Lleyton Hewitt retires: 5 things that make him special

He is still the youngest ever men’s World No. 1, a record he set in 2001 at the age of 20. Nobody has been able to break that record yet.It’s a record Hewitt set only three years after turning professional – and beforeNow, at 34 years of age, and returning to tennis after what many considered an unrecoverable foot injury, Hewitt has decided to call it a day. His home Grand Slam, the Australian Open, will be the final professional tournament he plays.Here are 5 things about the Australian ace and his successful career:

#5 He comes from sporting roots

Hewitt’s parents are both athletes

...but those roots are not tennis-related. Hewitt’s father, Glynn, was a professional Australian Rules footballer who played in South Australia’s National Football League and was successful.

Hewitt Senior kicked 529 goals in his 258 league matches, and was himself a precocious talent, making his Aussie Rules debut at only 17. He had a 16-year career in the sport, and had a strong goal-scoring record with each team he played on.

The sporting talent wasn’t restricted to Glynn, however – Hewitt’s mother, Cherilyn, is a former physical education instructor, and his sister a tennis coach who used to be a bodybuilder.

Hewitt himself was skilled at a number of sports – including Aussie Rules – and made the shift to tennis in his early teens. The rest, of course, is history.

#4 He has dominated Roger Federer

That statement alone is not something most tennis players can say. Dominating Roger Federer is not really a concept most players – barring, now, Novak Djokovic – can lay claim to. But in the early part of Hewitt’s (and Federer’s) careers, the Australian dominated his Swiss counterpart across surfaces.

Hewitt managed to take victories over Federer on grass, clay, hard court, carpet – and it was only 5 years into their long-standing rivalry that Federer came back with such momentum that he now holds an 18-9 record over the Australian.

Hewitt can take heart, though, from having won the pair’s last meeting – at Brisbane in 2014.

#3 He holds multiple Davis Cup records

Hewitt is doubtless proficient on the professional circuit – but he took to the Davis Cup like nobody else. Hewitt has a mammoth 42-14 win/loss record in the singles and a 16/6 in the doubles. With a total of 20 ties played and 58 wins, Hewitt has won nearly two-thirds of every single tie he has played at the Davis Cup since he first represented the team in 1999.

That year, Hewitt starred in Australia’s rousing defeat of the USA Davis Cup side on American soil, with the men from Down Under taking a 4-1 victory.

In his Davis Cup travails, Hewitt has beaten several then – current-and-future World No. 1 players – among them Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin and most notably, Roger Federer. Following his recovery from injury, the Australian appears to have been unable to return to the vicinity of his form of old – but his illustrious history at the Davis Cup speaks miles for itself.

#2 Brought Australia back from the brink after 76 years

Last year, Briton Andy Murray starred in Great Britain’s first Davis Cup victory in 79 years, a win that was feted worldwide and at home. Australia has not really had as long a dry spell with regard to the title – they last won in 2003, beating the Spanish side 3-1 on Australian soil.

At the quarterfinals of the 2015 Davis Cup, Australia, playing at home, were up against, and being dominated by Kazakhstan’s Davis Cup side, who led Australia 2-0 and looked on track to knock the hosts out.

With three rubbers to go, Hewitt starred, with Sam Groth, in bringing the side back from the brink to manage to win that tie from 0-2 down. They finished at a 3-2 victory, with Hewitt instrumental in that comeback.

#1 Federer calls him an inspiration

It’s no secret that grass is Hewitt’s favourite surface. He holds the record for the most wins at the Queen’s Club Championships in the UK – four, a record he shares with American Andy Roddick and narrowly missed out on in 2014.

Hewitt stands at 121 grass-court wins, one short of the all-time record held by Roger Federer. He’s reached the finals of a staggering nine grass court events on the ATP World Tour. Four of those were at the Queen’s Club, which is one of Hewitt’s pet venues.

He has also won 30 finals on the ATP tour since the beginning of his career, been runner-up 16 times, and Greatest of All Time Roger Federer has repeatedly called him an ‘inspiration’ for younger players, especially those looking to get started.

“...Lleyton was really every point from the baseline. For him to win Wimbledon, and have the career he had on the grass, is quite unbelievable. It showed an entire generation how it can be done,” Federer told reporters ahead of Wimbledon last year.

Hewitt is known for being one of few baseliners to have had the success he did on grass, which is generally dominated by serve-and-volley specialists; a fact Federer himself acknowledged as he feted the Australian as a ‘pioneer of grass court tennis.’

The Australian Open will be a swansong to a successful, illustrious 18-year career which saw records set that are still unbroken as Hewitt says his goodbyes to the sport.