Sam Groth is about to retire. Apparently, Lleyton Hewitt already has. In the doubles first round of Australian Open 2018 at Melbourne Park on Thursday, the Australian pairing of the soon-to-depart and the threatening-to-stop-one-day-but-best-not-to-hold-your-breath combined for their tennis version of John Farnham’s so-called ‘Last Time’ tour.
And guess what? Yes, just like ‘The Voice’, they’re still going, the veteran wildcard pair winning their opening-round match 6-3 6-3 against Denis Istomin and Mikhail Kukushkin.
MORE: All the latest scores and results
In the shadows of his 37th birthday, Hewitt has never really put the racquets down, having combined the last of his 20 Australian Opens with the Davis Cup captaincy he assumed in 2016. Then he promptly unretired to make a doubles comeback for the first-round tie against the US just weeks later.
His partner that day at Kooyong for a five-set loss to the Bryan brothers was Groth, the big-serving Victorian who decided late last season that this would be his last tournament – he failed to qualify for the singles main draw, incidentally – and wanted to finish his career with an Australian by his side.
So. Which one?
“I hit balls with Lleyton almost every day and we had a lot of discussions about me stopping,’’ Groth, 30, said recently. “We played a lot of big matches together and he’s a really good mate of mine, too. I said to him that I wanted to play doubles with an Aussie in my last Aussie Open, but obviously a lot of the partnerships were already set.
“So in trying to find the best possible option while also making my last one something special, we half threw the idea of playing doubles together out there as a joke. Lleyton laughed and said ‘well, I’m not the worst option, am I?’
“But obviously as Davis Cup captain, he’s involved in all these wildcard decisions, so we had to run it by a lot of people. From a tournament’s point of view, though, it’s always great to have Lleyton Hewitt in the draw and on the schedule.’’
Which is true, as an enthusiastic crowd gathered in high-30s early evening temperatures for a match delayed by the long contests that preceded it on Show Court 2, notably Julien Benneteau's surprise defeat of seventh seed David Goffin.
Hewitt may be ‘Rusty’ by nickname, but he remains is a competitive animal by nature, and whatever he may have lost on the serve, his once-remarkable foot speed remains largely intact on the return. This time, it was the mini-Lleyton known as Alex De Minaur applauding from the stand as part of Team Hewitt, while the father-of-three scurried around on the blue Plexicushion below.
The losers could not conjure a single break point, while Hewitt put the squeeze on Kazakhstan’s Kukushkin in particular. Groth, meanwhile, celebrated one retro 230km/h rocket from the arm that in Busan, South Korea at a 2012 Challenger event, delivered the fastest ever recorded, a remarkable 263.4 km/h.
There were caps backward, fist pumps, and C’mons all round for the Australians, who are nevertheless likely to find the going a little tougher against third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the second round.
For now, there have been no upsets of note in either doubles draw, while Nick Kyrgios advanced with partner Matt Reid, but French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova bowed out.
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And what was the latest time for old mates Hewitt and Groth was not The Last. Not yet.
“It’s fun to come out here on Showcourt Two and play with Groth in his last Australian Open,’’ said Hewitt. “We were just pumped to be out there again.’’
“He carried me through that one like he always does,’’ smiled Groth. “He’s a pleasure to play with.’’