TENNIS - AUSTRALIAN OPEN (MEN)
Hewitt survives collapse to beat Baghdatis
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Home favourite Lleyton Hewitt survived a stunning collapse in the early hours of Sunday morning to beat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 7-5 7-5 6-7 6-3 in a titanic third-round clash at the Australian Open.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
By Reuters
MELBOURNE, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Home favourite Lleyton Hewitt
survived a stunning collapse in the early hours of Sunday
morning to beat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 7-5 7-5 6-7 6-3 in
a titanic third-round clash at the Australian Open.
In a match that ended at 4.33am, the latest finish at a
grand slam event, Hewitt blew a 5-1 lead in the fourth set and
a match point at 5-2 but recovered to win the decider and line
up a meeting with third seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
"I should have closed it out in the fourth set when I was
playing well," Hewitt said in a courtside interview.
"But it's one of my best wins, mentally, to come back and
beat him in the fifth set so I am pretty proud."
Baghdatis, the 2006 runner-up and 15th seed, eased through
the first set but Hewitt levelled and came from 5-3 down to win
the third before storming ahead 5-1 in the fourth.
After failing to serve out, 19th seed Hewitt forced a match
point at 5-2 but collapsed horribly as Baghdatis took the set
on the tiebreak.
Somehow, though, the Australian recovered his poise,
breaking in the fifth game of the decider to lead 3-2.
He missed three more match points in the ninth game before
finally clinching victory, breaking to win after four hours, 45
minutes and sinking to his knees after hitting a forehand
winner.
"It was hard because up to 5-1 he couldn't really hit a
ball in the court in the fourth set," Hewitt said.
"But to his credit he starts playing loose and starts going
for his shots, going for big first serves on big points. I
probably didn't have my two best service games and he took
advantage. I am just happy to get through."
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