Lleyton Hewitt dumps Andreas Seppi; cruises into the final eight – Gerry Weber Open 2011
30-year-old Australian Lleyton Hewitt dumped Italian Andreas Seppi, three years younger than him, in straight sets at Gerry Weber Open 2011, a grass court event held in Halle, Germany. He registered a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the
Italian to advance into the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Defending champion, Hewitt downed the Italian in straight sets in eighty minutes to bid a chance to win a title here again. The Aussie won on his last duel with Seppi in 2010 at Sydney. He kept the same momentum here at Gerry Weber
Stadion to take the lead in the head-to-head series by 3-2 against Seppi.
The Aussie – ranked 73rd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, made a shaky start in the opening set and lost his serve in the very first game. He clobbered two double faults and was trailing 0-2 when
he re-focused his strategy and roared back reeling off his remaining serves. Hewitt converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to clinch the opener with a 6-4 win. He produced a poor first serve share of 48 percent but earned a spectacular
93 percent win on it.
Hewitt kept his momentum floating into the final set and easily plucked all of his serves. He faced zero breakpoint and converted the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to bag the set with a 6-4 victory again. In addition
to this, he produced a higher first serve share of 67 percent as compared to Seppi’s 55 percent and registered an impressive 78 percent win on it.
"It was good," said Hewitt about the Italian. "I had some tough battles with him over the years. He’s dangerous on all surfaces. On grass he’s an awkward player. He likes to keep the ball flat and staying pretty low out there.
The grass court also helps his serve. I knew what I was in for and I’m happy to win in straight sets. My ball striking fortunately always comes back to me pretty quickly [after injury]. So it’s more just getting adjusted to playing matches and obviously movement,
and being confident."
The Aussie got lucky in this tournament since Roger Federer, the finalist of recently held Grand Slam – French Open, withdrew from this tournament due to a groin injury.
Up next for Hewitt is German Philipp Kohlschreiber who stunned seventh seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov in straight sets to reach this spot.
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