Lleyton Hewitt was born on 24 February 1981 in Adelaide. He played Australian rules football until he was 13, when he chose tennis. He was coached by Peter Smith at the Denman Tennis Club in Mitcham and, from the age of 12, by the former tour player Darren Cahill, who travelled full-time with him from 1999 to 2001. In 1997, a month before his 16th birthday, he became the youngest man ever to qualify for the Australian Open, and in January 1998, still a schoolboy, he won his home tournament in Adelaide, the first of his 30 titles.
His rise was fast. In 1999, his first Davis Cup year, he helped Australia win the Cup, and in 2000, aged 19, he won the US Open doubles with Max Mirnyi. In 2001 he beat Pete Sampras to win the US Open, his first major singles title, and in November, aged 20 years and 268 days, he became the youngest man ever to reach No. 1. He finished that year by winning the season-ending championship, and he won it again in 2002, the year he beat David Nalbandian to win Wimbledon. He finished 2001 and 2002 as the year-end No. 1 and was named ATP Player of the Year both times.
His game was built on astonishing speed around the court, fierce determination and relentless groundstrokes, and his cry of "Come on!" became his trademark. In 2003 he led Australia to a second Davis Cup title, beating Spain in the final, and he reached two more major finals, at the 2004 US Open and the 2005 Australian Open. Injuries slowed him in the years that followed, but he stayed in the top 100 into his thirties and often put the Davis Cup ahead of his own ranking.
He spent 80 weeks at No. 1, won 30 singles and three doubles titles, and played 20 consecutive Australian Opens before retiring after the 2016 tournament. He then became Australia's Davis Cup captain, and he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2022.