After a narrow second round exit at Wimbledon, people are asking whether Lyetton Hewitt should retire from tennis.
Hewitt admitted he was one injury away from retirement during a post-match media conference after his loss to Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, “You never know. I’m one injury away from hanging up the bats at any time.”
Aside from this strange reference to bats, considering he plays with a racquet, his admission has led to a tidal wave of speculation.
Having not won a Grand Slam in over a decade, and struggling to get past the first few rounds of such tournaments in recent years, retirement may well spare any degradation to a truly remarkable tennis career.
It seems Hewitt’s chances of a Grand Slam are fairly remote, but he has shown signs of resilience, this year particularly. Starting the year off as an unseeded entrant in the Brisbane International, Hewitt turned back the years by claiming the tournament. It was his 29th career title and was sealed with a satisfying win over rival Roger Federer in the final.
The win meant his ranking went from 60th to 43rd, making him Australia’s number one men’s player once again. However he didn’t carry the momentum into the Australian Open, where in both his singles and doubles matches he was knocked out in the first round.
He claimed his 600th ATP win soon after, becoming only the third active player to boast such credentials. But as we have just seen at Wimbledon, Hewitt’s never-say-die attitude isn’t yielding the results it once used to.
Although admiring his grit, I can’t help but feel Australia’s and my own memory of him is being irreparably damaged. Rather than being seen as Australia’s golden boy of tennis, he now occupies a role of obscurity where a win in any major tournament is seen as an achievement.
With continuing injury concerns that leave the man himself doubting any real longevity, is it not better to leave sport on your own terms? All too often athletes are forced into an early retirement without any real sporting good-bye, a good-bye I feel Lyetton definitely deserves.
Ideally I see Lyetton hanging up his “bats” at next year’s Australian Open, where he can play his last professional game in front of adoring fans urging him on, with his trademark “C’mon’s” echoing around fans’ minds for years to come.
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