Lleyton Hewitt's retirement u-turn for one week continues after successful doubles opener with son Cruz Hewitt

At 44, Lleyton Hewitt's retirement u-turn will continue to grow legs with the legendary multiple Grand Slam champion returning to partner son Cruz Hewitt to great effect thus far after a dominant opening win in New South Wales.

They beat the Aussie duo of Hayden Jones and Pavle Marinkov in what was a dominant return after five years off for Hewitt who last played doubles before calling it a day.

The father-son duo dropped just one game during the first set early on but were unstoppable from there as they won 6-1, 6-0. Both rock a cap on court with Lleyton Hewitt's trademark backwards effort on fufll show as ever.

The former World No.1 had not competed professionally since the 2020 Australian Open. Back then he played doubles with Jordan Thompson after breaking up his career in 2016 in the singles. Earlier in the day, the younger Hewitt bowed out of the singles draw losing Hayato Matsuoka of Japan, 7-5, 3-6, 5-7.

They next play Puttergill and Sweeney for a spot in the semi-finals so will return at least one more time. It is likely that this is very much a box ticking exercise in so for as to say that Lleyton has had a chance to now team with his son in an event as opposed to a full scale comeback.

Lleyton Hewitt is the Davis Cup captain for Australia and the team did not qualify for Bologna this week so it perhaps makes sense as to why he would be in New South Wales supporting his son and now playing with him albeit it will be interesting to see how it all transpired and came about.