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By Simon Cambers
PARIS, May 27 - Former world number one Lleyton
Hewitt said he had only an outside chance of winning the French
Open after taking four sets to beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4
6-4 4-6 6-2 in the second round on Thursday.
The 12th-seeded Australian, whose best performance at Roland
Garros was a quarter-final showing in 2001, won the contest in
two hours 44 minutes and now plays last year's runner-up, Martin
Verkerk of the Netherlands, or Victor Hanescu of Romania.
"To win seven best-of-five-set matches on clay is probably
one of the toughest for me," Hewitt said.
"I don't think with my style of game I can totally be
counted out (but) I think there's a lot more clay court
specialists these days, though, that are probably the favourites
to win here."
Having fallen from the top of the world rankings in the past
two years, Hewitt has worked hard to add power to his game in an
effort to keep pace with the likes of Roger Federer, Marat Safin
and the tour's other hard-hitters.
But despite his improvement, Hewitt said he believed the
demands of playing on clay made it more difficult for him than
at the other three grand slams.
"(At) Wimbledon you can probably get some easier draws now
and then," the 23-year-old added. "(In Paris) I think there are
so many tough players. Every round is tough here.
"Probably on clay I have had to adjust my game more. It's
going to take time. It doesn't come as naturally as the other
surfaces. Plus some of these other guys, you know, they wake up
and they train on clay every day of their life."
On Thursday, Hewitt looked on course for a straight-sets win
when he eased through the first two sets, but Melzer broke serve
in the 10th game of the third set to battle back.
However, the Australian broke serve to lead 2-1 in the
fourth set and another break in the seventh game sealed the
Austrian's fate.
"I feel pretty comfortable with where my game is at the
moment," Hewitt said.
"This time last year actually, even though I lost to (Tommy)
Robredo, I felt like the first two sets in that match were the
best tennis I ever played on clay."