HAMBURG, 12 May 2004 — Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt saved a set point on Tuesday as he advanced into the second round of the 2.495-million euro Hamburg Masters Series with a 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) win over Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman.
The 17th-seeded Hewitt faced the set point serving at 6-5 down in the second set. But Bjorkman hit a forehand wide and then fell in the tiebreak after 1 hour 28 minutes despite a 4-2 lead there.
Fifth-seeded Briton Tim Henman struggled with the heavy conditions on a cool and wet outside court before beating Italian qualifier Andreas Seppi 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
Henman fought from 5-3 down in the first set with four straight games. In the third, he wasted two match points at 5-2, but then served out the match in the ninth game, clinching victory with a service winner.
But tournament number 4 Rainer Schuettler crashed out 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 against friendly German rival Lars Burgsmueller.
Schuettler, a Monte Carlo finalist a few weeks ago, blew a 4-2 lead in the final set and converted just three of his 22 break points en route to defeat in 3:07 hours.
There was also no luck for the two Dutch seeds.
No. 12 Martin Verkerk, last year’s French Open finalist, crashed 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) against Croatian Ivan Ljubicic. The No. 14 seed Sjeng Schalken retired with a hamstring injury trailing 5-1 against Spanish lucky loser Oscar Hernandez. No. 9 seed Nicolas Massu of Chile lost as well, going down 6-3, 6-0 against Austrian Juergen Melzer. But the 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez won a Spanish duel with Feliciano Lopez, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.
Sluggish Serena Advances in Rome
Top seed Serena Williams performed way below her best but still had too much quality for unseeded Spaniard Maria Sanchez-Lorenzo in their second round match at the clay court Rome Masters yesterday.
Williams, a six-time Grand Slam winner, won 7-5, 6-3 at the Foro Italico to claim a place in the last 16 where she will meet either Russian Vera Douchevina or Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar.
Playing in only her fourth tournament since taking eight months off after knee surgery and given a bye into the second round, Williams looked rusty but was happy with her level of fitness.
Russian Maria Sharapova joined Williams in the second round with a defeat of sixth-seeded compatriot Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-4. The 2001 champion Jelena Dokic saved six match points, but fired a forehand frustratingly out on the seventh to take a 7-5, 7-5 loss against Italy’s underdog Maria-Elena Camerin. In the first round, rising Croatian sensation Karolina Sprem followed up on a semifinal loss last week in Berlin to Venus Williams, hammering sinking Slovak Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-2.
