The organisers of the Australian Open have confirmed that they will host a tribute for Lleyton Hewitt, who will play in the tournament for the 20th and final time in his career.
The 34-year-old has only won four matches on the ATP Tour this year and has slid down to 196th in the world as he completes his final full season. This year he reached the second round of the Australian Open and US Open. Tournament director Craig Tiley confirmed that they will discuss with Hewitt about how to celebrate his career.
“We want to celebrate the great career Lleyton’s had, but we need to sit down and talk with him because he will also want to focus on doing the best he can at the Open“. Tiley said.
Since 1997 Hewitt has played 50 singles matches at the Australian Open, winning 31 of them. Despite never winning the championship, he came close by reaching the final in 2005 where he lost to Russia’s Marat Safin. He has never missed the tournament throughout his career.
Tiley has also confirmed that the prize money at the tournament will increase by 10% to $44 million. Talking to reporters about the increase in the prize money, Tiley said that this increase would benefit the lower ranked tennis players the most.
“Tennis is a tough sport because everyone in the top 100 makes a good living, but if you compare it to other sports, if you’re 200 in the world in other sports you can make a killing but in tennis it’s tough to get by,” he said.
“Every time there’s an increase in prize money it’s music to our ears.”
Recently, China’s top tennis player Zhang Ze has spoken about his difficulties getting funding on the tour.
The 2016 Australian Open will be the 104th edition of the tournament. Serena Williams is the defending women’s champion and Novak Djokovic is the men’s. The tournament will begin on January 18th.
