Lleyton Hewitt and his son Cruz are out of the Sydney Challenger in the quarterfinal stage after they missed out some chances in a tight two-set defeat 5-7 4-6 to Callum Puttergill and Dane Sweeny.
On Tuesday, 44-year-old Hewitt came out of retirement to play his first match in five years. And it was quite something after the former two-time Grand Slam champion and his 16-year-old son demolished Hayden Jones and Pavle Marinkov 6-1 6-0.
Today, the Hewitt duo returned to the court to meet another Australian duo. Early in the first set, the father/duo trailed by a break three times, but refused to quit and ultimately managed to have the score tied to five games apiece. But then, disappointingly for the home favorites, they got broken again in the 11th game as Puttergill and Sweeny went 6-5 up before saving three break points en route to sealing the opener on their serve.
Down by a set, the Hewitt pair opened an early 3-1 second-set lead before dropping five of the next six games and losing in two sets.
Despite the loss, Lleyton Hewitt had an absolutely memorable experience
After stunningly taking a late wildcard to compete in the Sydney doubles tournament with his son, the 44-year-old couldn't hide his excitement over what was about to happen.
Its obviously something pretty unique and special. Its not too often [that the opportunity arises] and there probably will be a time where I won't be good enough or physically able to play with him. And now he's obviously stepped up to the mark and is good enough to play, so it sort of just crosses over nicely. Sydneys a pretty special place as well. Obviously Cruz was born there and we have a lot of family and friends in Sydney, but I won four Sydney International titles as well," the former world No. 1 told Tennis Australia.
Cruz Hewitt also competed in the Sydney singles tournament, where he beat Omar Jasika in the first round before losing to Hayato Matsuoka in the round-of-16.
