Former Wimbledon and US Open champion, Lleyton Hewitt, has come out of retirement to play alongside his son.
Hewitt called time on his tennis career in January 2020, but has been competing with son Cruz at the New South Wales Open in Sydney.
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The 44-year-old played his first doubles match in five years on Wednesday, tasting victory next to his 16-year-old.
It was the first time that he had played alongside Cruz, who is No.759 in the PIF ATP Rankings, in a professional tournament.
The father-son duo overcame fellow Australians Hayden Jones and Pavle Marinkov, winning in the round of 16, 6-1, 6-0.
Speaking before his return to play with his son, Hewitt said: “It’s obviously something pretty unique and special.
“It’s 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.”
Australia’s current Davis Cup captain added: “This is something that he [Cruz] wanted to do.
“So it’s nice that I can fulfil that and hopefully just go out there and have a bit of fun and enjoy it.”
Lleyton and Cruz will next be in action in the quarter-finals of the NSW Open on Thursday.
They are scheduled to take on Calum Puttergill and Dane Sweeny.
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Hewitt, who is the Aussie Davis Cup captain, has returned to play alongside his sonLleyton Hewitt’s career achievements
As mentioned, Hewitt fully retired from competitive tennis in 2020, with that decision coming after the Australian Open.
That brought an end to his doubles career, whilst he had previously retired from singles competition in 2016.
Hewitt is a two-time Grand Slam winner, triumphing at Wimbledon in 2002 and at the US Open a year earlier in 2001.
Until just two years ago, he was the last player outside the ‘Big Four’ (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray) to get his hands on the men’s singles trophy at SW19.
He also has one historic doubles title to his name, with his US Open crown 25 years ago seeing him become the youngest male player, at 19 years and six months old, to win it in the open era.
Due to his achievements at the start of the century, Hewitt is also a former World No.1 having held the spot for 80 weeks.
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Hewitt won Wimbledon in 2002 as he reigned as tennis’ World No.1Credit: Getty
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His son Cruz is now looking to follow in his footstepsCredit: GettyFollowing in his father’s footsteps
At 16 years old, Cruz Hewitt is just starting his tennis career, but he’ll hope to experience similar success to his dad.
The teenager played at Wimbledon this year, making it through the third round of the boys’ singles event.
He was beaten by 11th seed Oskari Paldanius at the All England Club in July, losing 6-3, 6-0.
Crus was reported to have vented frustrations towards his father during the game, as he watched on from the stands.
Alongside other tense moments, he was said to have snapped back at some of Lleyton’s advice, shouting back: “I tried that!”
But that was just the competitive nature showing through, and the father and son are now impressing on the court together.