Lleyton Hewitt to come out of retirement at Australian Open

Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt is all set to make a temporary return to the tennis court in next month's season-opening Australian Open.

The 36-year-old officially bid adieu to the sport after his home Grand Slam at the Melbourne Park in 2016.

He, however, made a return to the tennis court twice more last year in Davis Cup for Australia and at Wimbledon.

And now he is once again planning to come out of retirement and "give it a real crack" with compatriot Sam Groth in the men's doubles event of the first major of the season.

"It's going to be a bit of fun, that's what the Australian Open is about. I'm going to really enjoy it. We've been hitting a lot of balls, hitting every day, and we're not just going out there making up the numbers. We want to give it a fair crack," the Guardian quoted Hewitt, as saying.

Meanwhile, Groth also talked about joining forces with Hewitt and said the duo's preparation for the Open began about a month ago.

"Him and I have actually been hitting balls since I got back to Melbourne, for sort of the last month or so in secret, doing stealth sessions before we came out with the announcement," Groth said.

The first slam of the year will begin on January 15 and end on 28.