Australian open
Serena, Hewitt survive first round MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Serena Williams stared into the stands. She shrugged, cursed and changed rackets. She stood with her hands on her hips or studied her notes.
In the next match on the same court, Lleyton Hewitt had his own problems. He pumped a fist or two, managing to find his way out of trouble against a player ranked 155th.
The Australian Open’s top-ranked man and woman advanced to the second round Tuesday, but neither had an easy time.
Williams is seeking a fourth consecutive Grand Slam title – a “Serena Slam.” Hewitt wants to become the first Australian man since Mark Edmondson in 1976 to win the tournament.
Hewitt lost his serve only once but needed 3 hours, 13 minutes to defeat former top 10 player Magnus Larsson 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-2. The 32-year-old Swede had to qualify for the tournament.
“I thought he played incredibly well for a guy that only played a few tournaments last year,” Hewitt said.
For a player who won the French Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon – and didn’t lose a set in those last two – Williams played erratically. She sprayed 55 errors in winning 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 against 56th-ranked Emilie Loit of France.
“The whole problem was me not looking at the ball or hitting late and just not doing my techniques right. … I just had a bad day,” Williams said.
Loit led 6-5 in the second set, but Williams held for 6-6, and took a 5-1 lead in the tiebreaker. That edge dwindled to 5-4 and 6-5 before Loit hit a forehand long on the second set point.
Trailing 5-4 in the final set, Loit saved two match points with a forehand winner and a drop shot.
“When I had match point? No one really has the guts to hit a drop shot,” Williams said.
Two games later, on the third match point, Loit hit a passing shot into the net.
“This match is just a heads-up that everyone wants to try to beat me, and I probably just need a reminder,” Williams said.
Similarly, Hewitt called his match “a little bit of a wake-up call in some ways.”
“I don’t press the panic button as much as I probably would have a couple years ago,” the 21-year-old Aussie said.
Hewitt also was ranked No. 1 coming in to the Australian Open last year. But he was weakened by chickenpox and lost in the first round.
Williams missed the Australian Open entirely after twisting her ankle in a warmup tournament. That kept her from winning a true Grand Slam – all four majors in a calendar year.
The last woman to do that was Steffi Graf in 1988, following Maureen Connolly in 1953, and Margaret Court in 1970. Graf also was the last to hold all four major titles at once.She did that by winning the Australian in 1994.
Next up for Williams is Belgium’s Els Callens, a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Slovakia’s Martina Sucha.
Callens forced Williams to two tiebreakers at Wimbledon last year.
“Hopefully she’ll play me just as tough so I get the confidence here,” Williams said.
Williams is in the opposite half of the draw from older sister Venus, the runner-up at the last three Grand Slam tournaments. As at those events, the siblings can meet only in the final.
In the same half with Serena are fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters, who beat both Williams sisters in the WTA Tour Championships last November, and four-time Australian winner Monica Seles, who beat Venus in last year’s Australian quarterfinals.
Clijsters advanced Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Samantha Reeves, and No. 6 Seles won 6-0, 6-1 against Lubomira Kurhajcova, a 19-year-old Slovak ranked 110th.
“I’m just at this very happy stage in my career where my body is still letting me play,” the 29-year-old Seles said. “I’m still enjoying working hard, and playing some good, solid tennis.”
On Venus’ side of the draw, 2001 and 2002 winner Jennifer Capriati became the first women’s defending champion at the Australian in the Open era to lose in the first round.
No. 9 Andy Roddick, a quarterfinalist at the last two U.S. Opens, came back from 1-4 in the third set and defeated Croatia’s Zeljko Krajan 6-7 (9), 6-2, 7-6 (0), 6-3 in a match that ended at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday.
Krajan, ranked 106th, had rebounded from 1-4 and saved a set point in the first set.
Roddick went out in the second round in Australia last year with a sprained ankle.
Also advancing were No. 3 Marat Safin, this tournament’s 2002 runner-up; No. 6 Roger Federer; No. 7 Jiri Novak, a semifinalist last year, and three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten.
Safin, recovering from shoulder problems, beat Dutch player Raemon Sluiter 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Federer downed Brazil’s Flavio Saretta 7-6 (4), 7-5, 6-3; Novak beat Vincent Spadea 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), and Kuerten stopped Morocco’s Hicham Arazi 6-4, 7-6 (8), 6-3.