Lleyton's Story
Lleyton Hewitt became the youngest ever Australian Open qualifier in 1997 at the age of 15 years, 11 months. He was selected in the Australian Olympic Team to compete at the Sydney 2000 Games after turning professional in 1998. Hewitt was knocked out in the first round of the Olympics but went on to win the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002. Hewitt was world number one during 2001 and 2002 but did not return to Olympic competition until Beijing 2008. Hewitt was knocked out in the second round of the singles and paired with Chris Guccione to reach the quarter-finals at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Hewitt competed at his third Olympic Games in London where he lined up in both the singles and mixed doubles tournaments. Having knocked off Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky and 13th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, Hewitt went down to second seed Novak Djokovic in a tight tussle 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. Lining up with Samantha Stosur in the mixed doubles, Hewitt made it to the quarter-finals before host duo Andy Murray and Laura Robson knocked them out 6-3, 3-6, 10-8.
