Still dreaming of lifting the trophy, Lleyton Hewitt powered into the second round of the Australian Open on Tuesday night with a ruthless straight-sets win over Brazilian qualifier Ricardo Hocevar.

Hewitt played like he had to make a nine o’clock movie, cleaning up the grand slam rookie 6-1 6-2 6-3 in little more than an hour and a half.

Contesting his record-equalling 14th consecutive Open, Hewitt will next meet talented young American Donald Young on Thursday for a berth in the last 32 at Melbourne Park for the eighth time.

“There’s been big tickets on Donald for quite a number of years now,” Hewitt said.

“By him qualifying and starting to make it through into some of these grand slams, he’s obviously starting to fulfill that potential.”
Hewitt, though, should have the 20-year-old covered.

Australia’s 2005 runner-up was delighted with his commanding first-round display after breaking the South American six times and facing just one break point of his own in 12 services games during the first-round mismatch.

“I knew nothing about my opponent coming into the match,” he said.

“It’s always tough playing a qualifier. They’ve played in these conditions, won three tough matches. He comes out here with nothing to lose.

“But I stepped it up in that first set, really took it to him and was able to accelerate from there.”

The 28-year-old former world No.1 is seeded 22nd this year and projected to run into 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis in the third round and Roger Federer in the last 16.

“I would love to win it,” Hewitt said. “But it’s never going to be easy.

“Obviously it’s a tough tournament to win. Any grand slam is tough. You need a little bit of luck. You’ve got to play well in the right matches.

“We’ll see what happens.”
Hewitt’s 14th straight Open appearance matches the record of countrymen Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde and South African Wayne Ferreira.

“I keep saying I’ve got to pinch myself every time I come back to this great arena,” he said.

“I came here just like all the other kids when I was growing up. I was lucky enough (that) my family brought me over from Adelaide to watch this event.

“I’ve always aspired to (win it). I came awfully close in 2005, but it’s fantastic any time that I get to play out here.”
Any match wins in Melbourne in 2010 will help raise his ranking after he suffered a five-set first-round loss last year when on the comeback trail from hip surgery.

“Last year was tough because I had about four or five months off before I played the Australian summer,” he said.

“I didn’t have any matches under my belt and was unseeded and then drew Fernando Gonzalez first round.

“I performed pretty well considering I’d been out for so long, so I built it up (last) year and got better and better as the year went on and I’ve put myself in a position now to hopefully have a crack.”

To see off Belgian Christophe Rochus in his opening match on Tuesday night, Young had to deal with the unusual distraction of a 40-minute delay because a ball boy wet his pants.

“The ball kid peed on himself. It was unfortunate,” Young said.

“It took a while to replace him. Then they had to put the saw dust down, or whatever you put down when somebody throws up.

“Then they had to use the blower (to dry the court) but the blower had no gas in it, so that took even more time.”

Young, 20, was up two sets to one and had just broken Rochus to establish a 2-1 lead in the fourth when the incident occurred.

“Rochus hit a serve out wide, the ball boy went to catch it and it was just … I don’t know what happened. I just looked back and it was all just dripping on the court and he had this look on his face. He was surprised.

“He ran off and it dribbled across the whole back of the court.”

Young eventually overcame the distraction to win 1-6 7-5 6-2 6-4.

Snapshot of day two of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Tuesday:
PLAYER OF THE DAY: Casey Dellacqua – understandably nervous after almost a year on the sidelines, Australia’s crowd favourite needed four match points to reach the Open’s second round for only the second time in eight attempts with a 6-2 3-6 6-4 triumph over Anastasiya Yakimova.

KEY MOMENT: Igor Andreev blowing three set points serving at 6-5 in the third for a two-sets-to-one lead over Roger Federer. It was the beginning of the end for the Russian, who capitulated thereafter, ultimately falling 4-6 6-2 7-6 (7-2) 6-0 to the world No.1.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I am not Paris Hilton. I don’t want to be like this. I don’t want to be like Nadal, Federer. These guys I never see by breakfast. They stay in the room and take room service. For me, better to go downstairs, take breakfast or dinner to go somewhere, not to be so much famous.” – Russian Nikolay Davydenko, the tour’s hottest player, refusing to acknowledge his newfound celebrity status.

STAT OF THE DAY: Federer dropping the first set of his opening match at a grand slam for the first time since the 2003 US Open against Argentine Jose Acasuso.

TOURNAMENT SUMMARY: Federer’s scare highlighted an otherwise routine day for the seeds, with Davydenko and fellow title hopefuls Fernando Verdasco, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Serena and Venus Williams all safely progressing to round two.

© AAP 2012

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