Beaten Hewitt dismisses talk of retirement after Soderling loss

Lleyton Hewitt was in no mood to call time on his career after a five-set defeat to Robin Soderling in a thriller under Wimbledon’s Centre Court roof.

Having suffered at the hands of a foot injury for the best part of the last year, the 30-year-old South Australian surprised many yester afternoon as he raced into a two-set lead over the fifth seed.

The Swede found his game – in particular his serve – in the third set, though, and sent down 28 aces during the match on his way to a first win from two sets behind in his career.

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Afterwards, Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion, was probed as to his future plans, with some observers shocked that he had even played at the All England Club owing to fitness concerns, let alone competed so well against a title outsider.

“Not playing did not enter my head, believe it or not,” he said. “I thought I was going to play no matter what. Where I’m at, this is what I play for, the grand slams. I gave myself every chance and my preparation was very pleasing. I’ve done absolutely everything I could.

“I love competing. You’re a long time retired and I hear that from a lot of great athletes. For me, as long as my body is close to 100 per cent I want to go out there and compete.

“I still feel like I can give these top guys as much trouble as anyone out there.

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“I had foot surgery once it became clear that injections weren’t working and I wouldn’t have gone through the pain of rehab if I was going to stop straightaway.”

Despite not winning the round-two match, Hewitt walked off court having played the shot of the Championships so far near the end of the second set.

With a break point to play with, he chased a Soderling backhand to two metres wide of and two metres behind the court before blindly playing a two-hander of his own that flew over the net and in for a winner to bring the crowd to their feet.

“I didn’t actually see the shot,” Hewitt said.

“When I hit it, I thought it was going to the bottom of the net. I must have been that off balance that I had no idea of the direction or if I’d made a good contact or whatever.

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“It was only that the crowd started cheering. I didn’t think that would have been for him having hit the net, but I didn’t know it was a winner or in until the umpire called the score.”

For his part, Soderling acknowledged how tough a game the man from Adelaide had given him and was satisfied to have turned things around in his favour.

“I have never come from two sets down and I thought I was unlucky not to win the first set,” Soderling said.

“I had some chances and he played really well in the second. But, I just had to start over, taking one point at a time and see it as a new match. There was still a chance to win. I didn’t want to go off court feeling that I hadn’t given 100 per cent. Win or lose, it didn’t matter.”

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Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu produced a shock on Court 18 as he knocked out 13th seed Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 6-4, while Slovakia’s Karol Beck also upset the odds to overcome 26th seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 3-6 6-4.

Juan Martin Del Potro will line against Gilles Simon in round three after dismissing Olivier Rochus 6-7 (9/7) 6-1 6-0 6-4, recovering from a set down overnight in impressive style.

David Nalbandian is likely to face Federer in the last 32 having come through his match against Andreas Haider-Maurer with a four-set win, 6-3 3-6 6-4 6-4.

Xavier Malisse knocked out 20th seed Florian Mayer and Michael Llodra sent Brazilian Ricardo Mello home with a four-set win.

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Cyprus’s No 32 seed Marcos Baghdatis easily swept aside Andreas Seppi in straight sets, and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile also breezed through with a disciplined victory over Rik De Voest.

In the women’s draw, world No 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova went down 6-3 6-3 to Russian compatriot Nadia Petrova, who now plays Kateryna Bondarenko.

Agnieszka Radwanska, the 13th seed from Poland, also bowed out in the second round after losing 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 to Petra Cetkovska.

Czech world No 81 Cetkovska will now face Ana Ivanovic, the 18th seed, who cruised to a 6-3 6-0 win against Eleni Daniilidou.

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Klara Zakopalova teed up a meeting with either Maria Sharapova or Britain’s Laura Robson after beating 31st seed Lucie Safarova 6-0 6-7 (3/7) 6-4.

Sixth seed Francesca Schiavone celebrated her 31st birthday by beating Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5 6-3.