Two former United States Open champions, both strong-willed competitors and veterans of the spotlight, carried on late into Friday night in one of the most dramatic contests of the early stages of the Open.
After a day of mostly tidy business as usual, the prime-time matchup of sixth-seeded Juan MartÃn del Potro and Lleyton Hewitt was highly anticipated, even if it did not have the current brand name figures of the sport. It was still the charismatic del Potro, the winner here in 2009, and Hewitt, a perennial contender whose backward cap and spunkiness fans have come to adore.
Their performance surpassed its billing. Hewitt, 32, from Australia, outlasted del Potro, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
"It's an amazing feeling," Hewitt said. "I love being out in that atmosphere, soaking up every second of it."
From the outset, both players seemed to nestle into their comfort zones. Hewitt was serving to win the second set, ahead by 5-4, but he double-faulted to bring the game back to deuce — a severe miscue that cost him. Del Potro wound up winning the game and rallied to take the set, 7-5.
From there, it was back and forth, neither player sustaining momentum for more than a game or even a point. Del Potro struggled with his backhand, but his powerful forehand was crisp. Hewitt, who won here 12 years ago, played like the grizzled bulldog he has become known as.
"He's a great champion and a great fighter," del Potro said of Hewitt. "For the second round, it's a really difficult player."
Two hours and 45 minutes into the match, it could not have been tighter: both players had 105 points. After del Potro won the third set, he fought off two break points to hold serve and even the fourth set at 3-3. Both players wound up exchanging breaks and the set went to a tiebreaker.
There, Hewitt played at his sharpest, jumping ahead, 6-0, before winning, 7-2. He committed only four unforced errors in the fifth set, and del Potro fell flat.
"I just kept fighting and putting it out there," Hewitt said. "I kept coming at him the whole night. I felt like I was seeing the ball well. Felt like I played a good game plan."
Earlier in the evening, the defending champion, Andy Murray, became the highest seed to drop a set at the Open, and for a moment it looked as if Leonardo Mayer of Argentina could push the match to its brink.
But the third-seeded Murray rebounded with a fourth set more typical of him, beating Mayer, 7-5, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Against the hard-hitting Mayer, Murray made seven unforced errors, while Mayer was superb with his forehand and turned up the intensity of his serves, notching five aces. The match stretched well past two hours.
"I was a bit frustrated at points in the match," Murray said. "I was doing quite a lot of the running for a lot of it, and wasn't getting quite as much depth on my returns. You don't feel like you're dictating the match. It can be a little frustrating."
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic needed a tiebreaker to win the first set in a 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-2 victory over Benjamin Becker of Germany. Djokovic admitted he had trouble adjusting to the winds and conditions early in the match, but it hardly sounded like cause for alarm.
"It was very tough," he said. "It was a lot of unforced errors, very windy conditions. You couldn't really read and predict where the ball is going to go, so you have to be very alert. At the start I had difficulty with my footwork. But, you know, I won the set, and after that, it was much, much better."
Also advancing was No. 12 seed Tommy Haas, who beat the qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3). Haas, 35, is playing in the rare over-30 crowd, now enthusiastically joined by Li Na.
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