Hewitt Meekly Exits Oz Open; ATP Names New Head

"Maybe all these three years, I freshened up a little," Hingis said of her time off the tour. "I'm just really enjoying every second of being around here."

No. 2 seed Kim Clijsters once again overcame her painful hip injury to advance into the third round, benefiting from a Chinese opponent from the qualifying ranks whose only strategy seemed to be hitting the ball down the center of the court, allowing the Belgian an ease of movement to apply her trade.

"I feel like I'm a little bit restricted, especially with the serve," said Clijsters, who defeated Yuan Meng 6-4, 6-2. "I feel like I'm just using my arm out there. I feel like I'm not really doing too much with my movement. But overall I feel like I'm hitting the ball well. I'm hitting the ball clean, I'm seeing the ball well. That's why it's even more frustrating because just imagine if I would be feeling fine. It would be a great feeling to have, just playing well and not having too many other things going on."

Other seeded winners were (3) Amelie Mauresmo (d. Loit), (7) Patty Schnyder (d. Asagoe), (12) Anastasia Myskina (d. Jackson in three), (15) Francesca Schiavone (d. Castano in three), (16) Nicole Vaidisova (d. Chakvetadze), and (20) Flavia Pennetta (d. Sucha, bagel in the second).

Myskina struggled mightily in the heat with her breathing, using an inhaler on the changeovers during a second-set 0-6 loss to come back and win in three.

Six other seeds met their demise Thursday in the mid-90s heat in (19) Dinara Safina (l. to Swede Sofia Arvidsson, bagel in the second), (21) Ana Ivanovic (l. to Sam Stosur), (22) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (l. to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-1 in the third), (27) Marion Bartoli (l. to Roberta Vinci in three), (31) Gisela Dulko (l. to Aiko Nakamura 1-and-1), and (32) Sania Mirza (l. to Michaella Krajicek).

"I think the match was pretty winnable, but that is how it is," said Mirza who played with a taped knee. "It is hard when you are not playing your best tennis and the other girl's coming from winning a tournament...The bottom line is I did not play up to my standard and did not play well. Of course I'd love to have done better. But it's the beginning of the year and I just have to put it behind me."

In the only other all-unseeded meeting on the day, Austria's Sybille Bammer joined Hingis in the third round, straight-setting China's Yan Zi.

Scheduled for Friday in Melbourne are (4) Maria Sharapova vs. the Croat Kostanic, (1) Davenport vs. (25) Kirilenko, (17) Hantuchova vs. (13) Serena, (8) Henin-Hardenne vs. Razzano, (14) Kuznetsova vs. Santangelo, Vesnina vs. Savchuk, Granville vs. Ruano Pascual, and (6) Petrova vs. Camerin.

Struggling Hewitt Exits, Federer Rolls at Australian Open

A subdued No. 3 seed Lleyton Hewitt meekly exited the Australian Open late Thursday night, displaying none of his trademark fist-pumping or feistiness in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-2 loss to unseeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela.

The match was a switch from the pair's meeting last year at the Oz Open where Chela was fined for spitting in the direction of Hewitt, with the Argentine one of Hewitt's victims en route to a run onto the semifinals.

In the third set the decidedly unaggressive Hewitt received treatment from the trainer for blisters on his feet, and was limping by the end of the third set.

Hewitt needed eight set points to close out the Argentine in the third set, but in the fourth was no match for the baseline accuracy of Chela in a match ending after 7 a.m. (EST).

Swiss world No. 1 Roger Federer led the seeded winners Thursday with a scarily-efficient 6-1, 6-4, 6-0 win over German Florian Mayer.

"It's so nice to get quick matches in the heat," said Federer, who next faces former doubles partner Max "The Beast" Mirnyi. "If I keep on playing the way I am, not losing too much energy out on the court, maybe it's going to pay back eventually."

Other seeded winners Thursday were (5) Nikolay Davydenko (d. K.Kim in four), (6) Guillermo Coria (d. Luzzi), (12) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. D.Norman 10-8 in the fifth), (15) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Tipsarevic 6-2 in the fifth), (21) Nicolas Kiefer (d. Pashanski in four), (23) Igor Andreev (d. Sluiter 6-2 in the fifth), (25) Sebastien Grosjean (d. Monaco), and (30) Max Mirnyi (d. Sanguinetti in four).

Former No. 2-ranked German Tommy Haas continued his torrid play in leading the unseeded winners into the third round, dropping only three games against American Paul Goldstein.

Other un-seeds into the third round were upset-makers Peter Luczak of Australia (d. (24) O.Rochus 6-1 in the fifth) and Belgian Kristof Vliegen (d. (28) Verdasco in four), Aussie Nathan Healey (d. Delic in four), Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. Bogomolov Jr., bagel in the first), and Peru's Luis Horna (d. Phau).

