MELBOURNE, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt has undergone hip surgery and is hoping to return to competitive tennis in time for the French Open in May.

The 28-year-old, who was knocked out of this year’s Australian Open by world number one Roger Federer in the fourth round on Monday, had the surgery on his right hip on Thursday.

“It’s been causing a few problems since the Hopman Cup at the start of the year,” Hewitt told reporters at Melbourne Park after he entered the media conference room on crutches.

“I did one movement at the Hopman Cup in practice the day before my first match, and I felt something straightaway. I knew it wasn’t that good.

“Right at that time I wasn’t 100 percent sure whether I was going to be able to play any of the Australian summer.”

Hewitt had surgery on his left hip in 2008 and said it was necessary for him to have the surgery on the other hip now so as not to repeat the mistake he had made two years ago when he continued to play while injured.

“If I waited any longer to have anything done, it would have been very similar to 2008 where I sort of prolonged it because I didn’t exactly know what was going on and ended up missing the U.S. Open because of it,” he said.

“As I said, 2008, we didn’t know the extent of the left hip, what the actual problem was. So I actually played throughout that year with quite a lot of pain.

“For me having it done right now, I’ll be back, ready for the French Open.”

Hewitt, who won the 2001 U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 2002 and held the number one ranking for 80 weeks, said he had no thoughts of retirement.

“That never went through my mind,” he added. “I’ve worked too hard to come back.” (Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Peter Rutherford; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)