Hewitt Too Much For Montcourt

Entering the French Open, Lleyton Hewitt hadn't played a clay court match in two years. Despite the layoff along with some recent struggles plus a less than 100 percent ankle, the 14th seeded Aussie had enough game to get past French wildcard Mathieu Montcourt- advancing to the third round with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 victory Thursday at Court Philippe Chatrier.

After a slow start, the 21-year-old Montcourt who idolized Hewitt started making life very difficult for his opponent. Rallying from 1-4 down with some solid baseline play, Montcourt ran off four unanswered games to give himself a chance to serve for the first set. But after earning the break in a ninth game which lasted over 10 minutes, he couldn't put away the set. Instead Hewitt fought off a set point before drawing two errors to get back on serve at five all. After a quick hold for 6-5, Hewitt seized the momentum by breaking Montcourt to claim the 67-minute first set.

"First set was pretty tough out there," Hewitt told reporters afterwards. "I knew nothing about the guy, though, going into the match. It's always going to take a little bit of time to work him out."

"Once I got that first set under my belt, I felt like I could, yeah, get more and more confident. I got better as the match went on."

After holding in the opening game of the second set, Hewitt took his fifth consecutive game with another break of Montcourt. He would cruise to a two set lead before fighting off a last ditch effort from Montcourt in the third set. Down 2-3, Hewitt won the final four games to erase any doubt, setting up a third round match against 22nd seeded Slovak Dominik Hrbaty. Hrbaty won his second straight five setter, advancing over Croat Ivo Karlovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-2.

"He's [Hrbaty] a workhorse out there," Hewitt said of his next opponent. "He doesn't give you too many cheap points. He's extremely fit, going to run down a lot of balls. We've had some tough matches in the past. You know, I've been able to get through quite a lot of them."

Fourth seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic moved on in four sets over Spaniard Oscar Hernandez
6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-2. He'll next face the winner of Fernando Verdasco (28) or Juan Monaco. They were tied a set apiece and two all in the third before rain halted play.

Rain also prevented second seeded defending champion Rafael Nadal from taking the court against American Kevin Kim. That match is slated for Friday. The winner will take on 29th seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who eliminated fellow countryman Florent Serra 6-0, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6).

German Tommy Haas (23) advanced in four sets over Alexander Waske 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4. He'll play Serbia and Montenegro's Novak Djokovic in Round 3. The 19-year-old Djokovic upset ninth seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in five sets 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1.

Also into the third round is 19-year-old Frenchman Gaels Monfils, who posted a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-0, 7-5 victory over Dick Norman. He'll take on the winner of eighth seeded American James Blake or Nicolas Almagro. The Spaniard took the opening set from Blake 7-6 (5) before rain suspended play.

Belgian Olivier Rochus (27) was a straight set winner over Jiri Vanek 6-2, 6-0, 6-2. He'll take on Spaniard Alberto Martin next. Martin defeated Dieter Kindlmann 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

Meanwhile, 19th seeded Marcos Baghdatis fell to Frenchman Julien Benneteau in five sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-4. Benneteau next meets 11th seeded Czech Radek Stepanek, who ousted Italian Davide Sanguinetti 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo also was into Round 3 when Christophe Rochus retired down 2-5 in the first set. Hidalgo awaits the winner of David Ferrer (15) or Jeremy Chardy. Ferrer led Chardy by two sets before play was suspended.

Seventh seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo needed four sets to get past Ilia Bozoljac 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. He next faces Lukas Dlouhy.

In a match which concluded yesterday, Russian Dmitry Tursunov (31) defeated Brit Tim Henman 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Turunov will meet David Nalbandian (3) next for a spot in the Round of 16.

In another match which continued, Argentin Martin Vassallo Arquello cameback to upset 21st seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean in five sets 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

While third round men's action concludes, the Round of 16 gets underway with top seed Roger Federer taking on Nicolas Massu (32) while a battle of former French Open champs takes place between Gaston Gaudio (10) and Juan Carlos Ferrero (24).