Veteran Lleyton Hewitt’s farewell Australian summer got off to a tough start when he was beaten by the Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely at the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth yesterday.
The 34-year-old dual Grand Slam winner, now ranked 307th in the world, will retire after the upcoming Australian Open and showed some of his trademark grit to level his tie with the 41st-ranked Vesely by winning the second set in a lopsided tiebreak.
However, the Czech bounced back to grab an early break of serve in the third set and held that advantage to win, 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4.
World number 11 Karolina Pliskova then secured the tie for the Czechs over Australia Gold—one of two teams from the host nation playing in the event—with a comfortable 7-5, 6-3 win over Jarmila Wolfe (nee Gajdosova) in the women’s singles.
In the dead mixed doubles rubber, the Czechs made it a clean sweep with a 6-2, 7-5 win.
Hewitt dismissed concerns about his left knee during the match against Vesely and said he was on track for his final Australian Open appearance later this month.
“Jiri is a quality player and deserved to win, but it was just good to come out here for the first game of the year and get a tough match,” Hewitt said.
“Hopefully I can come out for the rest of the week now and get better from here to get ready for the rest of the summer.”
Earlier in the day, precocious Australian Nick Kyrgios warmed up for an early season test against world number two Andy Murray with an impressive come-from-behind win for Australia Green in a men’s singles clash which gave a glimpse into the future.
Kyrgios, 20, who raised eyebrows with his on-court behaviour last year, was too good for fellow young gun Alexander Zverev in a match played that played out at a frenetic pace.
Kyrgios dropped the first set but steamed through the second two to beat the teenage German in just over an hour, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Kyrgios will face Murray when Australia Green plays Great Britain on Wednesday, at match he said he was keenly anticipating.
“I have been looking forward to that for a long time now so I’m going to go and do everything I can to physically prepare for that battle,” he said.
Murray has won all four of their encounters, most recently at last year’s US Open, and Kyrgios has taken just one set off the Scot.
Zverev, at just 18, is tipped, along with Kyrgios, to be one of the stars of the men’s game for the next decade.
He achieved the only break of the first set, but the volatile Australian kept a cool head to regain control of the match.
“I felt as if it was a lucky break in the first set (for Zverev), I played a couple of loose points,” the 30th-ranked Kyrgios said. “I knew I just had to stay calm,” he added.
Daria Gavrilova beat a rusty Sabine Lisicki in the women’s singles 6-2, 6-2, and Australia Green went on to achieve a clean sweep, winning the mixed doubles on a match tiebreak, 6-3, 4-6, 10-7.
Gavrilova, ranked 36th in the world, celebrated her first appearance for Australia with a comfortable win over a clearly underdone Lisicki.
The Russian-born Gavrilova only officially switched allegiances to Australia last month and said she was nervous before the match.
For Lisicki, it was her first match since the US Open last September.
The 2013 Wimbledon finalist was beaten in the fourth round by Simona Halep at the US Open and was sidelined by a knee injury for the rest of the year.