Hewitt grinds down rookie

By Nyree Epplett
Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Top seed Lleyton Hewitt opened his 2003 French Open campaign by grinding down American rookie Brian Vahaly in four long sets on Court Suzanne Lenglen early Tuesday afternoon.

The 22-year-old Australian spent a gruelling three hours, 13 minutes under the sunny Parisian skies, gradually exhausting the inexperienced Vahaly 6-4 6-1 6-7(6) 6-1 with a mediocre display of baseline tennis. A combined unforced error count of 201 painted a dismal picture of today's less than impressive performance by both players.

"The rhythm just didn't quite feel there today," said Hewitt. "I felt a little bit tight."

Vahaly, a tenacious 23-year-old from Georgia, plays a counter-punching game that resembles that of his hero Michael Chang. To date, he is yet to win a Grand Slam singles match, and owns just one career win on clay (from four matches). Today though, the 52-ranked American used some clever defensive wit and a lethal double-fisted backhand to stretch the reigning Wimbledon champ to the limit in the first set and again in the third.

"That guy runs a lot of balls down, makes you play a lot of shots...(his) backhand return was probably the stronger side as well. I wasn't sure when he was going to crack it," summed up the Aussie.

Hewitt struggled from the backcourt initially, frustrated by the terrier-like retrievals of his opponent. He drew on a comparative wealth of Grand Slam experience to clinch the opener in 58 minutes and then raised the tempo in the second set, pouncing on short balls and adding a dose of patience to his baseline game.

Down two sets to love and 0-3 in his Roland-Garros debut, Vahaly recovered to draw even at 6-6, before Hewitt secured three match points…only to blunder all of them. Vahaly took advantage of an inexplicable break in Hewitt's concentration to snatch the set.

A fired-up Hewitt stepped up a gear in the final set, taking the balls high, smoking his inside-out-forehands and breaking the American three times to close out the match. En route he pounded down 40 winners to Vahaly's 17.

Later the world No1 explained that he had limited his claycourt preparation this year in a bid to catch more of his favorite footy team - the Adelaide Crows - and to prepare for a Wimbledon defence. "A lot of the clay court guys, in the back of their mind they couldn't care less about Wimbledon, whereas that's one of the priorities, maybe the biggest tournament for me in this stretch.

"Playing on clay is always going to be a learning experience. It's tough for me. After this tournament I don't put the clay court shoes on for another year."

Hewitt will now face Russia's Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Brit Greg Rusedski.