Hewitt hits back to end Federer's dominance at Halle

Lleyton Hewitt recovered from one set down to defeat Roger Federer in the final of the Garry Weber Open in Halle.

The Australian won 3-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 to triumph in his first final appearance of 2010, ending Federer's 29-match winning streak at the tournament.

Federer, a five-time winner at Halle, did not drop a set in the previous four rounds and looked to be comfortable after breaking Hewitt early on.

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The Swiss started strongly and earned two breaks on Hewitt's first service game and appeared on course to make light work of his sixth Halle final, taking the first set 6-3.

But Hewitt hit back to take the next on a tie-break before wrapping up victory on the first match point as the ball clipped the net.

Hewitt said: "It's fantastic. Roger is a hell of an opponent and everybody knows how good he is on the grass court. His record speaks for itself and I just got lucky."

Hewitt had defeated Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/3) 6-2 on Saturday to seal his place in the final and watched on as Federer, who had won on all his appearances in Halle since 2003, triumphed in the day's second last-four contest.

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Federer beat Germany's Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes for his 29th straight win at the grass-court tournament in northern Germany.

Britain's Laura Robson was a first-round casualty at the Unicef Open in 's-Hertogenbosch.

The 16-year-old, granted a wild card for the event in Holland, had no answer to Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova who, as world No 47, is ranked 210 places above Robson.

The pair were facing off for the first time and Robson took her time to get into the match, failing to force a single break point as Cibulkova took the first set 6-3 on the back of a first-serve percentage of 78.

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That ratio dipped to 53 per cent in the second set but Robson was unable to take advantage, winning just six of 14 points on Cibulkova's second serve and forcing just a solitary break point, which she failed to convert.

The 21-year-old from Bratislava was able to wrap up a 6-3 6-4 win in an hour and 18 minutes and set up a second-round meeting with either eighth-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues or Holland's Arantxa Rus.

Second seed Dinara Safina was sent crashing out by Magdalena Rybarikova.

The 21-year-old Slovakian, ranked 45th in the world, lost the first set on a tie-break but battled back to complete a three-set victory over the former world No 1, now down at 20 following a recent injury.

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