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Journalism of Courage
Lleyton Hewitt and Mary Pierce needed all their experience and determination to survive second round scares at the U.S. Open on Thursday, both former-Grand Slam winners battling back to register wins.
Sixth seed Hewitt, who has battled indifferent form since his shock first-round loss at Wimbledon, recovered from a sluggish start as he grunted and growled his way past South Korea’s Lee Hyung-taik 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
“For me the first few rounds are toughest,” said Hewitt, the 2001 U.S. Open champion. “But I know what you have to do to win Slams, I’m through to the third round, I can’t complain.
“Obviously Wimbledon was a hiccup and I’ll try to bounce back at the last major.” Fighting back to fitness following two injury plagued seasons, a beefy Pierce showed glimpses of the power game that helped her to win Grand Slam titles at the Australian and French Opens.
The Frenchwoman clawed out a 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 win over 22nd seed Jelena Dokic in draining two-hour performance on a sun-baked centre court.
Men’s 11th seed Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand had a much easier passage, brushing past Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 while 33rd seed Juan Ignacio Chela tamed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
Having dealt with abdominal, back and ankle injuries over the last two years, the 28 year-old Frenchwoman appeared to relish her time back in the spotlight.
Pierce cracked a sly smile when she broke Dokic with a cheeky drop volley to jump into a 5-2 lead on her way to taking the opening set.
But at 5-4 and serving for the match, Pierce could not close out the second set.
She squandered a match point and allowed Dokic to level the contest after the Yugoslav won the tiebreak 7-5.
With Dokic storming to a 5-2 lead in the third and serving for the match, Pierce appeared to be on her way out.
But the 64th ranked Pierce dug deep into her reserves, breaking the Yugoslav twice and forced the match to a decisive tiebreak.
This time Pierce grabbed her opportunity, taking the tiebreak 7-5 when Dokic’s return sailed wide and long.
Pierce will now await the survivor of the match between Tathiana Garbin of Italy and Japan’s Shinobu Asagoe. (Reuters)
