Upon Lleyton Hewitt's final professional match -- in front of his home country fans no less -- we offer up 10 memorable moments from the future Hall of Famer's career.
Reaching the final of the 2005 Australian Open, a tournament apparently played on "cow s---"
It was on the eve of his home Grand Slam that Hewitt made his withering remarks about the slowness of the playing surface at Melbourne Park. "If I've got to play on cow s---, I'll try my best to do that," he said. "I thought I might have a bit of pull after being the No. 1 in the world for two years and winning a couple of Grand Slams, but obviously not that much. I'm baffled by the whole thing, I really am. I've had a gut full of it, to tell you the truth." Despite his misgivings, he would finish as the runner-up to Marat Safin.
Fist-pumps and cries of "Come on"
There were two things that the galleries came to expect from Hewitt: a reversed baseball cap and total commitment. As Pete Sampras observed in his autobiography, Hewitt "played with a healthy disdain for tennis etiquette, forever punctuating his better shots with gut-wrenching screams." Tennis had never seen such a cussed, competitive player, who became known for using the "Vicht" salute, pumping his fist as if he were starting a broken chainsaw, and making enough noise during a match to make Maria Sharapova seem like a Trappist monk.
Winning the 2002 Wimbledon title
"A real ripper," Hewitt would say after dropping just six games against Argentina's David Nalbandian, in what was the most one-sided Wimbledon final since John McEnroe demolished Jimmy Connors in 1984. Pretty much all season, Hewitt had been looking forward to playing at the All England Club: "I couldn't wait until Wimbledon started basically. That's a strange feeling to have when you're a baseliner coming on to grass." The last Australian men's champion on the lawns -- Pat Cash in 1987 -- had won the tournament by playing quite different tennis, and by rushing to net whenever possible. Hewitt demonstrated that it was perfectly possible to become the Wimbledon champion by hardly ever leaving the baseline.
The youngest-ever year-end No. 1
It was during the 2001 season finale that we learned the 20-year-old would finish the year as the world No. 1. Roger Federer couldn't have been alone among Hewitt's contemporaries in trying "to understand how in the world you can be so tough, mentally and physically, at such a young age." The following year, Hewitt again finished the season at the top of the rankings.
Defeat in the opening round of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships
Never before in the Open era had a men's defending champion lost in the opening round of Wimbledon. And when Hewitt took the first set against Ivo Karlovic for the loss of just one game, it appeared as though that record would continue. But then Karlovic, all 6 feet, 11 inches of him, stopped being nervous and started being dangerous. "The first set, I was scared, but after that I saw that I could beat him, and I started to play much better," the Croatian said. On the other side of the net, Hewitt was confounded, unable to offer a response to Karlovic's game, built around the power of his serve.
Winning his first ATP title at the age of 16
Hewitt first announced his talent to the world by winning the 1998 ATP tournament in his home town of Adelaide, with his run to the title including a victory over Andre Agassi in the semifinal.
A first Grand Slam title at the 2001 US Open
Pete Sampras glanced across the net at a 20-year-old with "peach fuzz on his face," who "with his long hair and clear-blue eyes, looked like a teenage surfer or a skateboarding champ." If Sampras had wondered whether destiny would carry him to the title, his youthful opponent had other ideas. After taking the opening set in a tie-break, Hewitt then won a couple of lop-sided 6-1 sets. More than anything, Sampras was astonished by his opponent's speed. Hewitt became the youngest US Open champion since a teenage Sampras had won the Flushing Meadows title in 1990.
Twice winning the Davis Cup
There are not too many players who would share this opinion, but in Hewitt's mind, "the Davis Cup is as big as any Grand Slam." That is a view partly colored by Hewitt's early success in the competition as he was still a teenager when he was part of the Australian team that won the salad bowl in 1999. Four years later, Hewitt was a member of another victorious Australian team, with the most memorable match of that run coming in the semifinal against Switzerland, when he worked back from two sets down against Roger Federer. Hewitt would continue hustling for his country deep into 2015, when the Davis Cup was his "massive passion" and his priority for the year, and Australia reached the semifinals, where they were beaten by Andy Murray's Great Britain. Now Hewitt can keep on grafting for the green and gold, in his new role as Davis Cup captain, with the first tie against the United States in March.
Controversy at the 2001 US Open
Playing a second-round match against African-American James Blake, Hewitt made his controversial remarks, which were picked up by the on-court microphones. Outraged that he had been called for a foot fault, Hewitt said to the umpire about a line judge, who was black: "Change him, change. I'm only getting foot faults at one end. Look at him, mate, and tell me what the similarity is. I want him off the court." Hewitt later denied that his comments had been racist, telling a news conference: "There was nothing that was said out there that was racist. I didn't say it in that way. You can think what you want but at the end of the day I wasn't making a racist comment. It was just between me and the umpire, a conversation between two people out there in the heat of a tennis match."
The latest ever finish at a Grand Slam
The closest that the Australian Open ever came to being a rolling, 24-hour tournament came when Hewitt played Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the third round of the 2008 tournament. The five-setter ended at 4.34 a.m. "Playing that late is not easy for anyone -- it throws your whole rhythm and clock out quite a bit," said Hewitt, who at the moment of victory fell on his face on the hard court. It was hardly a surprise that he lost in the next round to Novak Djokovic.