Hewitt cruises into second round; Indian challenge ends

Mumbai, Sept 27 (UNI) Former world number one and second seed here, Lleyton Hewitt had an easy outing as he cruised into the second round of the 416,000 dollar Kingfisher Airline Open tennis tournament defeating chinese Taipei qualifier Ti Chen 6-3, 6-3 at the CCI hard courts today.

The Indian challenge in the singles, however, ended with lucky loser Purav Raja being ousted in the first round by Spain's Ivan Pastor in a match that went on to two days due to rain interruption last night. Pastor beat the Indian in straight sets 6-4, 6-1.

Hewitt, one of the title favourites here, will now meet Boris Pashanski of Serbia.

Pashanksi was a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 winner over Argentine Sergio Roitman in another first round match.

Chen, as the score would suggest, was not bad. Every once in a while he made the stunning return, won a close rally, whizzed past a shot by Hewitt to make his presence felt. But the Australian, a former world number one and Grand Slam champion, was relentless from the back of the court.

Results: Singles first round: L Hewitt (Aus) beat Ti Chen (Tpe) 6-3, 6-3; Ivan Pastor (Spn) beat Purav Raja (Ind) 6-4, 6-1; Boris Pashanksi (Ser) beat Sergio Roitman (Arg) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

UNI