Adelaide, January 5 - Top seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt is out of the Next Generation Adelaide International after a three set loss to German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round tonight.
Hewitt started slow falling behind 3-0 and never regained the ground in the opener. In a complete change of momentum Hewitt could do little wrong in the second set wiping his lower ranked opponent from the court 6-0.
In the decider it was Kohlschreiber who jumped out to the early lead and by 5-3 down the Aussie looked all but gone. One last crack in the tenth game saw Hewitt put the set back on serve but the following game the German broke once again and proceeded to serve out the match 6-3 0-6 7-5.
Hewitt was disappointed with the loss but said it wouldn’t affect his Australian Open preparations too much.
"I started off a bit shaky and got better as the match went on," Hewitt said. "In the second set I couldn’t put a foot wrong and I started to get on top of him and just played a slack first game of the third set.
"He served extremely well in the last set, a lot better than he served for the rest of the match. Apart from the last two service games where he got a little bit tired I wasn’t getting too many opportunities on second serves to get into his service games."
Hewitt said his drop of service in the first game of the last set was crucial.
"I was just playing catch up in the third set. It would have been nice (to play a few more matches) and it’s always nice to win tournaments especially when they’re in your home country. But in the big picture, I got one round further last year and it didn’t make much of a difference."
Kohlschreiber, who made the fourth round of the Australian Open last year, said he stuck to his own game.
"I think I played very well," he said. "I had a little down in the second set and at the end I was a little bit lucky. I was pretty straight in my head, I didn’t think too much about his name. I played my game and that was the key."
Kohlschreiber will meet sixth seed Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.
Hewitt makes a shock exit
By Leo Schlink
January 6, 2006
LLEYTON Hewitt's Australian Open preparations were rocked last night when he
was stunned in the second round of the Next Generation Adelaide International by
unheralded German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Slumping to a 6-3 0-6 7-5 loss to 86th-ranked Kohlschreiber, Hewitt endured his earliest loss at the Memorial Drive tournament where he rocketed to stardom as a teenager in 1998.
"It would have been nice to have won a few more matches but in the big picture, I'm not that worried," Hewitt said. "If I can play the way I did in the second set and even in the third set, I'll be happy.
"Tennis is all about momentum swings and I played one slack game at the start of the third set and his confidence picked up.
"After that, he served extremely well and I was playing catch-up tennis."
World No.4 Hewitt, twice a winner and a finalist in Adelaide, had never lost before the quarter-finals at his home tournament.
But he will draw solace from the fact his quarter-final loss here last year to Taylor Dent came after victory in Sydney and an appearance in the Australian Open final.
Kohlschreiber will tonight face Czech Tomas Berdych, one of the hottest young players in the world.
He was helped substantially last night as Hewitt made a slow start for the second time in as many matches as Kohlschreiber found range with a raking backhand.The German led 3-0 and almost broke again in the eighth game before winning the first set in 41 minutes.
The Hewitt backlash was devastating, tearing apart Kohlschreiber to take the second set to love.
Kohlschreiber lifted in the deciding set to turn the match on its ear.
He broke Hewitt's serve and led 2-0. Ahead 5-4, Kohlschreiber served for the
match - and was broken. But then Hewitt stumbled, dropping serve with a double
fault and allowing the German to serve out the match.
The Advertiser
1st rd January 3
Adelaide – Aussie top seed Lleyton Hewitt has won a tough fought first round match 4-6 6-2 6-4 over Czech Jan Hernych at Next Generation Adelaide International at Memorial Drive tonight.
Like this time last year, Hewitt scared his hometown crowd dropping serve in the first game and again in the fifth to go 4-1 down. Hernych proceed to serve out the first set in just over half an hour.
The world No.4 found quickly found his momentum in the second jumping out to 5-0 lead before sealing the set. The decider was a tight affair with both players trading breaks before Hewitt got the better of his unseeded opponent for a 1hr 56min win.
Hewitt said it was the type of match he was expecting.
"Hopefully I’ll get better and better as every match goes on," he said. "I knew it was going to be a tough match. There’s a lot of easier opponents to play out there in the first round of Adelaide than Jan – he’s a tough competitor and he always brings his A-game.
"He’s not the most flashy player out there but he will always be out there to compete and you’ve got to really step up and beat him every time you’re out there. I was prepared for that and for me it’s nice to get another match under my belt. That could be the kickstart that I need."
Hewitt will face Chris Guccione’s conqueror Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round and says it won’t be an easy match.
"He’s a nice sweet timer of the ball, he looks like he’s got a really nice single-hand backhand," Hewitt said. "I’m going to have to try and work him around the court and try and get him off balance as much as possible and still be aggressive and try and dictate play."
In the second match of the night session Victorian qualifier Rameez Junaid put up an enormous fight against second seed Dominik Hrbaty before falling in two close sets. Junaid conceded the opener 6-3 but fought hard in the second for an early 3-0 lead. Hrbaty worked his way back into the match and eventually posted a 6-3 7-5 win.