A sluggish Lleyton Hewitt lost his composure and his first-round match in the Cincinnati Masters, falling to Xavier Malisse 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The Australian grew angry at himself and swiped his racket in frustration as Malisse took control early in the third set Tuesday and held on for his first victory over a top-10 player this year.
”I just didn’t feel great out there today,” said Hewitt, who has slipped to number six in the world after being ranked number one all last year. ”I don’t really know why.”
Four seeded players lost their first-round matches Tuesday in the $2,45-million tournament. Top-ranked Andre Agassi withdrew two days before it opened.
In the most dramatic match of the day, Wimbledon champion Roger Federer narrowly avoided a first-round upset, saving seven match points before beating Scott Draper in three sets.
Federer, ranked number two behind Agassi, rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10) victory over a qualifier who has never been ranked higher than number 42 in his career.
”I’ve improved coming from behind this year,” Federer said. ”That’s something that you have to do when you’re on top.”
Also advancing were second-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, number seven Andy Roddick and number eight Rainer Schuettler. Among the losers were number nine Paradorn Srichaphan, numbr 10 Sebastien Grosjean and number 14 Gustavo
Kuerten.
Roddick, who won his first Masters Series title in Montreal on Sunday, had little trouble beating qualifier Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2. He’s 25-2 since he lost in the first round at the French Open and hired Brad Gilbert as his coach.
Gilbert previously helped to turn Agassi into a consistent winner.
”Andre was in kind of the same position I am right now when they got together,” said Roddick (20). ”People were saying, ‘Well, is he just going to go by the wayside, or is he going to step it up and become a great player?”’
Hewitt’s loss underscored how he has slipped since last year, when he became only the fourth player to rank number one every week of a calendar year. This year, he became only the second defending Wimbledon champion to lose in the opening round.
”I know that when my game’s at its best and I’m feeling physically 100%, then I can beat up on anyone out there on any given day,” he said.
Malisse, who has been matched against top-10 players in five of his last six tournaments, played with more energy after he broke Hewitt’s serve to take control of the second set.
”I held my serve and started to feel a lot better,” he said. ”At 4-2, I just started to believe that I could get to the third set and anything can happen.”
Hewitt was in trouble after losing serve to open the final set.
He angrily smacked a backhand into the net in the third set, when Malisse broke him again for a 3-0 lead.
Malisse, a Wimbledon semifinalist last year, sensed a difference in Hewitt after he got behind.
”He made a lot more mistakes than he usually does,” Malisse said. ”If you lose a couple of matches, your confidence goes down a little bit. Everybody does that.”
nlike Hewitt, Federer managed to regroup and make tough shots as he repeatedly faced elimination. He fought off two match points in the 12th game of the third set, then fell behind 6-2 in the tiebreaker before pulling even with Draper.
”I threw the kitchen sink at him,” Draper said.
Federer wasted three match points of his own before a double-fault by Draper gave him another chance to close it out.
Draper, a qualifier currently ranked number 114, returned the second serve long to finish it.
”I played well on the match points,” said Federer, who won his tour-best 58th match of the year. ”It wasn’t his mistakes. I played well at the end and deserved to win.” — Sapa-AP