By Chris Oddo | Thursday, March 20, 2014

 

Lleyton Hewitt captured his 600th career ATP victory on Thursday in Miami, joining Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the only active players to have reached the mark.

Photo Source: AP

In a match that embodied the grit and grinding nature that the 33-year-old Aussie has built his reputation on, Lleyton Hewitt fought back from a set down to take out Dutchman Robin Haase, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, for career win No. 600 on Thursday at the Sony Open in Miami.

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Only Roger Federer (942) and Rafael Nadal (675) have more wins the Hewitt among active players, and with the milestone victory, Hewitt becomes the 21st ATP player in history to reach the lofty mark.

“A great milestone,” Hewitt told reporters after the match. “Not many people get to achieve that. Not many people get the opportunity to get close to that, so [it] means I have been around for an awfully long time, as well. I'm getting old.”

Though wins have been more difficult to rack up for Hewitt (he cracked the 500 mark in 2009, but a series of injuries have slowed his progress since), the desire to compete at a high level and the willingness to give every ounce of his blood, sweat and tears in every match has never wilted.

That is why Hewitt's milestone is being celebrated loudly in tennis circles at the moment. His unyielding will and his perpetual eye of the tiger have been sending adrenaline through his fans and peers' bodies ever since he notched his first title as a rowdy 16-year-old in Adelaide.

Some are currently making the case that Hewitt's last 100 wins are every bit if not more impressive than his first 500 (which included two Slam titles, a Davis Cup title and the No. 1 ranking). It's certainly a legitimate way to look at Hewitt's impressive body of work. He's battled injuries and been hobbled for much of the time since '09—hip surgery in 2010, left foot surgery in 2011, toe surgery in 2012—but last year he finished in the top 75 for the first time in three years and went 3-1 against the top ten.

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That's truly remarkable, especially considering that a lot of younger men with many less physical ailments have already called it quits on their careers (Safin, Blake, Roddick, etc...). But Hewitt is a different breed from the Roddick's and the Safin's of the world—preternaturally gifted phenoms who didn't enjoy a tennis life spent outside the elite—in that it doesn't matter to him whether he's No. 1 in the world or No. 500 in the world. Hewitt is not about the ranking, the image or the glamour. The man is all about the battle, the moment of truth, and pushing his body past the physical limits for the sake of good, old-fashioned competition.

We celebrate him for these reasons, even though he is probably too fixated on icing his aching body and getting ready to try and take down Rafael Nadal in his next match to join us.

“Well, it's not something you focus on” Hewitt said after the match. “To tell you the truth, I totally forgot. Today was just like another match and an opportunity to go out there and play well."

Of course he would say that. But it's not the words that give the Hewitt legend legs, it's the actions. It's the look in his eyes as he shrugs off the agonizing pain in his body and embarks again on yet another spiritual quest for battle.