{"id":291421,"date":"2025-11-18T00:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/291421\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T00:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:09:10","slug":"hewitts-flirt-with-stunning-switch-from-tennis-to-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/291421\/","title":{"rendered":"Hewitt\u2019s flirt with stunning switch from tennis to AFL – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even after winning two grand slam titles, Australian champion Lleyton Hewitt\u2019s first sporting love tempted him to make a stunning career change.<\/p>\n

Hewitt has spoken about what happened in 2003 when he was \u201cactually considering\u201d an attempt to play AFL<\/p>\n

While Port Adelaide coach and family friend Mark Williams ultimately could not lure Hewitt from tennis, the idea gave him pause for thought.<\/p>\n

A famous Davis Cup win over Roger Federer that year convinced Hewitt to stay put. On Monday night, he was one of seven inductees into the Sport Australia Hall Of Fame.<\/p>\n

Hewitt was born into Australian rules football. His father and uncle had solid football careers and when Adelaide joined the AFL in 1991, he was a big fan.<\/p>\n

\"Hewitt<\/p>\n

Lleyton Hewitt and wife Bec at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame dinner where Hewitt was inducted. Photo: AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was in my blood, that\u2019s what I wanted to do as a young kid,\u201d Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

But he also showed major tennis potential as a teenager. His parents convinced him to make the \u201cbloody tough\u201d decision to focus on the international sport.<\/p>\n

By 2003, he had been world No.1, as well as winning the US Open and Wimbledon in 2001-02.<\/p>\n

After his 2003 Wimbledon title defence did not make it past the first round, and he lost the No.1 ranking, Hewitt contemplated what might come next.<\/p>\n

\"Hewitt<\/p>\n

Hewitt\u2019s joy at his 2003 Davis Cup defeat of Roger Federer kept him playing tennis. Photo: AAP<\/p>\n

Williams said a few years ago that Hewitt contacted him about potentially switching sports, but the tennis star says the Power coach made the approach.<\/p>\n

There was talk of Hewitt playing a pre-season game and potentially joining Port as a rookie-listed player.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the idea eventually fizzled and Hewitt, a keen Adelaide supporter, did not have to consider joining the Crows\u2019 fierce local-rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up absolutely hating the Power, the Port Adelaide Magpies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Hewitt<\/p>\n

Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt met again in Australia at Davis Cup in 2011, with Federer winning. Photo: AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the time, I was actually considering it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t love the contract and the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Williams) ended up giving me a few weeks to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clincher was Hewitt rallying from from two sets down to beat Swiss great Federer in an epic 2003 Davis Cup semi-final. There would be no defection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of my greatest victories and I called Choco (Williams) and said \u2018no\u2019,\u201d Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

\u2014with AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even after winning two grand slam titles, Australian champion Lleyton Hewitt\u2019s first sporting love tempted him to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-291421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}