Hewitt to play doubles at French Open

SYDNEY, May 12 (Reuters) Lleyton Hewitt plans to make a rare appearance in doubles at this month's French Open to boost his chances of winning a second Wimbledon title.

Although Hewitt has occasionally played doubles in Davis Cup for Australia, he prefers to save his energy for singles, and has not played a grand slam doubles since teaming up with Max Mirnyi to win the 2000 US Open title.

But the Daily Telegraph reported today that the former world number one would join forces with fellow Australian Wayne Arthurs at Roland Garros this year to work on his fitness and volleying.

Hewitt's coach Roger Rasheed said the move was designed to have Hewitt at the top of his game when Wimbledon starts in the last week of June.

''After his Davis Cup commitments, Lleyton has worked extremely hard to prepare for Hamburg, the French Open and, ultimately, Wimbledon,'' Rasheed said.

''He's done all the work required for the eight weeks ahead of him with a view to peaking at Wimbledon.'' Hewitt won the Wimbledon singles crown in 2002 and the US Open the previous year but has not won a grand slam title since. He reached the US Open final in 2004 and the Australian Open final in 2005.

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