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Hewitt może wrócić dopiero na Roland Garros

Dopiero we wtorek na oficjalnej stronie internetowej Lleytona Hewitta pojawiło się wyjaśnienie dlaczego ex lider rankingu ATP nie gra w tenisa. W ubiegłym tygodniu Australijczyk przeszedł operację stopy.
- Stopa sprawiała mi problemy już od jakiegoś czasu - mówi komunikat - i potrzebowałem zabiegu, by móc rywalizować na swoim najwyższym poziomie w dwóch nadchodzących turniejach wielkoszlemowych.

Te turnieje to międzynarodowe mistrzostwa Francji w Paryżu (17 maja - 5 czerwca) i Wimbledon (20 czerwca - 3 lipca), który Hewitt wygrał w 2002 roku. Jest szansa, że notowany dziś na 64. miejscu na liście światowej zawodnik wróci do gry dopiero w maju.

http://www.sportowefakty.pl/tenis/2011/ … nd-garros/

Hewitt to Play French Open

Australia’s former world number one Lleyton Hewitt will play through the pain at this month’s French Open as he returns to tennis after surgery, his coach Tony Roche said on Monday.

Hewitt, 30, is planning to contest the claycourt grand slam at Roland Garros which starts on May 17 despite not playing for more than two months.

The two-time grand slam champion underwent foot surgery in March but the 66th-ranked Hewitt is once again prepared to play through the pain barrier.

“I think he’s used to that. Look, he’d be the toughest competitor that I’ve seen,” Roche told reporters.

“He’s had a lot of setbacks over the last couple of years but he keeps bouncing back.

“He keeps wanting to improve and he’s so keen, which is great for Australian tennis because we need him to hang in there.”

Last year, Hewitt was sidelined for almost four months following a second round of hip surgery and a knee operation before upstaging Roger Federer on grass in the Halle final and then almost beating Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.

He reached the quarter-finals of the 2006 US Open despite a knee injury that threatened his participation.

“It’s his first tournament back from his operation. It’s a big ask, but he could do it if he got the right draw,” Hewitt said.

“Unfortunately, he’s not going to be seeded so you’ve got to rely on a good passage through that first week and not running into the top three or four guys.

“But Lleyton is still as keen as ever. He feels in the grand slams, given the right opportunity, that he can still be competitive with the top guys.”

Hewitt hoping to make solid return on grass

Lleyton Hewitt will make what might be his last serious run at returning to tennis when the Australian steps onto grass next week to defend the Halle, Germany, title he won in a shock a year ago over longtime holder Roger Federer.


The 30-year-old is said to have finally made a complete recovery from foot surgery this spring which forced him to delay his return to the game by pulling out of the French Open.

Between his foot operation and two hip surgeries, fitness has been a major problem for the two-time Grand Slam champion, who won Wimbledon nine years ago. the last time Hewitt stepped onto a court, he lost in the Indian Wells first round in March.

Hewitt is now hoping for a big push over the next month through Wimbledon on the physically most forgiving of tennis surfaces. Hewitt is also set to make a debut on the English south coast at the ATP-WTA event at Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon.

http://tennistalk.com/en/news/20110603/ … n_on_grass

Hewitt foot injury flares with Wimbledon start in crisis



Lleyton Hewitt needs a huge recovery effort from his problem right foot if he's to make a serious start at Wimbledon next week.

The one-time No. 1 was forced to quit his opening match at the final pre-Grand Slam tuneup at Eastbourne.

During a change of ends, the 30-year-old walked over to Belgian opponent Olivier Rochus, shook hands, smiled and walked off court with his bag in front of a stunned crowd. "It's frustrating when you know you've done all the right things. This is one of my favourite times of the year playing these grass court tournaments," said Hewitt.

"So to not be 100 percent and going out there still trying to compete isn't that easy mentally, either. I'm actually quite happy with my ball-striking at the moment, which is frustrating because my movement is such a big part of my game."

Two-time Grand Slam winner Hewitt underwent surgery on his foot in the spring but is far from pain-free several months after the procedure. His ranking has dropped to outside the Top 100, the result of losing in the Halle quarter-finals last week, where he re-damaged the foot.

