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Lleyton Hewitt joins Seven

He's always had close ties to Seven, now Lleyton Hewitt formalises his association by joining the tennis commentary team.

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Seven has signed Lleyton Hewitt to its Australian Open commentary team.

He will join Johanna Griggs, Bruce McAvaney, Jim Courier, Matt White, Henri Leconte, Sandy Roberts, Hamish McLachlan, Sam Smith, Todd Woodbridge, Roger Rasheed, Nicole Bradtke, Rennae Stubbs, John Fitzgerald, Allan Stone, Peter Donegan and Kerryn Pratt.

“As always I can’t wait for the Australian Open to start,”he said. “And this year I also look forward to giving fans and viewers my thoughts into some of the players and matches when I join the Channel 7 commentary team.”

Seven CEO David Leckie said: “Lleyton is an Australian tennis champion and will add some unique tennis insights for our viewers into the game’s strategies and its players.”

Hewitt will also feature in the Rally for Relief to be broadcast on Channel 7 Sunday 4pm nationally to raise money for the victims of Australia’s flood disaster, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Sam Stosur, Novak Djokovic and Pat Rafter.

Married to former Home and Away starlet Bec Cartwright and his 2005 Australian Open final on Seven is still the highest rated show since OzTAM ratings began in 2001.

39 Responses

  1. Onya Lleyton for your fabulous commentary. I loved it. I thought it was new and fresh. Keep up the good work, you are a natural in front if the mic and talanted enough to work in the media when you retire but in the meantime our family love watching you play tennis so best of luck.

  2. I like the fresh humorous concise Australian commentary at the Australian Open. Most commentators deliver on these. But never Courier – he displays none of these qualities.

    This poorly presented person is full of self-importance. It’s clear that he is more interested in what he has to say than the points being played – or the people around him. He talks over them, fails to respond and uses them mostly to validate his views.

    His end of match interviews are an embarrassment – serving only his interests and the need to look good. Sadly it doesn’t work.

    I turn the volume to nothing when that voice starts up and miss the value of the game and the concise one-liners of genuinely interested commentators.

    Get rid of this prothsletising bore. We don’t need this type of coverage.

  3. Pleeeese get rid of Jim Courier, Now. He won’t shut up! Talks throughout every point, spruiks up himself, over-talks other commentators, appearance most outdated and needs to spend a bit on a make-over, and makes me switch off the telly! Shame. We viewers observe every point played telling its own story and that’s what tennis-on-telly is all about. Australia has an abundance of great past and present tennis professionals, so get them in to do the talking, and interviewing, when required and send Courier back to where he comes from cyber-haste.

  4. I can’t wait for lleyton to start. I heard him try out in a match earlier, it is so refreshing – and different – to hear a commentator defending his record, and ramble on about unrelated anecdotes. He will also appeal to my boganness in a way that only Henri Leconte could.

    I really hate the Foxsports commentary team. Not enough cross-promotion, and I hate the way the commentators aptly pickup on the subtleties of tennis, without distracting from the game.

  5. What is it with you people, you all loved Lleyton when he was No 1 .
    So what if he has joined Channel 7 and all of you who said you wouldn’t watch no one makes you it’s Free to Air Television

  6. All I have to say with Seven’s coverage of the 2011 AO Pathetic. Every 5 mins there’s a commercial break with “After the Tennis” promo as per usual. Commentary is very poor and I hope that the next rights will go to TEN/ONE HD/Foxtel so that we can get tennis in HD.

  8. Good move by Seven IMO. Unlike some I actually like Lleyton and think he will add plenty to 7s commentary team. Not a big fan of Bruce but Courier is great and Sandy is ok. Now if we could just get Mac back!!

  9. Some of you are so negative re; Courier and Hewitt. I for one enjoy Jim courier’s commentating and maybe you don’t like Lleyton Hewiltt as a person but he’s been our only hope in Men’s Tennis for about the last 10years.
    I’m a tennis fan and I like to watch Lleyton, at least he tries so good luck to him in the Aussie Open.

  10. I’m not a lover either of Lleyton but I did enjoy his fresh new voice and perspective while commentating the tennis a few weeks ago. I’m all good with him joining the 7 team as long as he stops mentioning his ‘close friendships’ with the Pat’s of tennis. We know already 😛
    I don’t hate him at all either, its just he is way overexsposed in my eyes and we just saw too much of him doing too little. Way to much garbage about their private lives put me off. I don’t even bother to read the magazines about it nowadays, so much bull.
    I was reading up on the Tennis rankings and earnings of all the players a few weeks ago and I was shocked to see how little money he earn’t playing tennis in 2009. Maybe he just needs some dollars 🙂

  11. I’ve mostly been muting the tennis commentary the last few years, the commentating is mostly atrocious. I like Jim Courier but that’s about it. The extremely biased pro-Aussie stance is ridiculous and Woodforde is worse than Newcombe.

  15. Oh god that is all we need – C7’s coverage is already cheesy, commercial and nationalistic..

    If only they could get rid of some of the others as well, why the need for so many commentators? 90% of the time they only show centre court anyway which negates the need for some of these people.

    Get rid of Sandy Roberts, Alan Stone & Kerryn Pratt.

    Hope to see more of Rennae Stubbs as she’s been very good in Sydney this week.

  18. OMG! I feel sick!
    As long as he’s not commenting on the matches I want to watch, or I’ll have to turn the sound off.
    I can’t stand this piece of #$%^

  19. He is not expecting to be knocked out early, he has said many times he still thinks he can win the title. They play a match every second day so there is plenty of time for him to be in the box without taking away from his on court commitments. He is an extremely brilliant commentator and I cannot wait to hear him with Jim Courier.

    Great to see 7 have finally gotten rid of Tracy Austin, possible one of the most vanilla women in the world. Now if they could only do the same with Alan Stone and Kerryn Pratt.

  20. I’m no fan of Lleyton Hewitt; however, anyone who heard his guest stint in the comm box in Perth knows that he provided a fantastic analysis of the game. Now, if only everyone else in the box can shut up …

  24. Next logical step. Luckily he has matured quite a bit since having children so I can actually stand him now. Should provide a good modern perspective on the game. Really, he is the only success story of men’s tennis in Australia in the last decade or so.

  25. So he knows he’s gonna lose early and so have all the time he needs to do commentary?

    I was watching when he did a little commentary during the Hopman Cup. No doubt he’s a good tennis thinker, knows alot about tennis. If he happens to lose early (well he’s drawn against Nalbandian in the first round, tough luck), it will be a plus for Seven to have him as part of the commentary team.

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