Dogged Hewitt has snap at organisers

If Lleyton Hewitt were a dog he'd be a Jack Russell or a wire-haired terrier, one of those little killers you'd send into the bicycle shed after a rat.

Not only does the Australian number six seed not give up but he positively wallows in wars of attrition. Yesterday he went onto court against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu at 11.00a.m. and didn't come off until 2.39p.m.

Hewitt, sparky and occasionally foul-mouthed, will have pleased the French crowd, who like their heroes rare rather than well done. Carrying his highest Grand Slam seeding to date, the teenager has had most of his success on hard courts but adapted well to the slower clay against the Grand Slam debutant.

Losing the second set 4-6, he typically responded with vim, his ground strokes doing most of the damage in the third and fourth sets for 6-3, 6-2 and a place in the second round.

He didn't play badly but dug deep against a strong clay court player. After the battling performance, which he knows may debit his energy levels later in the tournament, he took a cut at the blazers in his candid Aussie way.

"They (the French organisers) definitely looked after their own players out there today with me having to go out there after playing a pretty tough week last week. It was hard to get up you know, the legs were a bit tired after Saturday."

Elsewhere, defending French Open champion and top seed, Gustavo Kuerten, polished off Guillermo Coria in three sets while Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero sailed through 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Just a week ago Ferrero's status for the tournament was uncertain having reported groin pains after the quarter-finals of the Masters Series in Hamburg. Adding that the pain was getting worse rather than better, it came as some surprise that the number six seed breezed through untroubled.

Hats off, also, to Tim Henman, who didn't lose. The English number 11 seed advanced against qualifier Tomas Brehrend on a surface he despises. It is the only Grand Slam event where Henman has never progressed beyond the third round with his win-loss record of 4-5 being his poorest of all the majors.

Taking a 6-1, 6-4 lead, he had a minor blip in the third before an uplifting 6-0 final set.