PARIS (AFP) - Australia's Lleyton Hewitt returned to the court for the first time since the end of his relationship with Kim Clijsters and broke the hearts of French fans by defeating teenage hope Gael Monfils in the Paris Masters.
The third-seeded Australian won 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) dismantling the breathtaking game of the world junior number one who for the second night in succession belied his humble world ranking of 248.
The 18-year-old Monfils, winner of the Australian and French Open as well as Wimbledon junior titles this year, gave the former world number one plenty of scares as he briefly threatened to add the Australian's scalp to that of Thomas Enqvist he so confidently claimed on Monday.
But Hewitt, with his all-round cussedness and in-your-face game firing on all cylinders, put down the rebellion to make the third round.
Hewitt, whose four titles this year have taken his career record to 23, broke early to lead 2-0 before Monfils hit back in the third.
With fists pumping, he went to 5-3 and secured the first set after 38 minutes when Monfils went wide with a backhand return.
The Australian edged ahead again in the second set only to be pegged back by a succession of three whopping, pinpoint forehands that were flat and low and had Hewitt scampering to the corners.
That only served to fire up Hewitt who broke again to lead 2-1 but, backed by a huge crowd, the teenager refused to buckle and fought back to save five break points in the fifth game before breaking back to level 3-3.
However, Hewitt's experience told in the tiebreak as Monfils played two sloppy forehands to hand the Australian the tie after a hugely entertaining 1hr 55min.
Meanwhile, Spain's Feliciano Lopez beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, Russia's Nikolay Davydenko cruised past Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 6-3 while qualifier Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic defeated France's Michael Llodra 7-6 (7/2), 6-1.
Last year's runner-up Andrei Pavel, the 11th seed from Romania, beat America's Mardy Fish 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 while Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic defeated France's Arnaud Clement 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
His reward is a second round clash with Russian sixth seed Marat Safin, champion here in 2000 and 2002.
Also progressing to the third round was Tommy Haas, the 18th seeded German, who put out Belgium's Xaiver Malisse 6-1, 7-6 (7/1).
11/02/2004 - 20:54 GMT - AFP