Lleyton Glynn Hewitt was born on February 24th 1981 in Adelaide, Australia. He played on the Australian Rules Football until age 13, when he decided to pursue a career in tennis.
Hewitt turned pro in 1998 and won his first tournament the same year. His long blonde hair and brash style reminded many of the young Andre Agassi, and Hewitt became a favorite heartthrob of teen tennis fans.
Hewitt's game is based primarily around his superior reaction time, fitness, motivation, and court speed. He plays a traditional baseline game: retreiving every ball, hitting shots deep, with little topspin, in an extraordinarily consistent fashion. He grinds away at his opponent, counter-punching their shots and generally wearing them down.
He first played for Australia's Davis Cup team in 1999, and competed at Sydney in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Hewitt beat Pete Sampras in the finals of the 2001 U.S. Open to claim his first Grand Slam-level championship. The next year he won the Wimbledon men's singles title with a straight-sets win over David Nalbandian.
He was part of the Australian team which won the Davis Cup in 1999 and 2003, and reached the finals in 2000 and 2001.
Hewitt dated highly-ranked Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters. The two announced their engagement just before Christmas 2003, but they split up recently in October 2004.
He has yet to win the Australian Open, but has won several lead-up tournaments in recent years, including the Adidas International in Sydney in January. Over the past years, Lleyton has broken so many records, and defeated so many opponents, that he has clearly shown he had the tenacity, the perseverance and the talent to be the #1 player in the world.
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