Lleyton Hewitt made the most of a wildcard at the Swedish Open, defeating towering world number 38 Kevin Anderson in three sets.
Hewitt cut down the South African 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in Stockholm in a victory that could return the battling Aussie to the top 100.
Hewitt, currently ranked 102, will face fellow tour veteran Jarkko Nieminen in the second round.
The 31-year-old has never lost to the Fin.
Local hope Patrik Rosenholm caused the biggest upset of the opening rounds with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over Frenchman Gael Monfils.
Meanwhile, Matthew Ebden has earned the second Australian victory at the ATP Austrian Open in as many days, beating Italy's Filippo Volandri 7-5, 0-6, 6-0.
Ebden joins fellow Aussie Marinko Matosevic who defeated Dutch sixth seed Robin Haase 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Argentina's Juan Del Potro will play German Daniel Brands, who won a battle of qualifiers over Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3.
Earlier, two minor seeds exited the tournament at the first hurdle, with Italian Paolo Lorenzi knocking out seventh seed Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-4 despite 11 aces from the Frenchman.
Paire, who reached his first final in Belgrade last May, dropped into negative territory for the season, standing 23-24.
Number 70 Slovenian Grega Zemlja worked for two and a half hours to get past eighth seed Xavier Malisse, defeating the veteran Belgian 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6).
ABC/AFP
Tags: tennis, sport, australia, austria First posted October 17, 2012 10:57:39
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