22 January,2016 08:35 AM IST | | IANS
Former World No 1 Lleyton Hewitt bade an emotional farewell from tennis yesterday after a combustible Australian Open defeat in which he was warned for swearing and slammed the umpire as an idiot.
Lleyton Hewitt
Melbourne: Former World No 1 Lleyton Hewitt bade an emotional farewell from tennis yesterday after a combustible Australian Open defeat in which he was warned for swearing and slammed the umpire as an "idiot".
Lleyton Hewitt. Pic / AFP Photo
The intensely competitive Australian, roared on by a partisan crowd, couldn't live with Spain's David Ferrer and he went down 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 to exit what was his final tournament before retiring.
Afterwards Hewitt, wearing a shirt decorated with the Australian flag, was joined on court by his three children while his wife, former soap opera actress Bec, looked on in tears.
"I gave everything I had, like always, and left nothing in the locker room and that's something I can always be proud of," Hewitt told the crowd.
"In my whole career I've given 100 per cent and I love coming out here and competing." Although Hewitt fought all the way in the second-round match, the feisty two-time Grand Slam winner could not get close enough to the tigerish Ferrer
