Flushing Meadows, NY (My Sportsbook) - Former champion Lleyton Hewitt was an easy opening-round winner Wednesday at the U.S. Open.
The fourth-seeded Hewitt humbled veteran South African Wayne Ferreira 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in Ferreira's last match on the ATP circuit.
Hewitt, who captured the U.S. Open in 2001 and was the Wimbledon champion in 2002, has won 16 of his last 17 matches on the tour, including a runner-up finish to Andre Agassi in Cincinnati last month and back-to-back hardcourt titles over the past two weeks.
The former world No. 1 Hewitt now boasts a stellar 24-4 lifetime record at the U.S. Open.
The 32-year-old Ferreira, who will turn 33 on September 15, will play some Davis Cup tennis for South Africa later this month before hanging up his racquet for good. He's played in a record 56 straight Grand Slam events, dating back to 1991, and has won 15 titles, while piling up just under $10 million in prize money.
Ferreira is just 13-16 this season.
American Todd Martin announced his retirement here on Monday night.
Unheralded Dane Kristian Pless ousted 20th-seeded Brazilian Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). The popular Guga, a former world No. 1 and three-time French Open champion, hasn't reached a quarterfinal since the French Open in early June and has lost his last three matches, including an opening-round loss against Chilean Nicolas Massu at last month's Olympic Games.
Promising Swede Robin Soderling dismissed Olympic bronze medalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (4-7), 6-1. The 14th-seeded Gonzalez captured singles bronze in Athens and paired with his countryman Massu to claim doubles gold at last month's Summer Games.
In some other seeded action, No. 12 Sebastien Grosjean topped fellow Frenchman Olivier Patience 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-1 and No. 23 American Vincent Spadea overcame Peru's Luis Horna 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. Horna was last week's TD Waterhouse Cup runner-up to Hewitt on Long Island.
A mild upset came when Czech Tomas Berdych upended 32nd-seeded Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 on the grounds of the USTA National Tennis Center. Berdych shocked world No. 1 Roger Federer in Athens last month.
Other first-round wins came for Finn Tuomas Ketola, German Philipp Kohlschreiber, Slovakian Karol Beck, Russian Mikhail Youzhny, Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who got past oft-injured Aussie Mark Philippoussis 1-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 4-1, as the 1998 U.S. Open finalist Philippoussis retired in the fifth set here on Day 3.
