Stockholm, Oct 24: Wimbledon champion and world number one Lleyton Hewitt plunged into further despair when he slumped to a 3-6, 3-6, defeat to Dutchman Raemon Sluiter in the second round of the 650,000 dollar Stockholm Open. Just a week after illness forced him to miss the Masters Event in Madrid, the 21-year-old Australian put in a poor performance which would not have improved his mood as he tries to resist Andre Agassi`s assault on his world top spot. Agassi, a winner yesterday at St Petersburg, went into the Russian event trailing the Australian by just 43 points after claiming the Madrid title at the weekend. Hewitt went down an early break in the opening set yesterday and could never recover as Sluiter recovered from 0-30 in the final game to win the opener 6-3. The underdog began with a break in the second, lost it in the fourth, but recovered quickly as Hewitt double-faulted to give it back, 3-4.


Sluiter went into a 5-3 lead with a love game and waited patiently as the desperate Hewitt saved three match points with serve winners before double-faulting on a fourth to lose.


"I didn`t feel 100 per cent, but I`ve been getting better gradually," he said. "I felt right to play.”



Bureau Report