Lleyton Hewitt: 'Novak Djokovic is the clear favorite in Melbourne'
Paired with Sam Groth, the Australian legend Lleyton Hewitt turned back the clock once again in Melbourne last year when they reached the Australian Open doubles quarter-final, losing to Cabal and Farah in straight sets. The 37-year-old who had competed at home Major for the first time in 1997 at the age of 15 will have another run in 2019 draw, entering the doubles action with the fellow Aussie John-Patrick Smith and seeking another good run following the semi-final in Sydney alongside Jordan Thompson.
It will be a hectic opening week for Lleyton in Melbourne, commentating for the Channel 9 and mentoring the upcoming star Alex de Minaur who is the biggest hope of the home fans for a good result at the Aussie Open. Speaking about the favorites for the title, Lleyton picks Novak Djokovic in men's section and Karolina Pliskova and Angelique Kerber in the women's draw, although he repeated it is a wide-open draw and that anything is possible, not counting off Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki. Hewitt also praised Stefanos Tsitsipas who will be one of the players to watch in the following decade in the Aussie's opinion.
"Novak is the clear favorite for the title at the moment after how he finished the year and the last six months he had, winning Wimbledon, winning US Open on a similar surface to that at Melbourne Park. The women's draw is wide open but I think Pliskova is playing pretty well at the moment, Angie Kerber had an excellent week at Hopman Cup and then you probably look upon Halep and Wozniacki who played one of the greatest Australian Open finals a year ago. Ashleigh Barty has an outside chance as well, it is all about surviving the opening week and looking for the draw to open up in week two.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is a quality young player, he defeated Alex de Minaur in the NextGen final in Milan at the end of the year. He is in the top-16, he had some massive wins on both hard and clay surface and he is going to have a lot of crowd support just like Marcos Baghdatis did, he will be the player to watch for the next ten years."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2st6CeR
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