Former Wimbledon Champion and former world #1 Lleyton Hewitt is in the home stretch of his career and is being more selective about the events he plays in his final year. He has always performed well on grass but can he be a threat in his last Wimbledon?
Hewitt elected not to play the French Open so he could focus on the grass court season; however, he struggled in his first grass court match. He lost in straight sets to Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the Topshelf Open. In Hewitt’s defense Mahut is a stellar grass player and after beating Hewitt won the tournament in s-Hertogenbosch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv1SbOqYz-A
The 34-year-old has struggled in general this year. On his farewell tour he has had first round defeats in Houston, Miami, Brisbane and Queens Club, this week, along with a second round loss at the Australian Open. That said he will have history to inspire him as he 10 previous titles on grass, the most recent at Newport in 2014. At Queens Hewitt served for the match, a set and a break up against Kevin Anderson, only to collapse against the South African who often struggles to break his opponents serve.
The former world No. 1 has a 128-39 career record on grass and a 41-15 record at the All England Club. The only surface he has more wins on is hard and that is simply because there are more hard court tournaments. Hewitt has not made it past the quarterfinals of Wimbledon since 2009 when he lost to Andy Roddick. Funnily enough Roddick, a former Wimbledon finalist, will be doing commentary for Wimbledon this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLyDeBEZ6qM
It has become evident in the last year or so that Hewitt has struggled to play his grind it out, counterpunching style of game. He has so many miles on his body and has overcome so many injuries. Hewitt would have to change his game plan and be more offensive if he truly is to make a dark horse run at things. Unforced errors and a poor first serve have dogged him in matches this year, as he has spewed errors during long rallies from slapping the ball lazily, and double faulted under pressure.
Realistically it is very unlikely that Hewitt is going to change any part of his game. He does have the chance to make it to the second or even third round depending on his draw with his current playing style but it will be very hard for him to go much further.
Hewitt will also play doubles in his final Wimbledon and he has hand picked Thanasi Kokkinakis, a young Aussie up and comer, to be his doubles partner for his last Wimbledon. Hewitt is a very underrated doubles player so it will be fun to see if they can win a few rounds. Hewitt did win the 2000 US Open Men’s Doubles with Max Mirnyi. It was the first Grand Slam doubles win for both and only for Hewitt.
The Australian may be retiring from the professional tour but he will still be around the game as a commentator and as the Australian Davis Cup Captain. His loyal American fans are also keeping their fingers crossed that he will join recently retired Roddick and James Blake on PowerShares Series.
Regardless how things turn out for Hewitt at the All England Club this year he has come a long way with his maturity and game since he broke out on the scene over 15 years ago. It will be nice to see him at Wimbledon one more time and the future hall of famer should receive a very warm welcome from the fans at a venue he can call home, even while being from the other side of the world.
Enjoy what you see? Check out our full Wimbledon coverage here.
Main Photo:
