Lleyton Hewitt is strongly considering basing himself overseas, possibly in the United States, to ease the massive travel load and accommodate his family life. Hewitt has long held out against the trend of his fellow Australian players and remained in his homeland but, with the addition of a second child last month, he is now discussing whether to leave Australia for what would be the remainder of his career.
"Basically it's been something we've talked about for a number of years now, the possibility of having an overseas base," Hewitt's manager David Drysdale told local newspaper The Age on Thursday.
"From the point of view of all the Australian players in the past, including Philippoussis, Cashy, Rafter, the Woodies, everybody has had an overseas base. So it makes it easy to travel.
"They live in Europe or U.S., if they get knocked out early in the tournament, they can get off the tour, go home, spend three or four days at home, chill out, recharge the batteries and then go back to the next tournament.
"If you do that and you live in Australia, you've got to take two or three weeks off because of the distance coming back, and the time difference to your body and everything else.
"Lleyton's always done that. He's taken two or three weeks off at a time, or longer, when he comes back for a break."
Drysdale said no decision had been made, but a move was possible this year, especially after Lleyton and Bec Hewitt's second child, Cruz, was born.
"Lleyton is such a family man, he wants to have them around," the manager told the newspaper.
Hewitt, who suffered opening round exit at the on-going Australian Open, is keen to play a full schedule this year after managing only 31 matches in an injury-afflicted 2008 that ended with a hip surgery.