The weather was perfect. The expectations were high.
But from the start, something just wasn't right for world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. After being broken in the first game of the match against 60th-ranked Nicolas Massu on Thursday, Hewitt took off his baseball cap and handed it to a ball girl.
That was perhaps a sign of things to come on a nearly disastrous day for Hewitt. On a day when seeded players bowed out one by one, Hewitt survived a scare with a 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4 victory over Chile's Massu to reach the quarterfinals of the AIG Japan Open at Ariake Colosseum.
In a best-of-three match, Hewitt had not been taken to three sets by a player ranked lower than No. 60 since the Toronto Masters Series in July, when he lost in full sets to No. 61 Felix Mantilla.
But at least Hewitt escaped with a win. Spain's No. 2 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero followed the losing examples of his two compatriots a day earlier, No. 3 seed Carlos Moya and No. 4 Alex Corretja, in a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to Sweden's Magnus Norman -- a former world No. 2 in 2000 and the 2000 French Open runnerup.
Just like the typhoon that hit Tokyo earlier in the week, the El Nino trio came and went like a blizzard, with none of them winning a match.
"I went into the match with a lot of motivation and I tried my best," said Ferrero when asked if his compatriots' losses affected his game.
With the addition of No. 6 seed James Blake onto the early-exit list, the men's field is left with only three of the 16 seeds -- Hewitt, No. 5 Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina and No. 8 Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand. In the quarters, Hewitt will face the winner of an all-Asian matchup, with local boy Takao Suzuki and Srichaphan playing in a late game Thursday.
Before Hewitt took Center Court, Suzuki put his service game on display, notching an eye-popping 23 aces, in a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) win over American Brian Vahaly, while Srichaphan held off Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 6-3, 6-4 in their second-round matches.
"Not bad for a Japanese, huh," said a smiling Suzuki of his two-set, 23-ace win. "My service game gave me a little leeway and I was able to relax."
Hewitt took command of the final games of the second set, as Massu gradually lost his stamina. Massu took a medical timeout after the second set.
Still, Hewitt was not really on his game, showing his frustration with some racket-throwing and screaming at himself, instead of the finger-pointing "Come on!" fist pump that he has demonstrated to tennis fans.
Hewitt suffered with his serve, hitting only 45 percent of his first serves compared to Massu's 58 percent.
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