Lleyton Hewitt receives a wildcard entry to the 2012 Australian Open – Tennis News
Former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, has been sidelined for most of the 2011 season due to persistent injuries but has been awarded a wildcard entry to the next year’s first Grand Slam event, the Australian Open.
Once the top ranked player in the tennis world, the 30-year-old veteran is now rated at number 188 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings. The Aussie tennis star has been facing several career-threatening injuries in the past few years
but has hung in the professional tennis circuit with his sheer determination.
The tournament director, Craig Tiley, was extremely please to award the spot to Hewitt and hopes that veteran will keep the local hopes high in the competition.
“Lleyton has had some bad luck with injury recently, which has seen his ranking drop, but he has proved time and time again he can never be discounted, particularly in a big match,” said Tiley.
Hewitt took off the 2011 season as the world number 54 but a series of injuries kept him detached from playing tennis most of the time. The Australian played merely 20 matches this season, winning nine of them and suffering defeats on 11 occurrences to remain
title-less by the end of the year. Hewitt has 28 ATP championship titles in his bag, which include two all-prestigious Grand Slam titles as well.
The Australian got on peak of his career when he bagged his first Major title at the US Open. He outplayed the legendary Pete Sampras of the United States in straight sets in the final of the Grand Slam event and won a total of six ATP championship titles to
rocket away to the world number one spot by the season end.
Hewitt’s reign as the top ranked player continued in the following season as well, with the Aussie winning five more events to strengthen his position as the number one tennis player among men. He seized his second Grand Slam trophy of his career at the Flushing
Meadows at Wimbledon, devastating 32nd ranked David Nalbandian of Argentina in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, in style.
His career started to slump in the following year, with a number of injuries affecting his fine form and Hewitt dropped 17 places by the 2003 year end to finish at number 17. The Aussie has another purple patch in 2005 when he broke into the Top-3 once again,
reaching the number two mark but from there onwards, it was a story of decline for the former world number one player.
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