Sydney Morning Herald
July 29, 2024

Rising Spaniard Rafael Nadal made Lleyton Hewitt feel a little old while compatriot Todd Reid couldn't have felt much better in a good day for the Australians at the Toronto Masters.

Launching his hardcourt season build up to the US Open, ninth seed Hewitt was blown off the court in the first set before going on to beat the 18-year-old prodigy 1-6 6-4 6-2.

Reid downed French Open champion Gaston Gaudio in three tight sets.

Hewitt, who will play veteran Jiri Novak in the second round, said he was surprised at how just how much vigour Nadal had shown.

"I'm not that old but he's a lot younger. He's bouncing around...and shows you that energy out there," Hewitt said.

"His game was very explosive right from the start and I just tried to hang in there and hold my serve in the second set more than anything."

Nadal has been touted as a player who could usurp Hewitt as the youngest to become world No.1, something the Australian did two months before his 21st birthday.

"There's going to be guys coming up when they are 20, 21 and he is obviously a well developed kid for 18," Hewitt said of Nadal who climbed from No.818 in the world at the end of 2001 to No.34 in March this year.

"He moves extremely well, he's hungry and he wants to win. He wants to beat the best players in the world. I know he's already beaten (Carlos) Moya and (Albert) Costa and those guys on clay and he can play on hard court as well. He's not one dimensional."

Earlier Reid battled all the way with 11th seed Gaudio, beating him 7-6 5-7 6-3.

He meets qualifier Jan Hernych next.

In other matches Andy Roddick easily advanced to the second round of the $US2.5 million ($A3.58 million) event with opponent Julien Benneteau suffering a mid-match injury.

Roddick, the Toronto defending champ and winner of a second straight title at the weekend in Indianapolis, advanced 6-4 6-2 against the hampered Frenchman.

Benneteau, ranked 76th, gave Roddick a battle in the opening set, but strained his neck as he stretched for a return in the fourth game of the second.

World No.1 Roger Federer completed a match he had begun 18 hours before on the previous evening, ousting Moroccan Hicham Arazi 6-3 7-5.

Federer next faces a second-round contest with Swede Robin Soderling.

The Swiss is making his summer hardcourt debut, with challenges awaiting next week at a Masters event in Cincinnati followed by the Athens Olympics and US Open beginning in a month.

Three Argentine seeds crashed out at the first hurdle, with Peru's Luis Horna going through as number three Guillermo Coria quit trailing 5-1 with a right shoulder problem.

Russian Mikhail Youzhny recovered in the final set to overhaul David Nalbandian, seeded sixth, 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Fourth seed Moya continued his season-long domination of Spanish compatriots as he claimed his 14th victory against a countryman in 2004.

His latest victim was Fernando Verdasco, who went down 6-7 (9-11), 6-3 6-4.

Tim Henman put aside a wait of nearly 12 hours on a drizzly Tuesday, taking just 73 minutes Wednesday to tame Argentine Mariano Zabaleta 6-4 6-1.