MELBOURNE, Australia, 21 January 2004 — Roger Federer is going solo at the Australian Open but Lleyton Hewitt just wants to find healthy opponents. The hot-shots found varying ways yesterday of reaching the second round of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament but six men’s seeds weren’t so lucky.
Coach-less Federer took 90 minutes to dispatch 117th-ranked American qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jnr 6-3, 6-4, 6-0. Hewitt clocked off early for a third consecutive match as he marched into the next round on an injury retirement.
The Australian 15th seed was ahead 6-2, 6-4, 0-1 when American qualifier Cecil Mamiit was forced to surrender after injuring his right ankle in a heavy collision with the central umpire’s chair on the first point of the third set.
Australian 10th seed Mark Philippoussis was taken to two tiebreakers in a tense straight sets win over former champion Thomas Johansson in the night match on centre court.
Philippoussis, the hero of Australia’s Davis Cup final victory over Spain last November, claimed a 7-6 (8 6), 6-2, 7-6 (7 4) victory over the 2002 Open winner in two hours 23 minutes.
Britain’s Tim Henman maintained his rich vein of form under new coach Paul Annacone to dispatch Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour 35 minutes in another night match.
Second-seed and reigning Wimbledon champion Federer said afterward he was looking for a coach.
Federer parted ways with Swedish coach Lundgren last December but has no regrets.
Mamiit’s retirement against Hewitt continued an incredible sequence of mishaps that have befallen the former world No. 1’s opponents in his last three matches. In last Saturday’s final of the Sydney International the former world No. 1 was up 4-3 in the first set when Spaniard Carlos Moya retired with a right ankle injury which subsequently forced him out of the Open.
That followed his one-set victory in the previous day’s semifinal when Dutch opponent Martin Verkerk conceded defeat, complaining of dizziness.
Argentine fifth seed Guillermo Coria bowed out to Frenchman Cyril Saulnier 7-6 (9-7), 6-2, 6-4 and other seeds to fall were 23rd seed Felix Mantilla of Spain, Spaniard Feliciano Lopez (28), Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman (25), Verkerk (17) and Max Mirnyi (24) of Belarus.
World No. 3 and French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero got the better of an uncomfortable opener against Spanish countryman Albert Montanes to breeze through 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.
Argentine eighth seed David Nalbandian powered to a straight sets victory over Brazilian qualifier Ricardo Mello in his first match. Nalbandian, a runner-up to Hewitt at Wimbledon two years ago, broke Mello’s service five times in an emphatic 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory in only 81 minutes.
Nalbandian, who lost to eventual finalist Rainer Schuettler in last year’s quarterfinal here, showed few signs of discomfort from a left wrist injury, which sidelined him for six weeks after last September’s US Open and kept him out of the season-opening Australian Hardcourt tournament in Adelaide.
Greg Rusedski, who is battling to clear his name after a positive drugs test, was emphatically dumped out of the Open 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 by Spanish former French Open champion Albert Costa.
