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Even as the Mumbai Open lost two seeded players in the opening round itself the tournament organizers heaved a sigh of relief as Lleyton Hewitt finally landed on the Indian shores. There were a lot of apprehensions about the Australian's participation in the tournament after he pulled out in the crucial reverse singles against Serbia in Davis Cup final on Sunday.
The six-man French field at Mumbai was halved in the space of two days as third seed Paul-Henri Mathieu, seventh seed Julien Benneteau and Edouarc Roger-Vasselin made a silent exit at the Cricket Club of India.
Wilcard entrant and comeback man Nicolas Kiefer roared winners past Mathieu to breeze to a 6-4, 6-3 win over Mathieu in a rain-interrupted game, which was carried on to Tuesday.
Veteran Fabrice Santoro of France out-witted Roger-Vasselin 6-1, 6-2, while 2003 Australian Open finalist Rainer Schuettler beat Benneteau 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 21 minutes.
Despite going down to Toshihide Matsui in the final qualifying round of the ATP Mumbai Open, India's Purav Raja progressed into the main draw as the lucky loser on Tuesday.
That was the second time that lady luck smiled on Raja after his opponent and fourth seed Karan Rastogi had conceded the second-round qualifiers due to cramps.
Raja lost to sixth seed Matsui 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-3 in the final qualifiers. The Indian will play the only Spaniard in the draw Ivan Navarro in the first round while fellow qualifier Navdeep Singh faces Matsui.
Kiefer, who had slipped to 404 in the rankings after a year-long injury lay-off, reached the China Open semi-finals two weeks ago and continued his climb on the ATP ladder with a stunning victory over the third seed.
The German slammed eight aces and played a solid baseline game to upset Mathieu. He broke the Frenchman in the seventh game in the first set and closed it out 6-4 in 40 minutes.
Mathieu was not helped by the three double-faults and struggled to get his first serves. He lost service in the seventh and the ninth games in the second set as Kiefer, with a career-high ranking of four, effortlessly stepped past the first hurdle.