Lleyton Hewitt, two-time Grand Slam singles winner and former No. 1, “retired” from tennis after playing his 20th Australian Open back in 2016. He entered Wimbledon doubles as a wild card later that year, but since then his public appearances on a tennis court have largely been limited to captaining Australia’s Davis Cup team (i.e. patriotic Kyrgios-wrangling). Today the ur-counterpuncher said he plans to play the 2018 Australian Open as Sam Groth’s doubles partner.
“I’m going to really enjoy it. We’ve been hitting a lot of balls, hitting every day, and we’re not just going out there making up the numbers. We want to give it a fair crack,” said Hewitt. This would be an impressive posthumous feat for someone who was killed by Roger Federer.