.
``I've won this tournament (in Sydney) four times and there's no better place than centre court here with 10,000 people screaming you on so I'd love to win a fifth title here and hopefully I can get those four or five matches here and go into the Aussie with self-confidence,'' he said.

AAP.

article dated 12/9

Asked about the fitness of Hewitt, who pulled out of the US Open due to a foot injury, Rafter said: "He's good. It's the first time he hasn't felt his toe in a long time."
"If he could play on grass every week of the year he'd be a very happy boy."
"He's hitting the ball well. The good thing about Lleyton is he's always had the ability of not playing a lot of tennis but still playing very well."
http://bit.ly/riEwFn

not sure if use know yet but hewitt is out of us open,

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/lleyton-hewitt-out-of-us-open/story-e6frep5o-1226120605772

From AAP:

Ten years after triumphing over Pete Sampras for his first grand slam title, Lleyton Hewitt will return to the US Open as an underdone wildcard.
Ranked just No.165 in the world, Hewitt has been handed the wildcard entry allotted to Tennis Australia in return for an American spot in the Australian Open.
That's despite a US hardcourt season build up consisting of only two matches back in July, when he battled his persistent and painful foot injury before losing to qualifier Rajeev Ram in Atlanta.
Hewitt has missed other lead-up events including this week's Cincinnati Masters as he tries to get his body right for the Open starting in less than two weeks.
It's been a horrible year for Hewitt at the grand slams - a first-round exit to David Nalbandian at the Australian Open followed by his injury-enforced withdrawal before the French Open and second-round loss to Robin Soderling at Wimbledon.
But he insists the fire still burns.
``I'm really looking forward to New York,'' said Hewitt in a Tennis Australia (TA) statement.
``It's 10 years on since I won there and I've still got the passion and hunger which is great.''
TA's head of pro tennis Todd Woodbridge had no doubt Hewitt merited the wildcard entry.
``Lleyton has achieved some of his best results in New York and it is ten years since his victory,'' said Woodbridge.
``He's had a tough run with injuries over the past few months but his fighting spirit is undiminished and we are very pleased to be able to grant him a wildcard into the US Open.''

Lleyton Hewitt is expected to wait until the morning of his opening round match at Wimbledon next week before deciding whether he will play.
The 2002 champion is racing against time to be fit for the third grand slam of the year following a recurrence of a foot injury this week.
The former world No.1 was forced to retire mid-match at the warm-up event in Eastbourne on Tuesday because of the stabbing pain in his foot despite taking painkillers pre-match.
Hewitt had a hit up at the practice courts at Wimbledon on Wednesday and is receiving constant treatment on his foot in his bid to be ready for the tournament.
The Australian is aiming to play at the famed south-west London venue for the 13th straight year in a row next week.
Hewitt will be hoping for a Tuesday start at the tournament with the possibility of opening round matches being pushed back a day with showers predicted on Monday.
The two-time grand slam champion was a shadow of himself against Belgian Olivier Rochus in Eastbourne on Tuesday, trailing 6-2 3-0 before calling it quits.
He said that pain killers had failed to dull the aching in his foot and for once, plenty of players would be happy to draw him in the first round.
Hewitt watched his ranking balloon out to 130 in the world this week because of his time off the court recovering from injuries.
It is the 30-year-old's worst position on the ATP rankings table since October 1998.
He had foot surgery in March and a flare-up of the problem forced him to pull out of the French Open last month only hours before his first round match.
He tweaked the problem last week in Halle before putting in an awful performance in Eastbourne, the ferocious competitor being severely hindered by the foot complaint.

Source: AAP.

Not looking good for Lleyton...

Lleyton Hewitt's Wimbledon preparation has been thrown into chaos, with the Australian forced out of the AEGON International with a foot injury.

The former world number one was trailing Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-2, 3-0 in the first round of the final Wimbledon lead-up tournament when he was forced to retire hurt because of stabbing pain in his left foot.

The 30-year-old said a fall during his quarter-final loss to eventual winner Philipp Kohlschreiber in Halle last week stirred up the injury in a toe on his left foot - the same foot he had an operation on in March.
"Since (Halle) I've just been trying to, you know, get treatment and do all the right things ... it just hasn't quite improved as much as I would have liked by today, but I wanted to come out and try anyway," Hewitt said.

Hewitt - who suffered a 57-place fall in the world rankings to be number 130 on the eve of Wimbledon - said he was still unsure whether he'd be returning to the grass courts of Wimbledon, where he won in 2002.
"I'm not sure ... I still feel like in another week I can get good treatment. With the right people behind me and a couple easier days, hopefully I can start getting a little bit better."

Hewitt said he was happy with his ball striking, but was being held back by the lack of freedom in his court movement.

"That's the most frustrating thing when you feel or you know you've done all the right things. To not be 100 per cent and going out there still trying to compete isn't that easy mentally either," he said, adding that the grass court season was one of his favourites.

Source: SMH.