Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the second round of the Australian Open on Tuesday with an easy 6-0 6-3 6-0 victory over Belgium’s Steve Darcis.
The former world number one, who had a poor buildup to the year’s first grand slam with early exits in Adelaide and Sydney, barely needed to get out of first gear and said it was one of his best starts to a grand slam.
”It’s up there definitely,” Hewitt told reporters of his performance. ”[I] didn’t do too much wrong today.
”I went out there and was aggressive at the start and tried to dictate and got off to a good start.”
The former US Open and Wimbledon champion seemingly broke the 23-year-old Darcis at will, with the Belgian only holding serve twice in the match.
The only other game he won was when he broke Hewitt’s serve in the fifth game of the second set.
”You know, especially early in the first set [I] was able to put pressure on his second serve [and] that made him go after his first serve a little bit more.
”Then I just felt like I could dictate points from there on in, which made him feel like he had to go for a lot more.
Intimidating Hewitt
Hewitt intimidated the Belgian, making his first appearance in the tournament, from the outset on Rod Laver Arena and forced him to make 21 errors, particularly on his backhand.
The Australian did not let out his trademark fist pump and yell of ”C’Mon” until the fourth game of the second set, though it was doubtful whether he needed much crowd support to provide the inspiration required to dispatch his 83rd-ranked opponent.
”In the end I felt like I could do pretty much what I wanted to do out there and play on my terms, which is good. Against the better players they’re not going to give you as much opportunity to do that.
”But, with that said, I felt like I went out there and was aggressive and took what I’ve been working on in practice on to the match court.”
Hewitt next meets Uzbek Denis Istomin. – Reuters