MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—It took five years and another five grueling sets, but David Nalbandian finally got his own back against Lleyton Hewitt.
The 29-year-old Argentine ended the former No. 1-ranked Hewitt’s hopes for a comeback at his home Grand Slam in a first-round struggle that lasted 4 hours, 48 minutes at the Australian Open.
It went to five sets, as their quarterfinals marathon did here in 2005, when Hewitt won en route to the final.
It also reversed the pair’s only other Grand Slam meeting, when Hewitt took Nalbandian apart in three sets in the 2002 Wimbledon final.
Both players are looking more like workhorse veterans these days. Hewitt has struggled to regain the form that saw him top the rankings in 2001-02; Nalbandian has 11 career titles, though the Wimbledon final remains his highest Grand Slam achievement.
“I cannot talk, I’m too tired,” Nalbandian said courtside after the match, which began around dinner time Tuesday and ended shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday. “Every time we play it’s long matches, tough ones. He’s a real fighter.”
Both players’ fortunes swung wildly during the match. Nalbandian was serving to win in the fifth set, though Hewitt rallied and had two break points before the momentum switched again and the Argentinean won in a tiebreaker. Along the way, Nalbandian had muscle cramps in both the front and back of his legs.
“It’s disappointing to come so close and fight for so long and not be able to quite get the win,” a clearly frustrated Hewitt said.
Hewitt showed flashes of the fiery temperament that marked his heyday, crashing in aces at key times in the fifth set and giving his signature salute. But he failed to capitalize on his opportunities—he converted only seven of 30 breakpoint chances.
Hewitt, who turns 30 next month, is running out of chances to win his national championship. He shares the record for 15 consecutive appearances at the tournament, and his finals appearance in 2005 is the nearest any Australian man has come to the title since Mark Edmondson won it in 1976.
Hip surgery last year saw Hewitt drop out of the top 50 rankings for the first time since 1999, though he had a positive start to 2011, winning two of his three Hopman Cup singles matches and the Kooyong Classic before coming to the open.
French Comeback: When Jo-Wilfried Tsonga returns to the scene of his greatest Grand Slam performance, he likes to outdo himself.
Back in 2008, Tsonga was hailed as the upset king who toppled four highly-ranked players on his surprise run to the Australian Open final, which he lost to Novak Djokovic. It remains his best result at a major.
On Tuesday, the 25-year-old Frenchman made his first comeback from two sets down, defeating Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.
“It’s the first time I’ve come back from 2-0. Yes, it’s true. I did it!” said Tsonga, who is seeded 13th. “It was fabulous.”
Until last year’s Australian Open, Tsonga had never played a five-set match. He won his first five-setter in Melbourne in the round of 16 and later in the season went on to play and win three more.
It didn’t turn out to be the best year for Tsonga, who finished 2010 outside the year-end top 10 for the first time since 2007, due partly to a left knee injury that kept him sidelined for three months.
He said the cooler than usual conditions in Melbourne this year weren’t ideal for his knee and a lingering back problem, but that he feels physically fit.
The charismatic French player is a showman who likes to rally the crowd for cheers and pumps up the energy of a packed stadium, which on Tuesday was full of French fans waving the tricolor with raucous, rowdy cheers of support.
“It got crazy out there. They were shouting like wild. I like it a lot,” Tsonga said. “It’s the stuff that good memories are made of.”
Tsonga next faces Italian Andreas Seppi, who beat Frenchman Arnaud Clement in another first-round match Tuesday.
Birdseye Rue: When Andy Murray spoke to his mother Tuesday morning on the phone, she had some distressing news. His elder brother, Jamie, had an accident.
He’s fine, but a baby sparrow apparently is not.
“It’s pretty traumatic,” said the fifth-seeded Murray, the 2010 finalist. “He hit a sparrow, a baby sparrow, this morning when he was practicing with a serve. I think he killed it.”
Jamie is playing doubles at the Australian Open with Belgium’s Xavier Malisse.
On a more upbeat note, Andy advanced to the second round when Karol Beck retired in the third set of the match with a shoulder injury. Murray was leading 6-3, 6-1, 4-2 when Beck quit.
“Obviously, you’d rather finish the match off without your opponent being hurt,” Murray said. “You just have to move on and get yourself ready for the next round.”
Murray is trying to become the first British man to win a tennis major since Fred Perry in 1936. He came close at last year’s Australian Open, where he became the only man to beat Rafael Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament en route to the final. He ended up losing to Roger Federer.
All in all, it’s “nice to be through to the second round with no drama,” Murray said.
Details of his brother’s on-court drama are still to come.
“My mum told me about it when I woke up this morning,” Murray said. “But, yeah, I haven’t seen him yet today.”
Asked if he thought the serve was aimed at the sparrow, Murray replied, “I hope not!”
Tennis Truce: Serbian star Novak Djokovic says he’s facing a friend from Croatia in the second round, and is urging fans of both players not to allow ethnic tension to mar their match.
Chair-throwing, flag-hurling and other violent episodes involving Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian fans have ruined the otherwise relaxed environment at the Australian Open in recent years. Australia has a large population of Balkan immigrants, which leads to ethnic rivalries.
Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion, faces Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in the second round Wednesday, drawing inevitable concerns about security.
“I just hope it’s not going to happen,” the third-seeded Djokovic said after winning his opening match. “We don’t support this at all. We are very good friends actually off the court, all of us Serbian and Croatian players.
“There’s no reason to create any kind of bad feeling about our countries.”
Tournament director Craig Tiley said it was tournament policy not to discuss security plans but added that safety is one of the factors that determines the scheduling of matches.
“Our concern is comfort for everyone and safety for everyone,” Tiley said.
The Djokovic-Dodig match is the last scheduled match at the Hisense Arena, the second show court at Melbourne Park, which requires a special ticket and has tighter security than outdoor courts accessible to anyone with a general grounds pass.
When trouble has flared in the past, it has usually been on hot days and fueled by alcohol.
In 2009, about 30 Bosnian and Serbian youths were ejected from Melbourne Park after a chair-throwing brawl that broke out in an outdoor courtyard while Novak was playing Bosnian-born American Amer Delic. It was the second such clash in three years between mostly male youths of the former rivals in a bitter early-1990s war.
“We did have problems in the past, but that doesn’t concern us,” Djokovic said. “We are athletes. We are friends off the court. You’re never going to see a problem between us.”