Lleyton Hewitt was given a huge fright by recharged American James Blake yesterday before living to fight for another day in his dream of winning his home Australian Open.
The Australian third seed triumphed 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-0, 6-3 in 2hr 35min on Rod Laver Arena center court.
PHOTO: AFP
He was up against an inspired performance from world No.94 Blake, who engaged Hewitt in two five-set battles at the US Open in 2001-2002. Hewitt now leads him 6-1 overall.
PHOTO: AP
Hewitt is bidding to become the first Australian man to win his home grand slam since Mark Edmondson last achieved it in 1976 when the Open was held at Kooyong.
The former Wimbledon and US Open champion's next opponent in the third round is Argentine 25th seed Juan Ignacio Chela.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The 23-year-old former world number one has yet to get past the round of 16 at the year's first grand-slam tournament.
Blake earned the admiration of the tennis world when he emerged from a traumatic 2004, recovering from a broken neck in a collision with a net-post during practice in Rome last May and then saw his father die of cancer in July.
Harvard-educated Blake's last tournament was in mid-September in Delray Beach, Florida, although he prepared for the Open in the mixed teams' Hopman Cup in Perth, but he had foreshadowed he would produce a big effort against Hewitt and he didn't disappoint.
Blake played above himself in the first couple of sets until the momentum switched decisively early in the third set.
The American broke Hewitt's service in the ninth game of the first set when the third seed attempted an elaborate chip cross-court only to net on breakpoint. Blake served out strongly for the opening set.
It was compelling tennis as Blake had the local hope under immense pressure with deep penetrating forehands and he broke Hewitt's serve a second time in the fifth game when the world No. 3 double-faulted.
Hewitt hit back straight away, getting to 0-40 on Blake's service and taking the break when the American's forehand was long.
Blake again broke the Australian's serve in the 11th game and was serving for a two sets to love lead when Hewitt broke straight back with a sensational return that forced Blake's volley into the net.
The tiebreaker was a classic. Blake got the early mini-break on a Hewitt double-fault, but Hewitt got it back to 3-3.
Blake worked to set point 6-5 but netted a service return as fortunes fluctuated.
Hewitt held two separate set points, but Blake fought them off and made a fantastic service return to 8-8 and celebrated by mocking the Australian's trademark hand-salute to the crowd's glee.
But Hewitt got to his third set point and took the set with a tremendous rally that left Blake sprawled off-court without his racquet as he dived to keep the ball in play injuring a finger in the process.
That pumped up the Australian who advanced towards the players' box where his entourage was sitting and thumped his chest and screamed in jubilation.
Hewitt got the jump with a triple service break to reel off the third set in 31 minutes to seize control of the match.
Hewitt broke Blake again in the third game of the fourth set and fought off a break point in the sixth game to take the match.
Dementieva fights back
Russian Elena Dementieva beat compatriot Anna Chakvetadze 6-2 6-1 to reach the third round of the Australian Open yesterday and then drew a line under the drugs rumors that had affected her at the start of the tournament.
Dementieva, along with Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy, were inadvertently implicated when a Belgian sports minister revealed that there had been a positive test at a four-woman exhibition event in the city of Charleroi in December.
The minister, Claude Eerde-kens, eventually named another Russian, US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova as the culprit, though she was cleared by the Women's Tennis Association because ephedrine, the drug concerned, is not on the banned list when taken out of competition.
However, Dementieva and Dechy both vented their anger at being implicated.
But though she reiterated that she would not be talking to Kuznetsova, Dementieva said she had moved on.
"The story is over for me now," she said.
The 23-year-old, runner-up at the French Open and US Open last year, said she had received a lot of positive reaction from her fellow players.
Dementieva lost in the first round of the Australian Open in both 2003 and last year but said she hoped to continue her good form throughout the event.
The sixth seed now plays Daniela Hantuchova, the 26th seed from Slovakia, for a place in the last 16.
Venus through
American Venus Williams eased into the third round of the Aus-tralian Open with a 6-3 6-1 win over Chinese amateur Peng Shuai yesterday and declared she was on course to have a shot at winning the tournament.
The eighth-seeded Williams made a nervous start when she dropped her opening service game but quickly stamped her authority on the match to seal victory in one hour, 12 minutes.
"You can't expect every match to be perfect but it still was a very good match because I got to hit a lot of balls," Williams said.
Her last appearance in a final was at the 2003 Australian Open when she lost to her sister Serena but she has lost none of her well-known confidence.
"No matter what happens, whether you played well, whether you played badly, whether you made good decisions or bad ones, mentally you always have to feel like it's your turn to take to win," she said.
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