On court Friday in Melbourne are (2) Roddick vs. Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau, (16) Robredo vs. (20) Blake, (8) Gaudio vs. Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro, (4) Nalbandian vs. (26) Nieminen, (18) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. (11) Ferrer, (7) Ljubicic vs. (31) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, (10) T.Johansson vs. Simon, and the Ginepri-killer Gremelmayr vs. Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis.

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
With Lleyton Hewitt ousted, the top half of the draw is officially U-G-L-Y, meaning Roger Federer is going to be playing a lot of night matches...Martina Hingis is back. So back that with the draw opening up for her she should be going into the second week...Aussie wildcards Peter Luzcak and Nathan Healey have reached the third round, both of whom are from Melbourne...Dominik Hrbaty has needed five sets in both match wins, good thing he's wearing that shirt with the holes in the back. Gaston Gaudio meanwhile has lost just 10 games total...Just a reminder that Roger Federer is one of the fastest players in tennis. If you could get to every ball with plenty of time to spare, imagine the crap you could come up with...Serena Williams has won 16 straight matches at the Australian Open...Roger Federer has won 47 straight on hardcourts, which is an Open Era record...Guillermo Coria said he wasn't going to watch the Hewitt-Chela match because he was going to the player party at the Grand Hyatt Thursday night. Nice support...Ivan Ljubicic has never made it past the third round at a Grand Slam...Kudos to ESPN for putting together the Roger Federer "Funhouse" best points. That kind of animation hasn't been seen in U.S. sports since the NCAA tournament in the late 80s early 90s...Thomas Johansson and Andy Roddick are the lone one-time Slam winners on the bottom half of the draw...Players who win Friday and Saturday will have to play in extreme 100+ degree heat on Sunday and Monday...Martina Hingis has lost the fewest number of games in the tournament...Think if Roger Federer took three years off and then came back, could he could defeat the No. 30 seed in this case Max Mirnyi with ease? Doubt it...Kim Clijsters now says her back hurts, and adds that if it were a non-Slam event she would have pulled out. With her draw, she should pull right before she plays Hingis?...Three qualifiers have reached the third round in Denis Gremelmayr, Julien Benneteau and Gilles Simon...Kim Clijsters has won 9 straight Grand Slam matches, Roger Federer 16...If he wins Friday, Andy Roddick will headline the first Sunday night session in Australian Open history...From the AP: "Damir Dokic, her father, was quoted in newspaper reports from Serbia that he planned to kidnap Jelena. He also threatened to kill an Australian who helped his daughter return to the country, and vowed revenge against the country by bombing it. He apparently later denied making those statements when contacted by an Australian radio station. On Thursday, Jelena Dokic, through her London-based management company, released a statement in Melbourne calling her father's comments "yet another unfortunate distraction around my return to Australia and competitive tennis.""...What is the consensus, is anyone digging the Nike Pregnant Dress debuted this week during the Oz Open by players such as Maria Sharapova and Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem?...From the ATP on promoting Etienne de Villiers to head of the organization, replacing former CEO Mark Miles: "The [ATP] Board initially planned to hire a Chairman and CEO to replace outgoing CEO Mark Miles, who retired at the end of 2005. Instead, de Villiers will oversee a small office of ATP executives in London and work with regional CEOs in the three ATP offices in Monte Carlo, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida and Sydney. Those three CEOs will be Brad Drewett (International), Horst Klosterkemper (Europe) and the newly appointed Mark Young (Americas), who will continue to serve as the ATP General Counsel." Oooh -- all three of those appointments are sketchy for inside reasons that would get us sued (by Young, the ATP lawyer) if we told you...From the Herald Sun: "But there have been several memorable outfits sported by the ladies that have caught the eye of the Herald Sun. Some stood out for their fashion forwardness, and some for their lack thereof. Maria Kirilenko opened at the tennis with a best-in-show. The blonde beauty from Moscow was the chosen one to display the new wares from Sir Paul's fashion designer daughter Stella McCartney, who recently joined ranks with adidas to produce a range of outfits. The tennis dress is striking, with its low-cut draped front, three-tiered pleated hemline and fluoro-orange sports bra and undershorts. Serena Williams can usually be counted on for bringing out the big guns at the start of the tennis year. But all she has contributed this Open is a shocking pair of tight white pants and a magenta gem necklace that also dispenses lip gloss."