SAP Open: Lleyton Hewitt sinks Bjorn Phau in first round
Former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia won his first match at the SAP Open against Bjorn Phau of Germany on the indoor hard court of San Jose, California on Tuesday. Hewitt, who’s seeded 7 in the tournament, had a comprehensive victory over the unseeded German in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. The contest merely lasted for 71 minutes.
Hewitt displayed his brilliant tennis skills and never let his opponent to settle in the match. His agile footwork and mental alertness were the key to success. Though his service was not up to the mark yet he compensated for it by playing good aggressive tennis throughout the game. His serve percentage was on the lower side to his standards. The 29-year-old Australian dropped his serve twice in the contest but recovered very well to bounce back at his rival. Phau’s high error count assisted Hewitt to win the match without much trouble.
The Australian (ranked 70 in the world) ignited the opening set with his usual aggression and started building pressure over his opponent right from the start. He broke his rival early in the opener to get the upper hand in the match. Hewitt gifted away some unforced errors to German allowing him to hit a break point in the set. The Aussie responded with another break and sealed the first set to his name at 6-3.
Hewitt played some elegant cross-court strokes and was good on returning the opponent’s serve. His defence was solid but his shot accuracy was quite poor at times. The Aussie converted some of the net shots to his advantage and was good on returning from the baseline. The only thing which made him stumble a little bit was his serve. His first serve percentage was not convincing and lifted a little pressure off the opponent.
Hewitt continued to bring flow in his winning momentum in the second set. He was broken once in the second set but he took the revenge by breaking Phau’s serve twice. The German crumbled under the pressure of defeat and made many silly errors to exacerbate his position in the match.
The Australian nabbed the decider at 6-3 to eject the German out of the SAP Open. Hewitt converted five of the nine serve breaking opportunities during the match but merely allowed his opponent to register break points at two different occasions. His overall performance was quite satisfying as he qualifies for the second round of the SAP Open.
Lleyton Hewitt will be facing Brian Dabul of Argentina in his next encounter to book a place in the quarter-final of the competition. The Australian had won the SAP Open way back in 2002 and finished as a runner-up in the 2006 edition.
Dabul also scored a comfortable victory in his first round clash. The Argentine had been tipped to struggle against Alejandro Falla, but offered a quality game to clinch a 6-4, 6-3 triumph.
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