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.

OUT OF HIS HEAD

Lleyton Hewitt has said that he has put his first round defeat in the Australian Open out of his head now and he is looking forward to represent Australia in the Davis cup clash against Taiwan which is going to be played next month at Kaohsiung City.

Talking to the reporters about the upcoming Davis Cup clash, Hewitt said, “I am looking forward to it. We have got a decent squad and if we play up to our potential, we will definitely get better of them.”

“We have got depth in our line up. We have got a couple of doubles specialist in the form of Chris Guccione and Matt Ebden and then, we have got Marinko Matosevic who is a very good singles player.”

However, Australia will go into this all important clash without its top ranked player Bernard Tomic who is going through a suspension period.

When asked about the exclusion of Tomic from the squad, Hewitt said, “Tomic is a fantastic player and we would have loved to have him in the team, but, because of some issues, he is out of the team at the moment. Hopefully, those issues would be sorted out soon and he would be available for the further clashes.”

When asked about the Taiwan team, Hewitt said, “I haven’t been told the name of the Taiwan players who will compete against us. But, I have played against a couple of Taiwan players in the past and I think they will be a part of the Taiwan squad for this clash.”

When asked about his first round loss in the Australian Open, Hewitt said, “I was a bit upset about that loss, but, now, I have put that out of my system. Currently, my focus is only on the upcoming Davis Cup clash.”

TIPSARAVIC PUSHES LLEYTON OUT

Lleyton Hewitt has been defeated by Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in his opening match in the Australian Open 2013. Tipsarevic won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(7-4), 7-5, 6-3 and knocked Hewitt out of the competition.

A large no. of people turned up to watch the match and cheer for Hewitt who is a superstar in Australia. But, Hewitt didn’t provide them the entertainment that they had come to see. Although, Hewitt played well in patches but, he wasn’t able to hold his nerves on crucial occasions and ended up being defeated.

Neither of the two players managed to get a breakthrough in the first 12 games in the first set and the set went into the tie breaker. Hewitt was off to a great start in the tie breaker and took a lead of 4-0, but, he lost that advantage. Tipsarevic won the next seven points on the trot to seal the opening set.

In the next couple of sets, Hewitt won the first three games on the trot, but, he didn’t manage to maintain that lead in any of the two sets. His service was broken thrice in the second set and twice in the third set.

After the match, Hewitt said, “It’s disappointing to be knocked out from the opening round. I think I started well in all the three sets, but, I wasn’t able to maintain the intensity throughout the set.”

“When you play against a player who is in the top 10, you can’t afford to miss the chances. I lost too many opportunities which proved to be costly at the end.”

“Tipsarevic is a fantastic player and today, he was certainly at his best. Even after being trailed in the last two sets, he didn’t get nervous and bounced back beautifully.”