About Lleyton Hewitt: Lleyton Glynn Hewitt is an Australian-born professional tennis player and former world No. 1 who now resides in The Bahamas.
I was lucky enough to win the Davis Cup in my first year in 1999. I won my first slam at the U.S. Open in 2001 and became world No. 1 later that year. By the age of 20, I'd done it all.
I have sometimes played my best Davis Cup matches away from home when you stay in the moment a bit more. But it is tough when half the crowd are spitting on you.
Oh, I get pretty fired up on the court. I try to play with a lot of emotion, especially when I'm playing in front of a large crowd. I want to go out and do my best, and to do that, I have to play with the most energy possible.
I'm more in that Rafa Nadal high-energy high-octane mold out there. I wear that emotion on the court. That's how I play my best tennis. People either like that or not. And I can't change that: that's who I am on a tennis court.
Matches are won and lost so many times in the locker room.
I liked Pat Cash, and I loved Mats Wilander. I went to the Australian Open with my parents, and I used to watch Wilander being cheered on by the Swedish fans, and with his game style being like mine, I drew comparisons with him.
When I was a kid in Adelaide, I dreamed of becoming No. 1 in the world, winning a grand slam and the Davis Cup for Australia.
My video game character is a bit better looking than me, actually. I don't think he has to worry about his hair getting messed up.
Tennis players go into a press conference, and almost every one of them is the same. We do very little differently on a day-to-day basis.
I'm not a guy who needs to read motivation books.
I am two different people. What you see on the court is just natural for me. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I have always said 'C'mon' purely to fire myself up. Off the court, I am a lot shyer. I stick to my team and my family and people I trust.
When I go out to play, I still believe I'm as good as anyone out there. I don't have to prove anyone wrong. I know what I've done and how well I can play.
I've probably put up with more criticism than a lot of people out there. At the end of the day, you block out everything, especially with your personal life.
You always love playing in finals at any tournament. The grand slams and stuff like that are obviously the priorities but any titles go on your record.
There are people who love you and people who hate you, but for me, more so, people only think they know me by how I act or perform on a tennis court.
Even when I was No. 1 in the world, I was taking it one match at a time. I never was a player to look too far ahead, the way draws can pan out.
I'm not to eager to play tennis in my spare time. I'm more interested in doing gym work and stuff like that. We have a lot of schools and courts around where I live, so if I really want to play, I don't need to go too far.
I don't have too much spare time, but I try to play games as much as possible. I played a little growing up, but I never played any tennis games before.
I'm fortunate: I can play as long as I want to play. There's no coach or trainer who is going to say to me that I'm dropped or sacked, it's time to move on. I can play as long as I want to play.
I'm one injury away from hanging up the racket at any time.
