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Lleyton Hewitt said he and Marcos Baghdatis had no choice but to start their third-round match at the Australian Open just before midnight on Saturday.
The home favourite beat Baghdatis in a titanic battle that did not end until 4.33am local time on Sunday, the latest finish in
a Grand Slam event, but Hewitt said there was confusion before the match over whether it would take place.
"We didn't really have a choice," Hewitt said. "We had an opinion, but we didn't get a choice."
Roger Federer's match against Janko Tipsarevic went to five sets and the game between Venus Williams and Sania Mirza did not begin until after 9.30pm, two hours later than scheduled.
By the time Williams beat Mirza it was 11.47pm before Hewitt and Baghdatis took to the court, although the Australian said they had originally thought they would be on after top seed Federer won his gruelling match in five sets.
"We actually got told the women's match was getting moved, that we were going to be on pretty much at 9," Hewitt said.
"So we sort of rushed off, Marcos and myself, and went and practised and warmed up for about 10 minutes, came back and got told, 'No, the women's is going to stay on'.
"Going on that late is not easy for anyone, any players, because it throws your whole rhythm and clock out quite a bit.
"We were obviously put out a little bit thinking we were going to go on," he added.
"It's hard to say [if the decision was right]. Obviously the tournament has got to look after not only the players' interests but the spectators and everyone, I guess."
Hewitt said he was still not sure whether he would have been better off to have waited until Sunday before playing the match.
"I don't think Marcos and I really knew what was going to be better for whoever won, so that was a tough situation," he said.
"It was funny, because we both said we could be here at 4, 5 in the morning, and here we are."
Hewitt said he hoped to recover in time to have a chance of beating third seed Novak Djokovic in the fourth round.
"Last year at Wimbledon, when I lost an extremely close match, I thought I nearly had the better of him out there.
"I'll get my opportunities. He's obviously a great player, though, and he plays extremely well on this kind of hard court surface," added Hewitt. "It's going to be another step up."
- REUTERS
