Lleyton Hewitt defeats Yen-Hsun Lu to advance in Memphis
The former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt, qualified for the second round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships on Wednesday by defeating seventh seed Yen-Hsun Lu of China. The Australian out-played his opponent in straight sets after a tight contest
by 6-4 and 7-6 in Memphis.
Hewitt, who is currently ranked number 70 in the world, exhibited his great tennis skills yet again on the indoor hard courts. His game play was brilliant and his agility was phenomenal. Though the typical aggression of Hewitt was not observed, the Aussie
played excellent ground strokes to overwhelm his Chinese opponent. His serve percentage was not satisfactory as it remained merely at 56 per cent in the opening set, as he skilfully compensated for it with his angling cross-court strokes.
Hewitt’s rival proved to be an equal match. The seventh seed Chinese had a good run throughout the contest and put some serious resistance to the Aussie at times. Lu hit plenty of winners down the line, as but was unable to hold his winning momentum in the
game. His shot selection was not good enough to outplay Hewitt.
Hewitt ignited the opening set in an aggressive fashion, trying to pressurise Lu right from the beginning. Lu stood up to the task, as he gave away minimum opportunities to the Aussie to capitalise. A sloppy serve game from Lu gave the chance to the Aussie
to pounce in the first serve break of the contest. Hewitt played magnificent error-free tennis to get the lead in the opener and then further consolidated it with some quality ground stokes. Although his serve accuracy was not up to the mark, he only lost
five pints on his serve. The Australian wrapped up the first set with some effort at 6-4.
Hewitt was unable improve his service percentage of 50 in the second set. Lu took advantage of the Aussie’s sluggish serve in the second set and cashed in a breaking opportunity. Hewitt bounced back with some cracking winners down the line to break Lu’s
serve. Both players held their serve and a decisive tie breaker had to be imposed. Hewitt was far better than his opponent in the tie breaker and never gave any chance to Lu. The Aussie finished off the contest by sealing the set at 7-6.
Hewitt will be facing the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the second round of the tournament and might have the opportunity to compete against the top seed Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals.
Hewitt looks to be in good touch, as it will be interesting to see how he manages to carry his winning momentum into the next round of the tournament.
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