Hewitt battles to overcome Blake

Melbourne
Always a battler, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt had to dig deep yesterday to advance to the third round of the Australian tennis open, rallying to beat James Blake, whose run of bad luck continued after he cut his racket hand on a point that turned the match.
The tense center-court faceoff, with the players exchanging fierce stares and lunging all over the court before third-seeded Hewitt finally prevailed 4-6 7-6 (8) 6-0 6-3 was the highlight on a day when Venus Williams got a rigorous workout while ousting China's Peng Shuai, and No 1-ranked Lindsay Davenport and French Open champion Anastasia Myskina both struggled before winning.
Seventh-seeded Tim Henman of Britain and ninth-seeded David Nalbandian advanced, while No 2 Andy Roddick was playing at night against another Briton, Greg Rusedski, in a matchup of two of the game's fastest servers.
Hewitt, the hottest player on the men's tour after Roger Federer, lost the first set against Blake, who broke vertebrae in his neck when he ran into a net post during practice last May, then contracted Zoster, an illness that affected his sight and hearing and temporarily paralyzed part of his face. After reaching the fourth round here last January, he missed the other three Grand Slams as his ranking slipped to 76th.
Blake was serving for the second set after breaking Hewitt, the crowd favorite, at 5-5. But with both players suffering from the jitters in an increasingly tense match, Hewitt broke back to force a tiebreaker in which both players had set points.
Hewitt converted his third with a sharply angled volley. Blake made a desperate dive, flicking the ball back while landing on his racket hand, opening a cut between his ring finger and pinkie that required treatment several times.
With Hewitt pumped up and shouting encouragement to himself, Blake was never the same and also suffered from several close line calls that went against him.
The eighth-seeded Williams, trying like her sister Serena to return to the zenith of women's tennis, had to run constantly from sideline to sideline against Peng, who just didn't have quite enough game to do any real damage and fell 6-3, 6-1.
The 19-year-old Peng, ranked 48th, broke Williams twice in the first set. But Williams feasted on Peng's serves, particularly the slow second ones. And while Peng's flat groundstrokes - two-handed from both sides - had sting, she had little margin for error.
"Wasn't she a beautiful player?" Williams marveled afterward. "I had no idea who she was."
An ankle sprain, a wrist sprain and a leg muscle strain slowed Williams' comeback here last year from a six-month absence with an abdominal strain. Her ranking slipped at one point to 18th.
"Things happen that you can't control yourself. Sometimes you have to step back," she said, adding that it's now time to step forward.
Davenport earned a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Michaela Pastikova, ranked 99th and entered in her first Grand Slam after 13 failed qualifying attempts.
Davenport made 10 errors as she muddled through the first set, looking a little lethargic. She picked up her play and had only one unforced error in the second set before firing five aces in the third - three in one game.
"I just wasn't ready to be at my very best at the beginning," said Davenport, still a little hoarse from a bout of bronchitis just before the tournament started.
The third-seeded Myskina, who has a reputation for moodiness, had problems with her serve and trailed 3-1 in the first set, muttering to herself and gesturing at lines after losing points.
"My emotion doesn't really help me on court," she said.
She regained control and won four consecutive games to close out the first set, and then didn't face a break point in the second while ousting No 114 Tzipora Obziler of Israel 6-4 6-2.
Myskina next plays 25th-seeded Lisa Raymond, a 6-0 6-1 winner over Clara Koukalova, in the third round. Last year, Raymond made the quarterfinals here, upsetting Venus Williams along the way.
In other women's matches, sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze, No. 14 Francesca Schiavone beat Tatiana Perebiynis and 26th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova downed 28-year-old Barbara Schett, who retired from singles play after the match.
No 13 Karolina Sprem and No. 27 Anna Smashnova also advanced, while American Abigail Spears, playing only her second major, beat No. 20 Tatiana Golovin of France and Czech player Nicole Vaidisova beat No 31 Jelena Kostanic of Croatia.
No. 14 Sebastien Grosjean, No. 15 Mikhail Youzhny, No 17 Andrei Pavel and No 18 Nicolas Massu were ousted from the men's draw Thursday, while No. 12 Guillermo Canas, No. 23 Fernando Gonzalez, No. 25 Juan Ignacio Chela and No. 32 Jurgen Melzer advanced.-AP
Olympic gold medalist Massu lasted 41 minutes before an injured left foot forced him to quit against Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber while trailing 6-0, 2-0. ? AP