New Delhi: Former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt battled past Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 in a first-round match at the Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday.
The Australian let slip a 3-0 lead in the deciding set and had to save four break points in the seventh game before squeezing through in just under three hours to set up a clash against eighth seed Richard Gasquet of France.
Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero recovered from a break down in the final set to beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in his first-round match.
Ferrero will play sixth seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the second round. Ferrero was runners-up to Andy Roddick last year in the tournament.
Meanwhile, defending champion Andy Roddick survived a tense first set to beat Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6, 6-2 and take his place in the third round of the Cincinnati Masters.
World No. 35 Verdasco had two chances to break the American's serve in the opening set but Roddick won the tiebreak 7-3 and then eased to victory.
The third seed American will play 16th seed David Ferrer of Spain or unseeded Czech Radek Stepanek.
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