Hewitt Beats Montanes At Wimbledon (2008)

Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt has progressed to the third round at Wimbledon, after a commanding win over Spain’s Albert Montanes.  Casey Dellacqua is the only other Australian to progress to the third round.

Hewitt is the No.20 seed, and has been battling a hip injury.  He recovered from a tough five-setter against Dutchman Robin Haase in the opening round to beat Montanes 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 6-2 in windy conditions.

“It was good to get through in straight sets,” said Hewitt, who looked to be in some pain from the hip as he entered his post-match press conference.

But he said he was content with the way the injury had pulled up after the first round.

“The first set was difficult … it was hard to get into his service games,” he said of Wednesday’s match.

“He’s got a very underrated serve – it’s not the best serve, it’s not the biggest out there, but it’s very hard to do anything with.

“As the match went on, though, I felt more and more comfortable with how I was playing.”

The 2002 champion will next meet Italy’s Simone Bolelli, who upset 15th-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (9-7) 3-6 7-6 (7-4).

Hewitt claimed two set points on Montanes’ serve in the first-set tiebreak and converted the first when the Spaniard sent a backhand long.

He maintained his momentum to completely steamroll Montanes in the second set before claiming an early break of serve in the third.

Montanes never recovered and Hewitt broke him again in the seventh game to earn the right to serve for the match.

Hewitt won the next game to love, sealing victory with an ace, delighting a vocal band of supporters in the crowd.

There had been trouble in the stands earlier, however, when two men were escorted away by security guards for unruly behaviour.

One of the men was later arrested by Metropolitan Police.

Dellacqua beat Pauline Parmentier of France 1-6 6-2 6-3 to set up a third-round clash with 18th-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova, with whom she shares a 1-1 head-to-head record.