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.