Paris, May 28: Top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia wasted three match points before battling past American Brian Vahaly 6-4 6-1 6-7 6-3 in the first round of the French Open in Paris on Tuesday (May 27). Briefly dethroned as world number one by American Andre Agassi last month, the Australian looked far from convincing as he toiled for more than three hours on the slow red clay to overcome an opponent ranked 76th in the world. After winning a closely contested first set in 55 minutes, Hewitt showed Vahaly no mercy in the second, unleashing a series of devastating forehand winners from the baseline. But Hewitt lost his touch in the next set and wasted three match points in the tiebreak -- hitting a double fault on the third -- before losing it 8-6. Hewitt responded in the fourth set by breaking Vahaly's serve twice to take a 4-0 lead. Vahaly retrieved one break by taking Hewitt's serve in the 8th game to trail 5-3, but Hewitt broke the American again in the next to wrap up victory in three hours, 13 minutes.


Hewitt will face Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the second round after he beat Greg Rusedski of Britain 6-3 7-5 6-2.


Women's third seed Venus Williams of the USA struggled in her match against compatriot Samantha Reeves before progressing to the second round with a 6-2 6-4 win.


In a match littered with double faults, unforced errors and service breaks, Williams eventually clinched victory over the 108th-ranked Reeves after 80 minutes.


In an entertaining encounter, 14th seed Sebastien Grosjean of France beat Adrian Voinea of Romania 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 6-3. The Frenchman will meet either Alexander Waske of Germany or Spaniard Fernando Vicente in the second round.


Bureau Report