Hewitt tried to play at Eastbourne with pain-killers. "It was touch and go whether I'd be able to play here anyway. I slipped over last week at the end of the first set against Kohlschreiber (Halle quarter-finals) and stirred up the foot that I had surgery on.

"Since then I've just been trying to get treatment. I've been talking with the doctors here.

"It just hasn't quite improved as much as I would have liked by today, but I wanted to come out and try anyway. I obviously have to focus on Wimbledon now next week."

http://tennistalk.com/en/news/20110615/ … _in_crisis

Looks like Lleyton Hewitt is ready for Wimbledon. Just watched him practice with Berdych on Court 5.

http://twitter.com/#!/christophclarey/s … 0525922304

Lleyton Hewitt to push beyond pain barrier in Wimbledon first-round match

LLEYTON Hewitt has been heartened by his form and movement ahead of a difficult Wimbledon first-rounder - but has not ruled out taking painkillers for his foot before tackling Japan's Kei Nishikori.

The 2002 champion practised at Aorangi Park, the All England Club's practice annexe, before rain drove players indoors.

Hewitt again showed no sign of the chronic foot injury which has hampered him for about five years before worsening recently.

The South Australian is scheduled to play on Tuesday - weather permitting.

"It was good to get some (practice) in before the rain," he said after working out under the watchful eye of coach Tony Roche, physio Ivan Gutierrez and hitting partner Brett Smith.

"It's been hard the last few days for all the guys, I guess, to get on the courts as much as you would like and get on the grass instead of going indoors.

"It's good to get some balls in there today. Sunday, the day before, it's always hard to get courts by yourself and much time."

Asked if he would have to resort to taking more painkillers ahead of the Nishikori match, Hewitt said: I'll see."

"It (the foot) feels alright at the moment. The practice that I've had so far has been pretty good and encouraging. I've done absolutely everything again.

"Preparation, it all comes down to the that. You can be happy going out there knowing that you've done everything possible to be as close to 100 percent as you can."

Hewitt underwent surgery on his foot in March and attempted to resume at the French Open, but was a late withdrawal.

He then showed encouraging form before suffering a fall in the quarter-finals at Halle, where he was the defending champion, before losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The former world champion retired from his first-round match against Belgian Olivier Rochus at Eastbourne last week, fanning doubts he would be forced out of Wimbledon.

"Eastbourne was always going to be hard, though, after I stirred it up against Kohlschreiber when I sort of slipped late in that first-set tiebreak," he wsaid.

"It was hard to bounce back a couple of days later. Hopefully it's bit better than there."

Asked his thoughts on the prospect of having a delayed Wednesday start because of bad weather, Hewitt said: "Tuesday will be fine."

He said there was never a chance he would not play .

"Not in my mind," he said. "I was always going to take the court. I'll be on the court on Tuesday."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/te...-1226078145733

Lleyton Hewitt still has tennis goals, won't bow to calls to retire, after Wimbledon defeat by Robin Soderling


He doesn't look, or act, like a guy about to retire.

And after his latest epic five-setter on Centre Court at Wimbledon, Lleyton Hewitt’s words backed up those sentiments.

He’s not going to retire. He wants more.

The double Wimbledon next year - not just The Championships, but also the Olympic tournament three weeks later - is a major goal.

Despite the hurt of this latest loss, you get the feeling he loves the sport, and the battle it presents, too much to walk away prematurely.

Some will argue that continual early round losses are tarnishing the record of his achievements earlier in his career.

But I reckon he’s earned the right to pull the pin whenever he wants; it’s his reputation - he can do with it what he pleases - and if he thinks he can still enhance it, all power to him.

Fun police claim Fox Sports victims
Fox Sports tennis commentators Wally Masur and Josh Eagle and I were able to get in to watch the final two sets of the Hewitt-Soderling match.

No-one told us clapping and cheering weren’t allowed in the crowd.

But we were told to zip it, quick smart, or we’d be out, after a complaint from someone (who remained anonymous) in the rows behind. And not by any old security guard. Here at The Championships, they use members of the armed forces as stewards.

Poor Josh couldn’t help himself when Hewitt ripped a winner, breaking into a gentle golf clap. Quick as a flash, a different guard was onto us. Last chance. Stop, pronto, or be done with.

