Lleyton Hewitt said he was feeling fresh ahead of his 15th Australian Open after a rain-interrupted 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win over Mikhail Youzhny at the Kooyong Classic Wednesday. With the flood tragedy unfolding away to the north in Queensland, poor weather was also affecting Melbourne.
Hewitt's match was delayed by rain for 90 minutes in the second set before the former world number one returned to court to earn a victory at the eight-man tune-up for the Open, which starts Monday. The 29-year-old has never played in the Kooyong Classic, preferring ATP tournaments as warm-ups prior to the first major of the season. "I knew I'd get three good matches here, it's a good field," he said. "You can't buy matches like the one I just had. This is how you get match tough and that's what you have to be for the Open.
"I feel I can compete with most guys now, I had hard weeks of training after my (elbow) injury in September. I'm fresh and feel pretty good. That's a good sign at age 29." Frenchman Gael Monfils also began his season on a positive note with his third straight win over Spain's Fernando Verdasco to open the four-day event. In the day's final match which finished in fading light, Russian Nikolay Davydenko defeated Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, with Davydenko lining up a promotion round match Thursday with Hewitt. Monfils, whose last competitive outing came as a losing Davis Cup finalist last month against Serbia, pulled back from the brink after dropping the opening set to win 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
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