On This Day: Hewitt makes No. 1 history in 2001
Lleyton Hewitt made history on 19 November 2001 when aged 20 he became the youngest World No. 1, a record which has since been passed by Carlos Alcaraz.
The turn of the millennium was a time when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi were not at the peak of their powers, while 19-year-old Roger Federer had not yet established himself at the top of the game. There to capitalise was Hewitt.
The Australian made waves in 2000 when he reached his first major semi-final at the US Open but it was his consistency coupled with standout runs in 2001 that led him to become the second Australian after Patrick Rafter to rise to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings.
Hewitt began the season by winning the title on home soil in Sydney before he enjoyed a successful Sunshine Double, advancing to the semi-finals in Indian Wells and Miami. Grass-court titles at Queen’s at ‘s-Hertogenbosch followed but it was not until the American hard-court swing that the Aussie made his charge to No. 1.
Hewitt arrived at the US Open as the World No. 4, trailing World No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten by 1,360 points. However, the Australian delivered in New York, beating Andy Roddick, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Sampras en route to his first major title.
After closing the gap on the Brazilian Kuerten, Hewitt stormed to his fifth title of the season in Tokyo. Having qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, the 20-year-old headed into the prestigious year-end event knowing that if he won the trophy, he was assured of ascending to No.1. It was the same, however, for two of his rivals: Kuerten and Agassi.
Hewitt stood unbeaten following a three-set win against Sebastien Grosjean before a convincing victory against Agassi. By virtue of this straight-sets result, the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place sooner than expected as a twist in the race to No. 1 emerged. By beating Rafter in his final round-robin match, Hewitt qualified for the semi-finals and importantly secured No. 1 rights. He beat Juan Carlos Ferrero for the loss of seven games in the semis and then defeated Grosjean again to win the event for the first time.
Hewitt would go on to spend 75 consecutive weeks at No. 1, the third-best of all time after first rising to No. 1 behind Roger Federer (237 weeks), Jimmy Connors (160 weeks). Hewitt was just one of five players (also Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner) to spend more than a year at No. 1 as a first-time World No. 1.
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