Lleyton Hewitt rallies past Phillip Simmonds into the 2nd round – Atlanta Tennis Championships 2011
Former world number one, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, wins his opening round clash against the American qualifier, Phillip Simmonds, at Atlanta Tennis Championships on Tuesday afternoon.
Being played on the hard courts of Atlanta, the United States, the contest featured a vintage performance from the Aussie competitor, overcoming Simmonds in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, to make it into the second round of the ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) World Tour tournament. It took one hour and thirty four minutes for Hewitt to wrap up victory and eject the American from the competition in front of his home crowd with the utmost ease.
The American qualifier was led down by his error-ridden game play, as he sprayed a number of errant strokes all over the court, mostly ending long and wide. Six double faults on the most crucial moments of the matchup wore him
out later in the game, letting easy points to Hewitt to cruise to victory.
Unseeded in the tournament, the Aussie played brilliant hard-court tennis to outplay his opponent in the most authoritative manner. Although his serve precision of pathetically poor, reaching just 42 per cent, the Australian secured
10 out of 11 first serve points in the opener. Hewitt drew the first blood in the second game of the contest to lead 3-0 early but Simmonds replied a couple of minutes later to fritter away his advantage, levelling the scores at 4-4.
Hewitt was phenomenal with his return game in the first set and went on to crack in his second serve break of the day on the most crucial moment to lead 5-4, serving for the set. The Aussie served out the opening set with ease
at 6-4, to get one up in the contest.
The Australian uplifted his serve precision in the following set to 65 per cent and further secured 15 out of 17 first serve points to keep his winning impetus going. He stung a break point in the fifth game of the set and then
held his lead to keep pushing Simmonds out of the game. The American failed to recover from the damage done by the break point and submitted the contest to Hewitt at 4-6 to let him in the second round of Atlanta Tennis Championships.
Hewitt will face off against the other American qualifier, Rajeev Ram, in the second round clash for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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