Lleyton Hewitt’s career ends with David Ferrer loss

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia gestures during his second round match against David Ferrer of Spain at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. “That’s why everyone in the locker-room thinks you’re full of yourself”.

Hewitt, who won 30 singles tour titles, helped his home country win the Davis Cup twice, in 1999 and 2003.

“Congrats on an unbelievable career LLeyton Hewitt!”.

But a fighter to the bitter end, Hewitt tried everything to drag himself back into the contest, including a career-first “tweener”, a second medical time-out and a venomous spray of chair umpire Pascal Maria after copping a series of untimely foot faults deep in the third set. Ferrer dealt with his role as party pooper with unexpected grace, telling on-court interviewer Jim Courier “Is Lleyton’s night, not mine”. The last two weeks have been good.

“I’d just like to thank everyone”, Hewitt said. In my career, tonight is going to be very special for me, playing in Lleyton’s last match.

“I’ve had great times with them in the past”. What you see on the court is just natural for me. He was simply more influential.

He disarmed Groth, the world’s fastest recorded server, with a clinical returning game, showing his guile by lobbing the 6-ft-4in (1.93m) Australian repeatedly when he lumbered forward in desperation.

Other players joined the tribute with video messages broadcast during the ceremony, included kind words and retirement wishes from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Played two really good quality matches in Adelaide actually. “He wanted to win that badly that a lot of desperation would come out in the way he acted on the court”.

“I felt like this was the flawless place to finish”, he said.

“Then, 15 minutes after the match and maybe after taking a devastating loss, he was over it. He had already moved on”.

“I am two different people”.

From an individual perspective, Hewitt’s greatest moment was his Wimbledon triumph in 2002, when he clinically dismantled Tim Henman – then at the absolute peak of his career – in straight sets to reach the final against David Nalbandian.

Lleyton Hewitt was once scorned as just another tennis superbrat but he exited the sport on Thursday admired as an elder statesman with Australian newspaper headlines declaring, “We Love Lleyton”. “I was expecting a tough match but I’m happy with the way I’m playing”, Wawrinka told the press.

Will you be watching?

In Hewitt’s own mind, however, it is not the individual feats that stick as much as the collective ones.

After helping Australia regain – and retain – its status in the World Group after six years in the Davis Cup wilderness, Hewitt had one final crack at glory in 2015. The Spaniard’s forehand is the most declarative shot on the court; Hewitt must make a high first-percentage of serves and maintain the depth on his groundstrokes or risk getting chewed up by the two-time semifinalist in baseline exchanges.

And so the story draws to a close.

Hewitt also had a running battle with Argentine players and at the 2005 Australian Open, Juan Ignacio Chela spat in his direction during their testy third-round match. Except that he is not really leaving at all. His unabashed patriotism and love of Davis Cup inspired and filled his nation with pride, and fertilized the ground for an exciting new generation that is now emerging as a force in tennis. The team of green and gold has never had a more flawless leader.