Lleyton Hewitt, who will retire at the end of the 2016 Australian Open, spoke highly about the young crop of Australians, and their potential to win major titles.
“I think Nick [Kyrgios] and Bernie [Tomic] are in a decent position now, the next three years, to have a real crack,” Hewitt said. “There's small areas of their game they still have to work on. Nick, over five sets in Slams, that's when he plays his best tennis. But he's going to have to do it probably Round of 16 onwards, or even third round here onwards against absolutely quality players over five sets. How he can back up two days later and be able to do that, that's the big question. He's only going to get better in the next three to five years anyway.
"You have Thanasi [Kokkinakis] pushing forward after his surgery. Hopefully they put themselves in a position to make the semis. Then draws can open up and anything can happen.”
The 34-year-old Hewitt won two Grand Slam singles titles, at the 2000 US Open and the 2001 Wimbledon. He is currently the Australian Davis Cup captain. The last time Hewitt played in singles was at the 2015 U.S. Open, when he lost to Tomic in five sets.
He’ll face another Aussie, James Duckworth, in the first round.
“I can be competitive with these guys, absolutely. I'm not looking past Ducks, though, at all,” Hewitt said. “Got to take it one match at a time and focus on that. That's something I've done so well throughout my career, though. I haven't looked too far ahead at all. It's important to do that, but I feel like I'm hitting the ball well enough to push a lot of guys out there. Hopefully the body holds up.”