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Hewitt of old makes an appearance at Wimbledon

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Updated Jun 27, 2009 5:06 PM ET
     
 
Andy Murray served up exactly what the nation was hoping for as the sun settled over southwest London — a cool, unruffled 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Latvia's Ernests Gulbis. Andy Roddick, Venus Williams, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic moved on, too. But the day belonged to Lleyton Hewitt. The feisty little Australian who won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon a year later harked back to his halcyon years with a complete demolition of the No. 5 seed Juan Martin del Potro by a score that, if anything, flattered the Argentine. It read 6-3, 7-5, 7-5, but once Hewitt had overcome a sudden bout of nerves when he served for a two-set lead — a double fault was followed by a forehand that struggled to reach the net — the Aussie dominated proceedings with his fleet footwork, whipped backhands and great serving. I can't remember ever having seen Hewitt serve better than he did in the first set. People may have forgotten that it was not the brilliance of his serve that took him to the top of the tennis tree eight years ago. A defense that proved be a forerunner of what Rafael Nadal has produced from behind the baseline and a determination to fight, battle and scrape for every point laid the foundation of his success and all those virtues were merely complimented today by a serve that produced 14 aces, many of them at those moments that make an opponent's heart sink. As Roddick mentioned later, Hewitt's ability to keep the ball low on this slow court made life very difficult for the 6-foot-6 Argentine. The fact that it was grass and it was Hewitt across the net also worked against del Potro. "It is difficult for me playing on this kind of surface and Lleyton has much more experience than me," del Potro said. "I need time to learn. At the end, I said 'Congrats'. He did a very good match. You know, he's one my idols. I started to follow him when I was young, like 11, 12 years." For Hewitt, the happiness this victory had brought him was written all over his face. He had been very frustrated sitting at home in Sydney, changing diapers, instead of playing the U.S. Open because of hip surgery. Still, he always felt he had a performance like this in him, and he went out and proved it. "It was a big one," he admitted. "I wanted to beat a top-five guy. These are the places you want to do it, too. I've got a lot of respect for del Potro. He's a great player and he's only going to get better."
Murray roars on: There were plenty of Australians in the crowd to cheer their man, but Murray had a whole house full of fans when he walked out to play Gulbis, the talented Latvian who had been built by the media in the proceeding hours as a danger man with weapons to worry Murray. But Murray was at his brilliant best, and Gulbis had no play. Two break points at the start of the first set presented an opportunity Gulbis was unable to accept and he received no others. Murray made five unforced errors in that first set and none thereafter. None. For long periods he was serving above 80 percent of first serves and finished at 73 percent. At one stage, Murray won 19 consecutive points on serve. He passed at will and ran onto so many of the Latvian's drop shots that, in the end, you just had to give Gulbis credit for persistence because he actually managed to win a couple of points with drop volleys in the third set. Not that it did him much good. When he tried rallying, backhand to backhand, Murray's attitude was "OK, how long do you want to continue with this?" It was never going to be Andy who blinked. The score was 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 and it only took one hour, 28 minutes. Roddick does the job: Roddick was forced to relinquish a set to the 28-year-old Russian, Igor Kunitsyn — who has moved into the 40's on the ATP ranking list from 125 in 2007. The Californian coaching guru Allen Fox has had something to do with that and Kunitsyn gave a good account of himself on Court 1. But Roddick was never in danger of losing the match which ended 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. Another American triumph: Later on another splendid evening, Jesse Levine defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-2, 6-1, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3. Levine's left-handed serve is starting to cause his opponents problems on the grass and it will be interesting to see how he fares against the No. 19-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka, who earlier beat Martin Vassallo Arguello, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Roddick thought Levine had gone to Boca Prep, which would have made three players from the same school in the third round of Wimbledon because Mardy Fish was also there. But it seems Levine spent his time at the Evert Academy in Boca taking online education. Whatever. Let's hear it for Boca. Three in the third round is more than Britain and Australia can boast between them.

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