Lleyton Hewitt made a promising start to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells as he beat Jan Hernych 7-6 6-3.
Australian wins as return from surgery continues
Lleyton Hewitt made a promising start to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, beating Jan Hernych 7-6 6-3 as he continues his comeback from hip surgery.
Jarkko Nieminen and Ivan Ljubicic were other first round winners as the Masters Series event got underway on Thursday, with Feliciano Lopez and Jose Acasuso big-name losers.
Fourth-seed Andy Murray now knows his opponent will be Albert Montanes in round two, after the Spaniard hammered Florent Serra 6-3 6-0.
Former world number one Hewitt won the event in 2002 and 2003 and also made the 2005 final, but the Australian is way down the rankings in 77 as he tries to regain his fitness following surgery last August.
With all seeded players receiving a bye until the first round, Hewitt was one of the biggest names in first round action.
Rankins
"The ranking doesn't bother me at all," said Hewitt. "There's been a lot of travel the last few months and it hasn't been easy on the body.
"I wasn't sure what to expect out there (against Hernych). I knew when I decided to have it done that it was going to take quite some time to get as close as I'm going to get to 100 percent."
Hewitt now goes up against Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, the number 17 seed, who defeated him in the first round of the Australian Open in January.
Ljubicic defeated Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-3 6-3 to set-up a second round clash with fellow Croatian Mario Ancic, while Finland's Nieminen beat France's Nicolas Devilder 7-6 6-1 and now faces 13th seed James Blake.
Frenchman Michael Llodra upset Spain's Lopez 6-4 6-3 and compatriot Richard Gasquet will be up next for him.
Argentina's Acasuso was defeated by Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili, and he now plays in-form Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
