INQUIRER Sports

PERTH -- Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt believes the Hopman Cup will be his first step towards climbing back into the top 10 in 2009.

On the comeback trail after injury, the double Grand Slam champion is paired with Casey Dellacqua in the Australian team in the eight-nation mixed-team event.

His singles rubber against Germany's Nicolas Kiefer on Monday will be his first competitive outing since August.

The 27-year-old underwent hip surgery after bowing out to Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the second round at the Beijing Olympics.

Hewitt said he had been carrying the injury for much of the year before finally opting for surgery, and as a result he ended 2008 outside the top 50 for the first time since 1998, in 67th place.

Although he only arrived in Perth on Friday morning and admitted it could take up to six months to regain his best form, he said here that his rehabilitation had been encouraging.

"I have been training really hard the last two months," he said.

"I have done everything I can possibly do and hopefully it holds up for the Australian Open.

"I think the hip will just keep getting stronger and better over the next six months, that's what the surgeon said."

"It is a matter of getting out there and getting matches under my belt again," he added.

"Once I get in that routine of being injury-free and being able to compete against the best guys week in, week out, I don't see any reason why I can't get back in the top 10."

Although he has not won a Grand Slam since 2002 or reached a final since losing to Marat Safin at the Australian Open in 2005, Hewitt still believes he has the game to trouble the big guns.

"I still feel like I am good enough to knock off anyone on any given day," he said.

"Even this year (2008) in the slams it has taken the top four or five players to beat me.

"I feel like I match up pretty well against the best guys and I am the ultimate competitor on the court."

Hewitt, who has an impressive 13-1 record against his Group A round robin singles opponents at the Hopman Cup, said the withdrawal of Serena Williams from the US team in Perth had boosted Australia's chances.

The Hopman Cup starts on Saturday with a match-up between the French team of Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon and Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei and Lu Yen-hsun.