We argued that we weren’t the only people in the stadium clapping. We pointed out one of the stewards, in his navy uniform, reacting with overwhelming exuberance. To no avail. Perhaps he was just a punter in Village People fancy dress.

So we sat like mummies for the final six games; the fun police had claimed three more victims.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/tennis/lley … 6081062780

Wimbledon 2011 - wywiad po porażce w 2 rundzie

L. Hewitt def. by R. Soderling 7-6, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 4-6

Q. You played a tremendous match, a tough one. How many times did you think you wouldn't make it to Wimbledon with all your injuries?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Believe it or not, it didn't enter my mind purely because I thought I was gonna play no matter what. So the whole time I was optimistic about the French Open, but deep down it was always going to be a tough call whether I was going to be able to play the French.

Where I'm at in my career at the moment, this is what I play for, the Grand Slams. Even though the French Open, you know, it's not my favorite Grand Slam, it's not my best surface, I still want to compete there and have a crack at it as well.

I gave every chance to do that and I was probably a couple weeks too early for there. But, yeah, for here, as I said, my preparation, everything I've done, you know, that's the most pleasing thing, I think. I've done absolutely everything I could have.

Q. Fitness wise are you in a position where you're going to have to take a couple of weeks?

LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't have any idea at the moment. Right now it's the furthest thing from my mind.

Everyone, whether I've spoken to my surgeon, my physios, my doctors, whoever, we've all just been focusing on trying to get through here in sort of one piece and we'll pick up all the pieces after that and put it together.

Q. How much confidence will you get out of this when you reflect on it?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it's hard at the moment. But in the end, I feel like I hit the ball pretty well. I hit it a lot better than I did a couple days ago, and I needed to against a guy like Soderling.

Yeah, it's just one of those days. You know, the roof closed I think helped his game, as well. So, you know, it's little things like that you've got to try to put behind you as much as possible.

I felt my ball striking was pretty good out there. My movement was, for the amount of matches I've had, pretty good.

Q. You won your Championship on Centre Court. Is there something special that goes through you playing out there?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's probably the best court to play tennis on. It's a fantastic atmosphere. The walk onto the court, you know, you get goosebumps doing it every time.

It's a pleasure to play out there. It's obviously slightly different today playing with the roof for the first time for me.

But, yeah, it's an amazing court. When you have great memories walking, you know, back out there as well, it's fantastic to play out there any time.

Q. Was there a moment in the match, maybe an aspect of your game, that let you down that made the difference today?

LLEYTON HEWITT: There's a few points here and there, yeah, if you could just take those half chances. The obvious is trying to consolidate that break early in the fifth set.

I was 15 Love up, missed the forehand. He sort of half shanked it a drop short. I just missed a regulation forehand. But then the next couple points he smoked a couple of big winners. He's that kind of player. You give him a swing at it, and he's going to take it every time.

I think start of the fourth set, I had Love 40 in his first service game. But he served incredible today. He hit a lot of big serves and especially when he needed to.

Q. Do you almost feel you let him off the hook, two sets to love up, playing quite well in the beginning of that fifth set? Do you feel it's almost the one that got away from you?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Well, I hardly broke his serve for the rest of the match, though. I didn't have that many chances to be in a commanding position. I think he picked up his game after the second set. He definitely served a lot better.

Very rarely, apart from early in the fifth set, I didn't have too many chances to get into many of his service games.

Q. Where to from now?

LLEYTON HEWITT: The doubles court probably.

Q. Does it surprise you how well you were moving, given what happened at Eastbourne?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, it did a little bit. Yeah, I don't know, I guess adrenaline kicks in a little bit, as well. Yeah, I'm used to playing with pain with the hip before the hip surgery, stuff like that.

Yeah, you just try to block it out as much as possible. At least today I felt mentally I was able to concentrate on the match a lot more than my first match. It was going through my mind probably a lot more in that match. You go sort of ebbs and flows concentrating on what you need to do out there. Whereas today I felt like I could pretty much give 100% mentally, which is good.

Q. If the medical advice is you don't need any medical treatment immediately, what kind of schedule do you think you'll have?

