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CRUISING

Lleyton Hewitt has cruised into the final 4 of the ongoing BB&T Atlanta Open by defeating Ivan Dodig of Croatia. Hewitt won the match in three sets by 1-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Hewitt was not looking in good touch at the start and he was completely outclassed in the opening set. But, the Aussie star fought back after that and clinched the next two sets in style to win the contest.

In the post match interview, Hewitt said, “It was tough for me at the start. He was serving really well and was also spot on with his return shots. He had certainly got me under pressure.”

“However, I am glad that I managed to battle it out. It feels good to be in the semi finals. Hopefully, I will keep going well in the next match as well.”

In the opening set, Dodig began with a bang. With breakthroughs in the 2nd and the 4th game, he won the first 5 games in a row. Hewitt held his serve for the first time in the set in the 6th game to make the score 5-1, but, that was too little, too late. Another serve hold by the Croatian player in the 7th game sealed the set in his favour.

In the second set, both the players held their serve in the first 7 games and Hewitt was leading by 4-3 when the 7th game ended.

The Australian player sneaked a breakthrough in the 8th game and then, by winning his next service game, he clinched the set.

In the decider, Hewitt was at his peak. With some high quality shots, he made his opponent look ordinary. He secured a bagel and won the contest.

In the semi final round, Hewitt will take on the winner of the match between James Blake and John Isner.

STOSUR DROPS OUT

Lleyton Hewitt’s countrywoman, Samantha Stosur, has been defeated by Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the third round of the French Open. Jankovic won the match in three sets by 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Stosur was looking in top form at the start of the match and she managed to get ahead by a set.  But, from the second set onwards, she lost her rhythm and ended up getting knocked out of the tournament.

In the post match interview, Stosur said, “I am gutted to end up on the losing side. Frankly speaking, my performance was decent for most parts of the match, but, I committed some mistakes at crucial times and that made the difference.”

In the first set, the first 7 games went with the serve and Stosur was leading by 4-3 when the 7th game ended.

Jankovic dropped her serve in the 8th game which increased Stosur’s lead to 5-3. After that, the Australian player served out the 9th game to grab the opener.

In the second set, Jankovic looked in better rhythm. With a breakthrough in the second game, she was off to a lead of 2-0. However, she was broken back in the very next game and her lead got diminished to 2-1.

The next 4 games went with the serve and at the end of the 7th game; the score was 4-3 in the favour of Jankovic.

Jankovic managed to sneak another breakthrough in the 8th game to extend her lead to 5-3. Now, all she required to win the set was a serve hold in the next game and she did that smoothly.

In the decider, both players lost their serve twice in the first 6 games and the scores were equalized at 3-3. The next 2 games went with the serve and the scores were still levelled.

In the 9th game, Stosur’s serve was broken again which gave Jankovic a vital lead of 5-4. The Serbian player just held her serve in the 10th game and finished off the match to move into the pre quarter finals.

LLEYTON LOSES OUT

Lleyton Hewitt has been defeated by Martin Alund of Argentina in the first round of the US men’s clay court championship. Alund won the match by 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Hewitt had a long journey from Uzbekistan to USA. He didn’t seem to be completely recovered from that. There were signs of tiredness in his performance and as the match progressed, his movements got slower and slower.

Hewitt was in Uzbekistan to represent Australia in a Davis Cup match. After helping his country winning that clash by 3-1, Hewitt took a flight to USA. That was certainly a long journey and Hewitt would have been completely exhausted. He needed rest which he didn’t get and as a result, his performance was poor in the match.

In the post match interview, Hewitt said, “It was tough to get going after such an exhausting journey.  I was always going to struggle. I tried my best, but, couldn’t pull it off.”

“I just had to win this match and then, I would have got a bit of rest before the next match, but, it didn’t happen unfortunately.”

On the other hand, Alund was looking happy after securing a win over Hewitt. The Argentinean said, “He was struggling a bit, but, still, he won the first set and that did pressurize me. But, he couldn’t really keep the intensity going and I took advantage of that.”

Hewitt got a breakthrough in the 7th game of the first set to take a lead of 4-3. He won his next couple of service games after that and sealed the set by 6-4.

In the second set, Alund broke Hewitt’s serve in the 2nd game, but, he was broken back immediately.

Alund got another breakthrough in the 6th game and this time, he enhanced that lead by serving out the 7th game. All he wanted after that was a serve hold and he got that in the 9th game to win the second set.

In the final set, Hewitt got absolutely bamboozled by the Argentinean. All he won in that set was one game and ended up losing the match.

ISNER vs CILIC

John Isner will take on Marin Cilic of Croatia in the third round of the Sony Open on Tuesday.

Isner made his way into the third round with the help of a win over Ivan Dodig of Croatia. The American had to battle hard for that win. He managed to win the match in three sets by 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(5).

On the other hand, Cilic got better of Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the second round. Cilic defeated Giraldo in the straight sets by 6-2, 6-4.

This season hasn’t been very good for either of these two players. Cilic has won a tournament this year i.e. Zagreb Open. But, apart from that tournament, his performance has been poor. He got knocked early from the US National Indoor Tennis Championships and the BNP Paribas Open.

Cilic’s performance in the Australian Open was also not great. He was beaten in the 3rd round of that tournament by Andreas Seppi of Italy. He has played 17 matches this year and he has won 13 of them.

John Isner hasn’t played too many matches this year because of injuries. He started this season by taking part in the Apia International Sydney tennis tournament. He managed to win just one match in that competition. In the second round, he was defeated by Ryan Harrison of USA.

He couldn’t take part in the Australian Open because of an injury in his right knee. After getting fit, he took part in the SAP Open and US National Indoor Tennis Championships, but, he didn’t manage to perform well in those tournaments.

Isner’s most recent appearance was in the BNP Paribas Open. He was defeated by Lleyton Hewitt in the second round there. He has just managed to win 7 out of the 13 matches that he has played in this season.

Both the players are quite tall and they like playing on hard courts. Also, both the players haven’t been in good form off late. So, none of them is the hot favourite for this match. It is expected to be a tight contest.