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Hewitt crushes Safin
04/03/2008 09:36 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Defending champion and second seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia crushed Russian Marat Safin 6-2 6-1 in the Las Vegas Open first round on Monday.
Hewitt converted four of six break points and won 83% of his first serve points to clinch victory in 58 minutes.
"I knew I was going to have to be on my game from the
start," Hewitt told reporters. "I was able to get up that early break in both sets, which is important."
Safin double-faulted three times and made just 40%
of his first serve points.
Hewitt became only the second man, after American Andre
Agassi, to win the Las Vegas title three times with a
straight-sets victory over Austrian Juergen Melzer in last
year's final.
Earlier, fourth seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina
maintained his perfect record against Thomas Johansson by
beating the Swede 6-3 7-6.
The 30-year-old from Buenos Aires won two break points
outfive to seal victory in just over an hour-and-a-half on the
Stadium Court.
Canas, sidelined for 15 months for a doping ban before
returning to action in September 2006, has never lost to
Johansson in three career meetings.
Eighth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer, a finalist in Las Vegas in
2004, fired down eight aces to beat fellow German Benjamin
Becker 6-4 6-3.
Kiefer, who was sidelined for the first half of last year
with a wrist injury, is making his first ATP appearance since
losing in the Australian Open first round in January.
In other matches, unseeded American Sam Querrey scraped
past Sebastien Grosjean of France 6-2 4-6 7-6 and Russian
Evgeny Korolev, a surprise semi-finalist last year, beat
Argentina's Sergio Roitman 6-4 4-6 6-3.
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Rugby
