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EXHIBITION

Hewitt In Good Form Ahead Of 15th Australian Open Campaign

Kooyong, Australia

by ATP Staff

 | 

15.01.2011

Lleyton Hewitt© Getty ImagesLleyton Hewitt is congratulated by his two eldest children, Mia and Cruz, after winning the Kooyong title.

Former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt completed his Australian Open preparations on Saturday by defeating Gael Monfils 7-5, 6-3 to win the AAMI Classic, an exhibition tournament in Kooyong. Earlier in the week, the Australian had defeated World No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny and No. 23 Nikolay Davydenko.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Hewitt has seen his South African Airways 2011 ATP Ranking slip to World No. 54 following an injury-ridden 2010, and as such finds himself unseeded in his 15th main draw appearance at Melbourne Park. In a blockbuster first-round clash he meets this week’s Auckland runner-up David Nalbandian, against whom he has a 3-2 career record, including victories in the 2002 Wimbledon final and 2005 Australian Open quarter-finals.

“I felt pretty comfortable this week and only time will tell over the next couple of weeks if it was the perfect preparation,” said Hewitt, who reached the Australian Open final in 2005 (l. to Safin). “But at the moment I'm extremely excited about winning three tough matches.”

''I've done everything possible and feel like my game is where I wanted it to be 10 weeks ago and physically I feel good. Ten weeks ago when I sat down with Rochey [coach Tony Roche] and talked about what we wanted to work on and get out of that training block, I think we've been able to do that, so we've done the best preparation possible.”

The 29-year-old Hewitt, who recovered from hip surgery at the beginning of 2010 only to see his season curtailed in September after suffering a hand injury on Davis Cup duty, added, “It gets tough when you've got to go out there and grind and do the running when you are a bit sore, whereas at the moment the body is holding up really well and I've been able to manage everything.”

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