Two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday night.
Hewitt remains the youngest No. 1 player in men’s tennis history, hitting the mark at 20 years, 8 months and 23 days in November 2001. He won 30 career singles titles and was named ATP Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002.
Hewitt, who is from Australia, was elected into the Hall of Fame as part of the 2021 class, but travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to his induction being pushed back a year.
Nobody was elected in 2022, so it was just Hewitt being inducted at Newport, R.I., on Saturday night, hours after the semifinals of the Infosys Hall of Fame Open was held.
“The Hall of Fame seemed like something that was so far away from me ever being part of,” Hewitt said during the induction ceremony. “It was never something I ever thought about as a player, and it was always, I thought, for the people that were my idols growing up and the absolute legends of the sport.”
Hewitt, now 41, won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002 and once spent 80 consecutive weeks at No. 1. He also lost in the U.S. Open final in 2004 and the Australian Open title match in 2005.
“I feel fortunate that I was able to play across different generations,” Hewitt said. “I was able to be on the same court as my heroes that I looked up to, like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, and then go on and compete against three of the greatest tennis players our sport has ever seen in Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.”
Hewitt also was a member of two Davis Cup-winning teams for Australia (1999, 2003).
–Field Level Media