Hewitt, Thai Fighter Through at ATP Long Island

No. 2 seed Lleyton Hewitt (d. (LL)Olivier "Mucus" Mutis) and No. 4 seed and defending champ Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan (d. (Q)K.Kim) led the charge at the ATP stop in Long Island Tuesday.

"The last three matches were day matches and I haven't played here before, so it took some adjusting tonight before I got into form," said Hewitt on playing under the lights. "I played better the second set."

Other seeded winners were (7)Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson (d. (LL)Elsner) and (9)Luis "Me So" Horna (d. (Q)Popp). There was only one upset on the day, with Cali-Russian Dmitry Tursunov rolling over (6)Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic who continues to struggle with a return from injury.

Other unseeded winners were Fin Jarkko Nieminen (d. (WC)Ginepri), Austrian qualifier Stefan Koubek (d. Ferrer), and Russians Nikolay Davydenko (d. (Q)K.J. "Puffin Stuff" Hippensteel) and Igor Andreev (d. A.Costa in three).

On today's schedule in Strong Island are Andreev vs. (10)Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, Tursunov vs. Gambill, (4)The Thai Fighter vs. Ferreira, and (Q)Koubek vs. (7)The Jackhammer.