Australia's 19th seed Lleyton Hewitt fought back from losing the opening two sets to down American qualifier Michael Russell at the Australian Open here on Tuesday. Hewitt overcame Russell to win 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in 3hr 29 min and will now play Canadian Frank Dancevic in the second round.
The former Wimbledon and US Open champion has had limited preparation for the Australian Open with just two matches since last September's Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina.
MEN'S FIRST ROUND RESULTS: Men's first round singles results at the $10.7 million Australian Open on Tuesday (prefix number denotes seeding): Alex Kuznetsov (US) beat Peter Luczak (Australia) 6-4 5-7 6-7(5) 6-1 6-4
Arnaud Clement (France) beat 29-Xavier Malisse (Belgium) 6-3 3-6 7-5 6-4 Frank Dancevic (Canada) beat Victor Hanescu (Romania) 6-3 6-3 7-6(3) Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-7(5) 4-6 6-6(1-3) (Mathieu retired)
Florian Mayer (Germany) beat 23-Robin Soederling (Sweden) 3-6 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-0 19-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) beat Michael Russell (US) 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-3 6-3 12-Tommy Haas (Germany) beat Albert Montanes (Spain) 7-5 6-1 7-6(3) Fabrice Santoro (France) beat Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-0
21-Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) beat Alexander Waske (Germany) 5-7 6-4 6-3 6-4 10-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) beat Evgeny Korolev (Russia) 6-7(4) 7-6(6) 6-3 6-2 Ilia Bozoljac (Serbia) beat Marin Cilic (Croatia) 6-2 6-4 6-1
Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina) beat Alessio Di Mauro (Italy) 6-3 6-3 6-1 17-Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) beat Paul Goldstein (US) 5-7 6-2 7-6(4) 6-4 Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) beat Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) 5-7 6-3 6-2 6-4
3-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) beat Sergio Roitman (Argentina) 6-2 7-5 6-2 Gilles Muller (Luxembourg) beat Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) 6-0 4-6 6-2 6-3 15-Andy Murray (Britain) beat Alberto Martin (Spain) 6-0 6-0 6-1 5-James Blake (US) beat Carlos Moya (Spain) 7-6(8) 6-2 6-4
2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat Robert Kendrick (US) 7-6(6) 6-3 6-2 Olivier Rochus (Belgium) beat Chris Guccione (Australia) 3-6 7-5 7-5 6-7(4) 9-7 Paul Capdeville (Chile) beat Julien Benneteau (France) 4-6 6-7(4) 6-2 6-1 6-2
8-David Nalbandian (Argentina) beat Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) 6-7(5) 4-6 7-6(2) 6-0 2-1 (Tipsarevic retired) Mischa Zverev (Germany) beat Michael Berrer (Germany) 6-4 7-6(1) 3-6 6-4 Robby Ginepri (US) beat 32-Nicolas Almagro (Spain) 4-6 6-2 4-6 7-5 6-3
Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) beat Potito Starace (Italy) 7-6(5) 6-4 6-4 Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) beat Alan Mackin (Britain) 6-4 6-4 6-2 31-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat Kevin Kim (US) 6-1 2-6 6-4 6-2 Robert Smeets (Australia) beat Lukas Lacko (Slovakia) 6-2 3-6 6-1 6-4
13-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat Hyung-Taik Lee (South Korea) 6-1 6-2 6-2 28-Sebastien Grosjean (France) beat Christophe Rochus (Belgium) 6-2 4-1 (C. Rochus retired).