...From The Age on the face-painted and flag-waving countryman fandom at this year's Oz Open: ""It's unbelievable," [Mario] Ancic said after his three-set win over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic. "It doesn't matter if you play centre court, at Vodafone or the outside court, it's always like this." The same support did not save Karolina Sprem from defeat by top women's seed Lindsay Davenport -- but did bring a plea from officials to quieten down. Moments after Ancic won, his fans -- who were also celebrating another Croatian, Ivan Ljubicic, advancing to the third round -- joined supporters of other countries in the beer garden at Melbourne Park. In a time where tension between different ethnic groups has erupted in Australia, races got along nicely as the Croatians mixed with their Greek counterparts, still revelling in the five-set victory of Marcus Baghdatis of Cyprus. On one occasion, both fans joined and sang "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi." "The only bad spirits I have seen were at the bar," joked one Ancic supporter, Petar Nikulic, of Altona Meadows. Baghdatis' fans were especially vocal as he fought for more than three hours to beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic. Arthur Koutoulas was one of around 50 members of the Hellas Fan Club cheering him on. "It would have motivated him," Mr. Koutoulas said. Fellow fan club member Andreas Pierides added: "We give him everything we've got and he appreciates it." That included a number of Greek chants, some not suitable to print in a newspaper. One that was suitable was: "I will never stop singing for you." "It sounds better in Greek," said Mr. Pierides. The umpire didn't agree, warning the supporters on several occasions during the final set to tone it down. Not to be outdone, the Swedish contingent -- waiting for countryman Thomas Johansson to play -- painted Melbourne Park blue and yellow. "This is the best tournament of all," said Mikael Ekholm, who now calls Brunswick home. Joining him was Anders Svennson, who just touched down in Australia. "I have been here for 24 hours," he said with a beer in hand. "It's great." In full voice on centre court yesterday afternoon were some loud American fans. As the red, white and blue paint splashed on their backs suggested, they were "getting rowdy for [Andy] Roddick." Strangest of all is a group of eight Melbourne supporters backing Germany's Lars Burgsmuller, who bowed out yesterday. Fan Alex Benton explains: "It started out as a piss-take but now we have to support him because he's become part of our life. "We were here last year supporting him and again this year.""...From the UK Sport Telegraph's Martin Johnson's "Bottom line for the media is the size of Serena's bloomers": "The Australian Open is full of talking points -- Can [Roger] Federer be beaten? Is [Lleyton] Hewitt a spent force? Will [Martina] Hingis really make a comeback? But the biggest debate by far has been about the size of Serena Williams' bottom...Some of the comments have been a little unkind, only just stopping short of the suggestion that when she hangs her underwear on the washing line, people driving past think they're en route to the airport on account of the windsock fluttering in the breeze. And that's not to mention the rest of her. When she said she intended to celebrate her victory in the first round by going back to her hotel room for a spot of dancing, the occupants below must have spent the evening dodging plaster falling from the ceiling...She has always been what you might call generously proportioned, though the biographical section in the official women's tennis guide puts her weight at 9st 9lb. The guide is available in all good bookshops, but with this kind of entry you'd be less likely to find it on the sports shelves as the fiction section. It's just as well the Chilean player Marcelos Rios is no longer around. He caused a stir here some years ago when he got stuck behind Monica Seles in the canteen queue and told her to "move her fat arse." Not as much of a stir as it might have done elsewhere, mind you, as in Australia this almost qualifies as a proposal of marriage."...From Brad Gilbert writing for The Age: "Ten years ago, I worked with Martina Hingis for a couple of weeks. It was an illuminating time. I thought it would be a good idea for her to throw a football to strengthen her arm to serve. She'd never thrown a football before, so she watched my son throw a couple of times, picked it up and had a go. She didn't throw it well. Martina got really mad at herself. She watched my son throw it again, then picked it up and the improvement was amazing. By the end of the week she was throwing a tight spiral. She was like, "I don't do anything bad.""...WTA Tour sponsor Sony Ericsson has reported a 28 percent rise in sales...Isn't Lleyton Hewitt's coach Roger Rasheed a tough manly-man for threatening Juan Ignacio Chela ahead of his charge's match? Time to cut back on the steroids Rog...Too bad Kim Clijsters is struggling with the hip injury as the Belgian is looking especially slim and in shape in Melbourne...Aussie player Casey Dellacqua responding to accusations by countrywoman Nicole Pratt that she is fat: "For me, this past year has been really hard. I haven't had much support at all. I've travelled a lot by myself and haven't had a coach all year. I've got where I've got purely by myself. I play squash, swim, do weights, and love kicking a football around because I'm not one of those who finds running exciting. But I know I'm a long way from where I need to be. I've been singled out in this situation and that's fair enough. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I know that (fitness) was the key when I played Lindsay (Davenport). To hear it is kind of motivating. You can take it two ways. I could get disheartened and down in the dumps, but why would I want to do that? I'm hitting the ball great and feel great so I want to get out there and work hard and become better."