The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Hewitt advances in the BNP Paribas Open

Roar Guru
7th March, 2014
0

Lleyton Hewitt, battled and bruised, struggled his way past young Aussie Matthew Ebden to win in three sets at the BNP Paribas Open yesterday.

He ended the match with statistics of 7-6 (2) 3-6, 6-3.

Hewitt and Ebden played a scrappy match, with many unforced errors and poor serving throughout the day, however Hewitt pulled through with his experience when it mattered.

After being up 5-1 in the opening set with a double break, Hewitt became tight and tentative letting Ebden back into the encounter.

The underdog brought the game back to 5-5 with good solid baseline play.

The first set went down to a tiebreak but Hewitt was far too strong.

His consistency from the back of the court left Ebden tired and exhausted as Hewitt won the mental battle and took the first set in 54 minutes.

Ebden came out of the blocks well in the second set and again turned the match around.

Advertisement

However, Hewitt continued to serve poorly and gifted points to Ebden.

The 26-year-old from Perth took advantage of a momentum shift and took the second set 6-3.

It was Hewitt again, however, who played a balanced and solid deciding set.

Ebden again struggled with his unforced error count as Hewitt became more aggressive and served well.

His confidence lifted as he eventually took the match in a little under two hours.

Hewitt will play South African and number 17 seed Kevin Anderson in the second round at the Indian Wells.

Other results

Advertisement

Australia’s Olivia Rogowska lost in straight sets after making it through the qualifying round.

In today’s matches, Sam Groth, Casey Dellacqua and Marinko Matosevic will all begin their campaigns in California.

Samantha Stosur and John-Patrick Smith will begin their campaigns on Sunday morning AEDT.

close