Lleyton Hewitt’s farewell has been a long time coming and the Aussie finally played his last ever singles match on Thursday – a second round loss to David Ferrer.
It felt like every single tennis player was watching that match as tweets and tributes were pouring in from the second it was over.
I was watching the final moments of the match alongside ex-world No1 Jelena Jankovic at the transport desk, as we waited for our rides, and when the Serb’s car arrived she just wouldn’t leave the TV screen as she eagerly anticipated Hewitt’s farewell speech.
Ferrer, who is usually quite shy speaking English and doesn’t say much in the language, gave a touching tribute to Hewitt on court, telling him he had a museum of sports jerseys at home and the only tennis one he had was a signed one of the Aussie’s.
A Rusty throwback
Serena Williams played mixed doubles with Hewitt here in Melbourne back in 1998 and has fond memories of that experience.
“I remember it was fun. I asked him if he wanted to play. We were both 16. It would be really fun to kind of play together. We didn’t win. I expected to win the tournament, I dont know why,” said the world No1.
“But we did have a great time. We both have been incredible fighters. Lleyton, his whole career has been based on fighting. It’s definitely sad when you kind of started with someone to see them advance on, but I’m really happy for him.”
Asked about how it felt being one of the few left from her generation in the game, Serena joked: “There’s a few of us. I’m waiting on Roger (Federer), waiting on his next move.”
Djokovic doesn’t win them all
Novak Djokovic’s testimonial was mistakenly cut from the Hewitt tribute video played on court after his final match, which included messages from Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios.
Asked about it in press, the five-time Australian Open champion said: “I have no comment. I don’t know. I’ve done it, but it wasn’t there. I guess we have to ask them.”
Tennis Australia apologised for the unintentional snub.
“Due to a production error unfortunately the wrong video was shown on the night. Novak’s message was recorded on a different day to the other players so there were a couple of versions made. The full version, which included Novak, went up online last night and we’ve apologised to Novak’s team,” a representative from Tennis Australia told news.com.au.
Going nuts on court
After bravely taking the second set tiebreak from Maria Sharapova to force a third, American Lauren Davis had an unusual snack for a mid-match pick-me-up.
Davis, 22, took out a jar of what looked like peanut butter from her bag and ate straight out of it with a spoon.
She later explained it was Trader Joe’s almond butter. “It’s my favourite. I just had one spoonful,” she said, according to my colleague Nick McCarvel.
Interesting choice, Lauren.