Lleyton and Bec bring a bit of tabloid drama to Australia (Post and Becks style) as they follow up the Australian Open with a surprise announcement.

Lleyton and Bec’s rebound ace
A subscriber writes:

Undoubtedly Lleyton must take first serve at the inaugural awards for “most classic match” and “individual brilliance” in tennis. I am nominating the kid for each of the awards simultaneously: after his stunning defeat in the classic match against Belgian beauty Kim Clisters, Lleyton has bounced back in record time to announce his second match with a lovely local soapy starlet.

The kid never knows when he is beaten and I feel we can look forward with confidence to a gala event, both home and away, between the kid and his new match. Not even the social engineers at Women’s Weekly could have scheduled a match of this calibre. Absolutely brilliant Lleyton!

Indeed, if 23-year-old Lleyton has learnt anything from coach Roger Rasheed, it’s that practice makes perfect, so we can only hope that Lleyton’s second engagement ends more happily than his first.

Channel Seven was the first to report that Little Lleyton had proposed to 21-year-old Home and Away soapy star Bec Cartwright, after going down to Marat Safin in the final of the Australian Open last night.

Obviously losing to Safin wasn’t part of the plan, but Lleyton was well prepared for the second match of the night with a “big diamond” that no girl could say no to (especially after he’d just been beaten in front of a home crowd).

Seven said Hewitt reportedly got down on bended knee in a quiet corner before heading into a private party celebrating the end of the competition and that Cartwright had had no advance warning.

For Channel Seven, the union is a dream come true. Bec has already been all over teen-mag Total Girl this month – a Seven magazine – and now she can make the leap into the gossip titles as well, such as New Idea etc… Maybe even a televised a wedding or engagement party on Seven? The possibilities are endless. There is already talk of a walk on role for Lleyton in Home and Away.

The Age reports that Bec is already in negotiations with a magazine for an exclusive interview about her engagement to Lleyton. Although no names are mentioned it’ll be interesting to see if she remains loyal and signs with one of Kerry Stokes’s gossip mags, or folows the cash to one Kerry Packer’s rival mags.

Perhaps a soft interview with Today Tonight might be nice. Then she could flash the engagement ring which Tiffany & Co refused to confirm was bough by Lley Lley for more than $200,000.

Gone are the days when such things were announced to the world in the classifieds, the power couple’s issued a statement Sunday saying:

Stephen Harmon from Encompass Management and Justine Cohen from Octagon confirmed … Lleyton Hewitt and Bec Cartwright’s engagement following the Australian Open finals.

Lleyton and Bec met five years ago at a Starlight Foundation charity tennis day and rekindled their relationship late last year.

The couple were instantly committed to each other and their close connection has been well documented in the media through their public acknowledgement and mutual support.

Bec proudly revealed the ring presented to her by Lleyton earlier this evening to overjoyed family and friends at the post tennis final celebrations.

Should Bec actually go thought with it, she and Lleyton could well become Australia’s answer to Posh and Becks. After all, Bec does have a shacky singing career (her first release All Seats Taken has gone Gold in Australia) and Lleyton himself is a talented athlete, who only lacks in looks and good endorsements when compared to Beckham.

But on the bright side, Bec and Lley Lley have a lot in common. Both broke up with long time partners last year: Bec from her Home and Away co-star Beau Brady and Lleyton from Belgian tennis-star Kim Clijsters, to whom he was engaged for four years. And just because Bec and Lley Lley only started dating in mid December, doesn’t mean it won’t last.

Read about The Sun-Herald’s first sighting of the pair here: A love match?

Meanwhile, it seems Kimmy hasn’t been sitting round pining for Lleyton either, she’s been linked with Belgian underwear model, Luc Opdelocht. He may not be a tennis champion, but Opdelocht was crowned Mr Limburg 2000 – something Little Lley Lley may be hard pressed to achieve.