{"id":337860,"date":"2023-10-11T04:33:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T04:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=337860"},"modified":"2023-10-11T05:00:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T05:00:35","slug":"hewitts-bold-de-minaur-call-ahead-of-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=337860","title":{"rendered":"Hewitt's bold de Minaur call ahead of Australian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis<\/a> legend Lleyton Hewitt<\/a> has thrown his full support behind home grown hopeful Alex De Minaur<\/a> to win the 2024 Australian Open<\/a>\ufeff.<\/p>\n

Hewitt, who won five singles titles during his career, believes this is de Minaur's year to break through and clinch his maiden grand slam title.<\/p>\n

"He's certainly got a chance. When I sit next to him in Davis Cup<\/a>, he can do some pretty special things\ufeff," Hewitt said at the 2024 Australian Open launch in Melbourne on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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"I have full confidence every time he goes out there for me in Davis Cup that he can beeat anyone, I don't doubt it when I'm out there with him."<\/p>\n

Hewitt, who has been Australia's Davis Cup captain since 2016, works closely with the 24-year-old\ufeff as a mentor, believing he has what it takes to get to the top of the sport.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"For him to be able to do it day in and day out, he's got to get that … belief and feed off that what he does in Davis Cup," Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

"I know he would love nothing more than to make a big run here (in Melbourne) and get the crowd support behind him. They'll feed off his determination, his never-say-die attitude.<\/p>\n

"He's put himself in a position, seeding-wise, where he's going to give himself a shot.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"If he can get through and not cause too much damage to his body as well physically, I think he can push deep."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/AustralianOpen\/status\/1711935125309755894<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite lauding De Minaur's efforts and attitude towards the Australian Open, Hewitt remained tight-lipped on \ufeffwhat his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 has improved on in the lead-up.<\/p>\n

When asked if he could divulge on the specifics that de Minaur has improved, Hewitt joked "not really, no\ufeff".<\/p>\n

"Hopefully in a few weeks in Spain, you'll see it in the Davis Cup final, when I know I can really count on him," he said.<\/p>\n

It comes as Hewitt was confirmed as the next \ufeffAustralian Tennis Hall of Fame inductee.<\/p>\n

\"Tennis<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old will be honoured with a bronze statue which will go up amongst 46 other greats of Australian tennis in Garden Square at Melbourne Park.\ufeff<\/p>\n

He will also be honoured with a ceremony on January 24, 2024 at Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

"Never something I ever thought about, it's a really cool idea. The amount of greats that we've had on both male and female sides of Australian tennis … is pretty amazing," Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

"It's a great honour for me."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Lleyton<\/p>\n

As for what his statue will look like, Hewitt is keen to have his famous backwards cap as part of the final design.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeff"That's (the cap) kind of what I'm known for. But probably the biggest tournament I won, Wimbledon (2002), for some bloody reason I didn't wear a cap that tournament," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThat's sort of my trademark, like Cashy (Pat Cash) with the chequered headband, I guess."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt has thrown his full support behind home grown hopeful Alex De Minaur to win the 2024 Australian Open\ufeff. Hewitt, who […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=337860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337865,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337860\/revisions\/337865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/331011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=337860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=337860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=337860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}