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Hewitt battles to win on return

Lleyton Hewitt has been out of action since the Australian Open in January © Getty Images

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Lleyton Hewitt's return from injury was a successful one - eventually - after a tense 1-6 6-0 7-6 victory over Somdev Devvarman at the Clay Court Championship in Houston.

The Australian is a wildcard entry but also fourth-seed at his first tournament since hip surgery after the Australian Open. He is defending champion in Houston and he had to work hard to knock out lucky loser Devvarman in a see-sawing second round match.

After a slow start, Hewitt found form and gave up just two points in the second set. He raced to an early break in the decider, but Devvarman pulled that one, and then a second, before going ahead with his break to make it 6-5. Hewitt dug out a third break of the set and his sixth of the match to force a tie-breaker, which he claimed with relative ease.

Hewitt said: "It's going to take a few weeks to get my movement back to where I want it to be. My game at the Australian Open I was moving as well as I ever moved. To get back to that, there's still a little bit of work to do ahead of us, but we're on the right track and hopefully things can continue improving, and I can get matches under my belt."

No. 2 seed John Isner was the big casualty on Thursday as Xavier Malisse won an all-tie-breaker epic 7-6 6-7 7-6. Matches with the giant American Isner can be serve-dominant given his power with the ball on his racquet combined with his lack of mobility when receiving, and that was the case in this match. Each player did achieve two breaks, but they matched up in the first and second sets to leave each in the hands of a decider.

Top seed Fernando Gonzales was also taken to three sets, but he was able to see off Kevin Anderson 6-4 4-6 6-4 by converting his only two break points. Anderson was unable to create any opening outside of the second set in another match played out from the service line.

Sam Querrey had a much easier progression than his fellow surviving seeds, beating Blaz Kavcic 6-2 6-1 in an hour. Sixth-seed Horacio Zeballos moved through with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over Dudi Sela. Wayne Odensik was the other winner, pleasing the American fans with a 6-1 7-5 win over Mikhail Kukushkin.

Meanwhile at the Grand Pirx Hassan II in Casablanca, top seed Stanislas Wawrinka moved through despite a mid-match collapse 6-4 0-6 6-4 at the expense of Martin Klizan.

Third-seed Victor Hanescu took out Jarkko Nieminen 2-6 6-3 6-2, while Richard Gasquet dominated Andrey Golubev 6-1 6-1.

There was a huge upset as top-100 player Jan Hajek lost to an opponent ranked over 200 places below him in local Reda El Amrani. The 21-year-old Casablanca-born player battled to a 6-3 2-6 6-2 victory.

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