Lleyton Hewitt overcomes Gilles Muller in the second round – US Open 2012
Former world number one and 2001 US Open champion, Lleyton Hewitt, showed glimpses of his past class, as he toppled Luxembourger participant, Gilles Muller, in five sets 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4 in the round two of the US
Open in New York on Friday.
The Australian star needed four hours and 35 minutes to come out victorious from this marathon encounter.
Hewitt has been the warrior of tennis courts from the start of his career, being the king of five set matches. He has most five set wins than any other active player, keeping his total at 31. The Australian, who is now 31-year-old
but still plays like a teenager, has won less five set matches than just four legendary players i.e. Ivan Lendl (36), Ilie Nastase (35), Pete Sampras (33) and Boris Becker (32).
Coming back to his second round match against Muller, the Luxembourger needed only one break of serve to capture the first set 6-3.
The second set was a very close contest, which went to a tie-breaker. Hewitt grabbed a late mini-break to seal it 7-6(5).
There was not a single break of serve in the third set, so, the score got equalised at 6-6 and it went to another tie-breaker. This time, Muller made an early strike and capitalised on it to win 7-6(5).
Hewitt and Muller traded a single break of serve in the first 11 games of the fourth set, taking the score to 6-5 in favour of the former. The Australian hit a blow to his Luxembourger opponent at that moment to win 7-5.
None of the two players dropped his serve till the 10th game of the second set, when Muller failed to hold and went down 4-6.
Hewitt was happy with his performance, as he said, "It's great. That's why you still play the game. It all happens pretty quick when you're actually out there playing. Sometimes you wish you had a few more seconds to just sort
of soak it up and enjoy the moment a little bit more."
The Australian, who has fought multiple injuries during his career, added, "I had a lot of surgeons tell me I couldn't get back. I guess when the specialists are telling you that, you start thinking bit, worrying about it. That
probably made me push a little harder."
Hewitt is pitted against the fourth seed, David Ferrer of Spain, at the last-32 stage.
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