3 Dec 2011

Former world tennis No.1 given wildcard for Australian Open

2:01 pm on 3 December 2011

With his world tennis ranking sagging to number 188, the former world number one Lleyton Hewitt's been given a wildcard into next month's Australian Open.

The two-time grand slam champion was an Australian Open runner-up in 2005.

However his recent seasons have been dogged by injury, causing his world ranking to slide well outside that needed for automatic entry to the year's opening grand slam.