Hewitt opens Brisbane account

Updated January 02, 2013 08:35:00

Lleyton Hewitt began his 2013 campaign in fighting style with a three-set victory in the first round of the Brisbane International.

Hewitt defeated Russian lucky loser Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 on Pat Rafter Arena, having finished strongly in the third set to dominate the serve of his younger opponent.

Kunitsyn only got his chance in the main draw following the withdrawal of former champion Radek Stepanek because of an eye infection earlier on Tuesday.

"When you've been preparing for three or four days to play someone, then it changes," he told Channel Seven.

"It's always tough and especially when you're playing someone who's already had two or three matches in these conditions as well.

"He's a good ball striker and had nothing to lose so I felt like it was a pretty high-standard match out there tonight."

Hewitt will next face Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and should the former world number one win he will be on course for a quarter-final clash with top seed Andy Murray.

Istomin progressed to the round of 16 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Slovakian Martin Klizan.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams continued her strong build-up to the Australian Open with another straight-sets victory.

Williams breezed through her second-round match against Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, triumphing 6-2, 6-2.

She won her opening-round encounter against fellow American Varvara Lepchenko 6-2, 6-1 on Sunday.

"She's (Cornet) a former top 15 player and we've had a tough three-set match before so I knew I had to play really well," Williams said.

"I tried to be more aggressive and tried to be more consistent."

Williams, the current Wimbledon and US Open champion, is on course to meet top seed Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals.

Azarenka enjoyed a bye in the opening round and will make her first appearance of the tournament against German Sabine Lisicki.

Williams' victory would have given the Brisbane organisers a sigh of relief, with four-time major winner Maria Sharapova withdrawing from the tournament earlier on Tuesday because of a collarbone injury.

Sharapova's scratching followed the early departure of seeds Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki, in addition to local favourite and seventh seed Samantha Stosur exiting the tournament on Monday night.

ABC/AFP

Tags: tennis, sport, brisbane-4000

First posted January 01, 2013 21:32:15

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Clijsters opens Brisbane account

Updated January 01, 2012 18:49:19

Kim Clijsters says she is looking forward to some much-needed match practise after powering past Romania's Simona Halep in the first round of the Brisbane International.

Clijsters, who won the season-opening Brisbane tournament in 2010 in a classic final against Justine Henin, blasted through the first set then held off Halep in the second to win 6-1, 6-4.

The 28-year-old Belgian will be trying to defend her Australian Open crown later this month but concedes to being a bit rusty after missing the last seven months of 2011 with injury problems.

"It's important for me to get back into that kind of match rhythm," Clijsters said.

"I think it's difficult to get into that rhythm of playing matches a couple of days in a row.

"I would like to have that opportunity here. Obviously if not, it doesn't happen but it would be nice to achieve that."

Clijsters declared herself delighted with how she played against Halep, the world number 47, who reached the Australian Open third round last year.

"For a first match this was pretty good," she said.

"In the second set there were a few little errors that I need to focus on in my next match, but overall I had a good feeling, I felt that I was playing aggressively, so I was pretty happy with that."

In the women's draw, Australia's Casey Dellacqua made an exit in the first round, going down 6-4, 6-2 to Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski.

Czech Republic's Iveta Benesova defeated countrywoman Lucie Safarova 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 and third-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone progressed to the second round after

Kazakhstan's Ksenia Pervak retired after just eight games with a headache.

The score was deadlocked at 4-4 when Pervak retired.

AFP

Tags: sport, tennis, brisbane-4000, qld, australia

First posted January 01, 2012 18:27:28

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Aussie Ebden opens Tokyo account

Updated October 03, 2011 23:02:53

Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden progressed to the second round of the Japan Open in Tokyo.

Ebden edged past Spain's Pablo Andujar in three sets, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4.

Meanwhile, American number one Mardy Fish had to dig deep before beating promising compatriot Ryan Harrison to reach the second round.

The fourth-seeded Fish, who was 0-2 down in the first two sets, finally pulled through 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 against the up-and-coming 19-year-old.

Fish broke back in the fifth game of the deciding set thanks to Harrison's double fault on a break point and then moved up to 6-5 with another break.

He squandered two match points, but made no mistake at the third attempt, firing a forehand shot down the line for a clean winner.

Ranked eighth in the world against Harrison's 80th, Fish will take on either Ernests Gulbis of Latvia or Lukasz Kubot of Poland in the second round.

Seventh seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who reached the semi-finals last year in Tokyo, had no problem, beating Somdev Devvarman of India 6-4, 6-3.

AFP

Tags: tennis, sport, japan

First posted October 03, 2011 22:17:17

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