LLEYTON HEWITT: The first thing is Davis Cup, obviously, the week following Wimbledon. So that's in China. It's a pretty rough schedule to go to Asia and obviously back to the States after that for the hard court tournaments.

So at this stage, I'll be playing at least four tournaments leading into the US Open, as long as, you know, the foot's all clear to keep going and I'm not going to make things any worse.

Obviously the US Open's the next major you want to be playing well. If I can get through this next Davis Cup tie, we have a bigger Davis Cup tie straight after the US Open. I think everyone's thinking at the moment is, I think they'd want me to be right for that one more so than this one coming up. At this stage I'm still planning to play in China.

Q. How big a deal are the Olympics for you, next year's tournament here?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I think it's more exciting for me being played here on grass. You know, something different is special I think more than anything.

I still think tennis, in terms of we have so many big events during the year, so we're slightly different to a lot of the other sports in the Olympics. We're sort of on a par with golf, I guess. But, yeah, anytime to play for your country, it's a great honor.

Q. Obviously you're one of the fan favorites here at Wimbledon. You have the very vocal Australian supporters behind you. Can you sort of explain how that helps you on the court? Do you hear them? Does that spur you on to better tennis?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, I think so. Playing in a stadium like that, having a packed house out there, it's always adrenaline, whether there's Australian people in the crowd or not.

But it was a great atmosphere out there. The Australian Fanatic supporters, they've been to enough tennis matches now, they know how to behave out there, as well. But they're singing the national anthem during the warmup, and then they get a standing ovation for that. It's good fun out there.

Yeah, it does produce a good atmosphere.

Q. Most observers would view your career with the medals you've got in the cabinet already and be amazed you have the motivation to still go on. Where does that motivation come from?

LLEYTON HEWITT: I'm not a hundred percent sure. Yeah, I love competing. I love competing in these events. You know, you're retired for a long time once you're retired. I hear that from a lot of great athletes.

For me, as long as my body's close to a hundred percent, you know, I want to go out there and compete. I still feel like I can obviously give these top guys as much trouble as anyone out there.

So, you know, I don't know a hundred percent why I'm still motivated. I don't know. But as long as I'm prepared to do the hard work and go through all the pain and mentally up and down after surgeries and still get in the gym and do all the hard slog, then you know something's right, I guess, in going out there and you still want to compete.

Q. Patrick Rafter mentioned a few years after he retired, he felt a little bit well, have you chatted with him about that?

LLEYTON HEWITT: I haven't spoken to anyone. It's not something that has even entered my mind. Obviously once I made a decision to have the foot surgery and whatever, I've been playing with this problem for at least four, maybe five years, done absolutely everything to get through.

Injections weren't working anymore, so it got to the stage where I had to do something. I wouldn't have gone through all the pain of the rehab if I was going to stop straightaway.

Q. The shot that you played to break in the second set for 5 3, where does that stand in the best shots you've played?

LLEYTON HEWITT: I don't know because I didn't actually see it. Actually when I hit it, I thought it was going to the bottom of the net. I must have been that off balance that I had no idea of the direction, if I made a good contact or whatever.

It was only that the crowd started cheering. I didn't think that would have been for him, for it either hitting the net or him hitting a volley winner on top of the net. I didn't know it was a winner or in until the umpire called the score.

Q. Your ranking is obviously going to take a knock after this. Are you up for qualifying, the hard sort of grind of trying to get back into the main draws?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Probably not, no. But my ranking, for me, it's not an issue. I'll get wild cards into a certain amount of tournaments that I'll want to play anyway.

As I've always said, your ranking takes care of itself. Once you're actually in the tournament, if I can play at that level consistently, then my ranking's the furthest thing from my mind.

Q. You're regarded as someone with a very disciplined game. Do you see the same qualities in how Novak has been playing this year?

LLEYTON HEWITT: Yeah, absolutely. He's playing the percentages extremely well. He's playing extremely solid from the back of the court.

But, you know, obviously his two biggest strengths are his serve and his forehand this year that he's really tightened up and turned them into not just good shots; now they're great shots. You know, the way he covers the court obviously helps him with that.

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/int … 64474.html