Hewitt wins battle with Del Potro
LLEYTON Hewitt pulled off a stunning five-set win over Juan Martin del Potro at the US Open after a classic late-night thriller between the two former champions on Friday.
The 32-year-old Hewitt showed he still has plenty of fight left in him as he floored Del Potro 6-4 5-7 3-6 7-6 (2) 6-1 in a four-hour slugfest at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I don’t know how many years I have left in me so I was just hanging to get back on this court again,” said Hewitt, who also won Wimbledon in 2002 but has not tasted grand-slam success since and tumbled to 66th in the world rankings.
Del Potro became the biggest casualty of this year’s championship, leaving the top half of the draw seemingly at the mercy of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, who both overcame wobbles to win on Friday.
Murray experienced a minor hiccup, dropping his first set of the tournament, but recovered to beat Argentine Leonardo Mayer 7-5 6-1 3-6 6-1.
“It was a very tough match,” said Murray, whose next opponent is Germany’s Florian Mayer. “Both of us did a lot of running.” Djokovic kept his perfect record intact after surviving an early test from Germany’s Benjamin Becker.
The world No 1 saved two set points in the opening set before rebounding to win 7-6 (2) 6-2 6-2 and advance to the next round against Portugal’s Joao Sousa, a five-set winner over Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
The spectator lines were long at court 17 when Martina Hingis made her comeback to grand slam tennis 16 years after she won the US Open and six years after she retired for a second time. The former world No 1 was granted a wildcard entry to the doubles with Daniela Hantuchova but the pair fell at the first hurdle, losing 6-3 7-5 to defending champions Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams steamrolled her way into the fourth round of the women’s singles with a routine 6-3 6-1 win over Yaroslava Shvedova.
China’s Li Na fired down 11 aces to defeat British teenager Laura Robson 6-2 7-5 to reach the fourth round and the ultra-consistent Agnieszka Radwanska wore down Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 7-6 (1). —