Lleyton Hewitt, 34 and held together for years by the expertise of surgeons, played his 53rd and final singles match at Queen’s on Monday, 17 years after his first, and was embraced in noble defeat by a long standing ovation at one of the game’s most exclusive clubs. It didn’t make him cry but it made a lot of people smile.
Hewitt blew a match point in the second set, which he later attributed to “a flipped forehand”, before the 6ft 8in South African they call “The Dog”, Kevin Anderson, broke him for the fourth time from seven chances to win 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 in two hours and 20 minutes.