Two-time Grand Slam winner Australian Lleyton Hewitt was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame class of 2021 this Wednesday, alongside the “Original 9,” a group that spawned the future of women’s professional tennis. .
The ‘Original 9’ group was a group of female players who opposed the disparity in prize money and playing opportunities for women in professional tennis.
The honor for Hewitt, a former world number one, came on his 40th birthday.
Hewitt, who has accumulated 30 touring-level singles titles in his 18-year career, will be inducted into the player category at the 2021 induction ceremony to be held at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 17 this year.
The Australian was not only chosen by the official voting group of media, historians and Hall of Famers, but he was the first in a worldwide fan vote that took place last year.
Hewitt beat American Pete Sampras in the US Open final in 2001 and rose to number one in the ATP rankings. The following year, he captured the Wimbledon title and was a finalist at the Australian Open in 2005.
“It is a great honor for me to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame,” Hewitt said.
“When you’re competing, you’re so focused on training and your results that week or that year that you don’t really look forward to something like this (Hall of Fame),” he added.
For their part, the “Original 9” of women’s professional tennis (Americans Peaches Bartkowicz, Rosie Casals, Julie Heldman, Billie Jean King, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey and Valerie Ziegenfuss, as well as Australians Judy Tegart Dalton and Kerry Melville Reid) They took action 50 years ago when they refused to accept the growing disparity in prize money and playing opportunities between women and men in tennis.
They succeeded in implanting their own terms in the game thus paving the way for setting the stage for today’s WTA Tour (Women’s Tennis Association).
King welcomed the decision to have the “Original 9” serve as the first group to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“This is one of the greatest honors we have ever had,” he said. “We are all very excited about what we went through together. The nine of us were willing to give up our careers for the rest of our lives and never play again for that chance to start something.”
King also paid tribute to innovative coach Dennis Van der Meer, who completes the class of 2021, calling him “a brilliant tennis mind and instrumental in the growth of our sport.”
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