KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Australia’s Grand Slam champion and former men’s world number one tennis player, Lleyton Hewitt, has confirmed his participation for the ATP World Tour’s Malaysian Open Tennis Championship to be held at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from September 26 to October 4.
Hewitt’s conformation was announced by tournament director Nick Freyer in the tournament’s first media briefing, here, today.
“We are thrilled that Hewitt has agreed to play in Kuala Lumpur and his name adds to an already outstanding field which sports fans in Malaysia will be very excited about.
“He has shown tremendous form since his return to the tour in recent weeks. I was at Wimbledon and had a chance to watch one of his matches and he is playing with the same dynamism that once took him to the world number one spot,” said Freyer.
Hewitt had a tremendous run at the recent Wimbledon after returning from surgery to his right hip, nine months ago, and reached the quarterfinals before bowing out to Andy Roddick in an incredible five-set thriller that lasted almost four hours.
He has now climbed to 44th in the world ranking after dropping to 108th, since his absence due to the surgery.
Meanwhile, Hewitt in a recorded interview said: “After the surgery, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get back, it was gonna take time, but now the body’s feeling good and it’s time to keep pressing on.”
This will be his first visit to the country and Hewitt said he was looking forward to the experience.
On the Malaysian Open, Hewitt said: “To have players like Verdasco, Soderling and Davydenko playing . . . makes it a very strong tournament and that will make it exciting for all the fans there.”
The 28-year-old Australian, was the youngest ever to clinch the world number one ranking and he held on to that position for a total of 80 weeks.
He has won 27 career singles titles including two Grand Slams, namely the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon.
Besides Hewitt, seven prominent men’s singles players had also confirmed their entry to play at the Malaysian Open here.
They are world no.8 Fernando Verdasco (Spain), Beijing Olympic silver medallist and world no.10 Fernando Gonzales (Chile), world no.11 Nikolay Davydenko (Russia), world no.12 Robin Soderling (Sweden), world no.14 Gael Monflis (France), world no.21 David Ferrer (Spain) and Japanese teenage sensation Kei Nishikori. – Bernama
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