Lleyton Hewitt, born on February 24, 1981, from 2001 to 2022 held the record of youngest tennis player to have reached first place in the ATP rankings, obtained at the age of 20 years and 8 months, surpassing the previous record of Marat Safin ( 20 years and 10 months), and being overtaken in turn by 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz. His greatest successes in his career were victories at the US Open in 2001, Wimbledon in 2002 and at the Tennis Masters Cups in 2001 and 2002.

In doubles he won the US Open 2000 and with Australia he triumphed in the editions of the Cup Davis 1999 and 2003. After retiring from competition in 2016, he returned to the ATP Tour in January 2018 to play doubles.

On November 19, 2001, Hewitt became the youngest world No. 1, staying there for 75 weeks. After two weeks as number 2 he was world number 1 again for another five weeks bringing his total to 80.