Australian teenager Lleyton Hewitt, 17, threw Pat Rafter's Australian Open tennis preparations further off course yesterday with an emphatic first round win at the Sydney International.
Double US Open champion Rafter, who lost in the second round of the Adelaide tournament last week, now aims to flee the spotlight ahead of the start of the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne next week.
Hewitt, who reached the final of the Adelaide tournament which he won last year, blasted the struggling Rafter off court in 81 minutes, winning 7-6 (7/1), 6-1.
Rafter's game disintegrated after losing a first set tiebreaker. He had two breaks on his service and made several unforced errors before he lost on the first match point when Hewitt whipped a passing forehand across court.
"That's the best win of my short career, even though I've beaten guys like (Andre) Agassi, to play the number one guy in your country at the time and being a double US Open champion is just fantastic," said Hewitt.
Former women's world number one Martina Hingis saw off promising young Australian Alicia Molik in 55 minutes, winning her second round match, 6-1, 6-2 yesterday.
Sixth seed Steffi Graf, making her first Sydney appearance since 1984, beat Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-0, 6-4 in a night match to advance to a second round meeting with American Serena Williams.
Russia's Anna Kournikova scraped through her first round match against Italian Silvia Farina on her fifth match point, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
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