Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur reached the second round at Wimbledon on Tuesday, while Jelena Dokic suffered a setback in her return to tennis, bowing out in her tournament opener.
Hewitt came back from 1-4 down in the first set to beat Robby Ginepri of the United States 6-4 6-1 6-1.
He next faces No.5 seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who also had a straight-sets victory in the first round, beating Frenchman Arnaud Clement.
Stosur, the 18th seed, advanced by beating American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-2.
She next faces German qualifier Tatjana Malek, who beat Dokic 3-6 7-5 6-2.
Hewitt and Stosur join fellow Australian Jarmila Groth in the next round.
The world No.66 on Monday booked a second-round meeting with two-time champion and No.2 seed Serena Williams.
Hewitt slipped to a 4-1 deficit in the opening set before finding his rhythm.
He dominated the second set, however, breaking the American with a blazing forehand return to convert his second set point.
Ginepri called for the trainer in the break and twice between games in the third set for treatment to his neck.
After a tight beginning, Hewitt broke through for a 3-1 lead and from there easily booked his place in the next round.
“It’s always tough, any tournament I think, the first few games, just get the nerves out of the way,” Hewitt said.
“Apart from that small hiccup, it was pretty smooth sailing after that. I was able to dictate when I wanted to.
“My serve picked up. I felt like I was in all of his service games, which was good.”
Stosur was pleased to stamp her authority on the deciding set after blowing two match points in the second.
“I knew going into the third I was still feeling good and nothing was going bad,” Stosur said.
“At the start of the third I tried to put my foot down and got off to a good start, which was exactly what I needed.”
Last year, Stosur led 18th seed Nicole Vaidisova 4-1 the third set of their second-round match only to crumble, and she subsequently vowed not to let the same thing happen again.
“Today mentally I was very good, I couldn’t really ask too much more of myself in that respect,” Stosur said.
Dokic had a tough time of her first appearance at the All England Club since 2004.
Her lack of match practice after retiring from the recent French Open with a back injury was telling, and she received medical attention for dizziness and muscle aches during the match.
“It’s disappointing because I had the match in my hands, but you have to go on,” Dokic said.
“I’m trying my best. I’m here, I’m in the grand slams and I’m just going to have to go back to the drawing board from here and just get myself together and try to get some matches now under my belt.”
Groth plays Williams on Wednesday night (AEST), while Hewitt and Stosur are back in action on Thursday.
Australians in action at Wimbledon on Wednesday, the third day of the Championships:
Women’s Singles second round
Jarmila Groth (Aus) vs 2-Serena Williams (USA), second match, court oneMen’s Doubles first round
Leos Friedl (Cze)/David Skoch (Cze) vs 14-Rik De Voest (Rsa)/14-Ashley Fisher (Aus), fourth match, court nine
Prakash Amritraj (Ind)/Aisam-Ul-Haq Queresh (Pak) leads Stephen Huss (Aus)/16-Ross Hutchins (Gbr) 6-4 6-7 (12-14) 6-4 3-6 to be continued second match, court 17Women’s Doubles first round
Sarah Borwell (Gbr)/Anne Keothavong (Gbr) vs 3-Samantha Stosur (Aus)/3- Rennae Stubbs (Aus)
Anastasia Rodionova (Aus)/Galina Voskoboeva (Kaz) vs Lucie Safarova (Cze)/Vladimira Uhlirova (Cze)
Alison Hastie
Guest
Having listened to the Australian tennis commentators on Foxtel during the French Open and now again at Wimbledon, I find the lack of attempts to pronounce players' names correctly very second rate. I'm aware that many players have probably accepted anything closely resembling their names but if you are going to commentate on a match, it wouldn't be too hard to get 2 names right and not make ignorant comments about Robin Söderling calling his girlfriend, Jenny as Yenny and suggesting he doesn't know how to say it because he made a mistake 'yoking' instead of 'joking' in a speech. Swedish words starting with j have a y sound as in 'yes'. His name should be pronounced Sir-der-ling by the way and not So-der-ling or Sod-er-ling. At the Aust Open it was established that Djokovic has an oh sound in the first syllable. Also that there's a stress on Saf in Safina and that there is no oh sound or stress on all the Russian female -ova endings. We can't expect that every language can be known but a little research and effort to call players by their accurate names would be courteous and make for better commentating. Please let's try! More listening and watching and less talk would improve the viewing.