Lleyton Hewitt Sends Del Potro Home

4 months ago 26th Jun 10:18

Lleyton Hewitt pulled off the shock result of the tournament so far as he sent Juan Martin Del Potro crashing out of the competition in the second round.

The popular Aussie and former champion has come into some great former after recovering from hip surgery last year but Del Potro, the fifth seed, was expected to come through the match.

The big hitting Argentinean was looking to make it to the third round for the very first time after a great run to the semi-finals at the French Open just a couple of weeks ago.

But it was Hewitt, who had masses of Aussie support on his side in Centre Court, that made the better and more confident start.

He held his ground against the big hitting Del Potro, still showing the speed that had brought his the Wimbledon crown back in 2002, his chance coming in the fifth game as he broke to take a 4-2 lead.

Hewitt saved break points on his own serve before taking the first set in impressive style 6-3.

Del Porto called the trainer onto the court to the court at the end of the first set to have his knee taped.

And while many would expect Hewitt's level to drop due to his lack of match play the Aussie did no such thing as he rolled back the years.

The second set was a tighter affair as both players struggled to break the other's serve, and while Hewitt was struggling with his first serve percentage, they were all square at 5-5.

But the moment seemed to get to the twenty year old Del Potro as he double faulted then hit a forehand into the net to give Hewitt the break that he had been looking for and he served for the set.

Nothing seemed to be going the way of Del Potro as he dropped his serve at the beginning of the third set and despite facing break points himself Hewitt wrapped up an impressive victory 6-3 7-5 7-5.

He will now play Philipp Petzschner in the next round.

Andy Roddick also progressed into the third round after a four set victory over Igor Kunitsyn as he once again stormed through the first two sets before losing his concentration in the third.

He regained his composure in the fourth powering through to seal the victory 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2.

Gilles Simon also dropped a set as he saw off Thiago Alves 5-7 6-3 6-4 6-4. There were also wins for Fernando Gonzales, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tomas Berdych and Nikolay Davydenko.