Hewitt, Nalbandian reach third round in Tokyo

SFGate.com

10/06 11:31:22 ET

Hewitt, Nalbandian reach third round in Tokyo

Lleyton Hewitt held off crowd favorite Gouichi Motomura 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 in the second-round of the Japan Open.

Tokyo, Japan (Sports Network) – Top seeds Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and David Nalbandian of Argentina highlighted Wednesday’s second-round winners at the $775,000 Japan Open.

The former world No. 1 Hewitt held off heavy Japanese crowd favorite Gouichi Motomura 6-0, 3-6, 6-1, while Nalbandian came back to beat Taipei’s Yeu-Tzuoo Wang 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 on the hardcourts at Ariake Colosseum.

Hewitt, who captured this event in 2001, will meet another Japanese, Takao Suzuki, in the round of 16, while Nalbandian will encounter 16th-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

In other action involving top-10 seeds, No. 7 American Taylor Dent drilled Czech Tomas Zib 6-3, 6-4, No. 8 Swede Thomas Johansson handled American Justin Gimelstob 6-4, 6-4, Cyril Saulnier overcame fellow Frenchman Nicolas Thomann 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 and No. 10 Korean Hyung-Taik Lee dismissed big-serving Aussie Wayne Arthurs 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).

Elsewhere in the second round, the aforementioned Muller mauled American Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-3, 6-1 and the upstart Suzuki bounced 15th-seeded Czech Jan Hernych 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5.

The first-round concluded here on Day 3 with wins coming for Germans Michael Kohlmann, who bested 2002 Tokyo titlist Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark 7-5, 6-2, and Bjorn Phau, Swiss Marco Chiudinelli, Czech Bohdan Ulihrach, Brazilian Flavio Saretta, Japan’s Takahiro Terachi and Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who stopped last week’s Shanghai runner-up Lars Burgsmuller 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. The German Burgsmuller gave way to Argentine Guillermo Canas in the Heineken Open final.

This week’s winner will pocket $118,000.

10/06 11:31:22 ET