Former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, who won the Kooyong exhibition tournament with victories over Milos Raonic, Tomas Berdych, and Juan Martin del Potro, says he’s feeling better than he has in years. The 31-year-old Aussie has undergone multiple surgeries and saw his ranking drop to No. 237 last year. Hewitt is currently ranked No. 83 and will face eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday night.
“The last couple matches I’ve hit the ball as well as I can remember when I hit it,” said Hewitt, who is playing his 17th consecutive Australian Open. “I feel confident with where my game’s at the moment. There are still a couple things I got to try to take care of when I’m on the match court. But all in all, when my moving comes together and I’m serving well, my returns and obviously passing shots and counterpunching has been pretty good anyways. … I felt the way I was able to be aggressive with the bigger, stronger guys, all three matches are three of the biggest hitters out there. I was not able only to get their serve back but put them under pressure on their service games. So that gives me a lot of confidence moving forward.”