Lleyton Hewitt has been given a wildcard into next month's Australian Open.
Despite Hewitt's world ranking sagging to number 188, tournament director Craig Tiley said on Thursday handing former world number one Hewitt a wildcard was the easiest decision he has had to make.
Two-time grand slam champion Hewitt was an Australian Open runner-up in 2005 when beaten by Russian Marat Safin in the final.
However his recent seasons have been dogged by injury, causing his world ranking to slide well outside that needed for automatic entry to the year's opening grand slam.
"Lleyton has had some bad luck with injury recently, which has seen his ranking drop, but he has proved time and time again he can never be discounted, particularly in a big match," said Tiley.
"We look forward to welcoming him to the Australian Open in January," Tiley continued.
The decision means Hewitt does not need to contest next week's Australian Open play-off tournament in Melbourne where wildcard entries will go to the winning man and woman.
Casey Dellacqua will start a hot favourite to secure the women's wildcard after winning six satellite tournament titles around Australia recently.
AAP
Tags: tennis, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia First posted December 01, 2011 12:14:38
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