Lleyton Hewitt claimed his second nailbiting victory in two days when he edged past Arnaud Clement of France 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 to reach the third round of the Hamburg Masters.
It took the Australian world number one more than three-and-a-half hours to squeeze out the victory, which followed a two hour 22 minute battle on Tuesday against German wild card Markus Hantschk.
"I'm trying to make my three set matches into five-setters so I've got good preparation for the French Open (later this month)," Hewitt said.
"There were times in the match I didn't feel I played my best tennis, but I felt like I fought really hard and I came up with some big points at the right time," he added.
Hewitt, struggling against the heavy conditions, dropped the first five games before staging a remarkable comeback.
He pulled back to 5-5 and held off six set points before leading the tiebreak 7-6, but a netted forehand cost him his chance and a perfect drop volley from Clement gave the Frenchman the set.
The Australian fought back in the second set to lead 5-0 before Clement pulled back to 5-4, but then dropped his serve a third time to give Hewitt the set.
In a dramatic finale, Clement broke serve with a superb forehand crosscourt pass to lead 5-4 and serve for victory, but Hewitt responded by breaking serve. He then recovered from 3-5 in the tiebreak and closed out the match on his second match point.
Rafael Nadal, the 16-year-old Spaniard who recently defeated French Open champion Albert Costa in Monte Carlo, added a 7-5, 6-4 victory over his mentor Carlos Moya to his growing portfolio.
Four more seeds failed to advance beyond the second round on Wednesday, as fourth seed Andy Roddick was beaten 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 by Agustin Calleri, fifth seed Albert Costa was upset 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 by Olivier Rochus, 10th seed Sebastien Grosjean was defeated 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 by Tim Henman and 14th seed Tommy Robredo lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Mariano Zabaleta.
But there were wins for third seed Roger Federer, who crushed Sargis Sargsian 6-1, 6-1, eighth seed David Nalbandian, ninth seed Rainer Schuettler, 11th seed Gustavo Kuerten, 12th seed Guillermo Coria and 15th seed Fernando Gonzalez.
© 2025