The US Open career of Lleyton Hewitt ended on Thursday night in spectacular fashion. Hewitt showed all the grit and guile that has defined his career as he fought back from a two sets to love hole against Bernard Tomic. Ultimately, Hewitt would waver in the fifth set trying to serve for the match as Tomic prevailed to advance to round three.

Hewitt Struggles Early And Often

The difference in serve was apparent from the beginning. Tomic breezed through his first game, while Hewitt struggled to get his first serve in during his opening service game. He fought hard to hold serve, but double faulted to hand Tomic a break for a 2-0 lead. Hewitt struggled to find his ground strokes as well leading to an easy Tomic consolidation of the break to jump out 3-0.

The veteran righty would finally get on the board with another hard working service game that featured a lot of rallies. Hewitt's forehand continued to misfire, but he managed to hold. The two Aussies exchanged service holds the rest of the way to a 6-3 Tomic finish with a familiar script. Hewitt struggling to hold serve, while Tomic did not. A lot of rallies with many of them ending with Hewitt spraying his forehand wide far too often. The stats told the story of Hewitt's miscues as he racked up 17 unforced errors and won just 55 percent of his service points. Tomic's first serve was a perfect 12 of 12 in the set.

Advantage Tomic

Hewitt continued his service issues to open the second set as he disappeared quickly at-love on serve to hand Tomic a quick break. The elder statesman would eat into Tomic's serve a bit in the second game at 0-30, but the errors mounted again as Tomic came back to consolidate the break for another 2-0 lead. The story of the match was unchanged for the duration of the second set. Tomic's serve was giving him easy and mostly quick holds. Hewitt was having to dig deep on each service game and was broken a second time to give the 21-year old a 5-2 advantage with a chance to serve out the set. Tomic would close the set with a nice rushing forehand volley for the two sets to love lead. Tomic remained about unbeatable on first serve for the set, winning 13 of 14 points. Hewitt's unforced error count for the set ended at seven, but it seemed like a lot more than that.

Hewitt Storms Back

Hewitt opened on serve for the second straight set and again found himself in a hole. His ground strokes continued to fail him at the end of rallies as Tomic took the first break point he saw for a 1-0 lead. Hewitt looked to perhaps be somewhat compromised physically at this point. He was still moving well across the court, but at times seemed to have some trouble pushing off and finding a burst out of his serves. Tomic was up 2-0 quickly as he held serve. Hewitt would find one of his best service games along with his two best forehands of the night to hold to 2-1. The fourth game would then breed the first two break chances off the Tomic serve all match. Hewitt converted the second to even things at 2-2.

The Hewitt forehand and serve looked its best in the fifth game as Hewitt nailed two aces to hold 3-2. They would exchange holds and then a dramatic eighth game saw Hewitt use a slew of Tomic errors to score his second break of the set to go up 5-3. An ace for Hewitt closed an improbable momentum swing to give him the set 6-3. The unflappable first serve of Tomic fell apart as the sent went on, losing nine of 16 points after winning 25 of the first 26. It was Tomic who had the unforced errors with 12 in the set as Hewitt cut his down to just five to go along with 12 winners.

Momentum Swings Back And Forth

Bernard Tomic opened on serve to start the fourth and he looked rattled by the doings of the third set. Several backhand errors gave Hewitt a couple of break points and Hewitt converted as Tomic sailed a forehand long of the baseline. Hewitt would continue his string of stronger service games to quickly consolidate at-love. for a 2-0 lead. Tomic would steady in the next game for a hold to 2-1. In the flip of a switch, things changed massively as Tomic broke Hewitt at-love and then held after a feisty service game that went to deuce to go up 3-2.

They traded holds to 4-2 in favor of Tomic when the younger Aussie took advantage of some Hewitt errors and hit a fine forehand winner to secure a break for the 5-3 lead. Serving for the match, the pressure definitely seemed to get to Tomic as he made multiple errors. It culminated with a forehand going wide to give Hewitt the break back. Hewitt then held quick with an ace to move it to 5-5. More pressure mounted on Tomic as he double faulted early and then sent a backhand wide as Hewitt broke him to love to move out to a 6-5 lead. Lleyton would not let the moment escape him as he clubbed an ace to close out the set 7-5 to send it to a fifth set.

Fifth Set Drama

The fifth set looked as if it would take a quick turn to Hewitt as he had a look at three break points to open. Tomic would bravely save all three break points to hold. Hewitt would hold to even it at 1-1. The swap meet of service holds continues to 3-3 when Hewitt jumped out again to a triple break point opportunity on Tomic's serve. Bernard saved the first two with ease, but on a second serve, Hewitt made a good return as Tomic then pushed a forehand wide to give Hewitt a 4-3 lead. Lleyton continued to look the fresher of the two players late as he worked a quick hold on serve to make it 5-3 and put the pressure squarely on Tomic.

Tomic almost cracked as he gave Hewitt two match points, but was able to recover and hold to 5-4. Hewitt would serve for the match. As Hewitt has aged, his ability to close has gone downhill and it was no different here as he got tight on his ground strokes and Tomic broke to 5-5. Tomic wobbled again as Hewitt would see another break point, but to his credit Bernard held and put it all on Hewitt at 6-5. Much like his previous service game, the latter years version of Hewitt surfaced again with tightness in his serves that allowed Tomic the chance to win. To his credit, Tomic did just that by sticking into this match mentally for a 6-3, 6-2, 3-5, 5-7, 7-5 victory.

Tomic Advances To The Third Round

It is a first for the 24th seed as Bernard Tomic will appear in his first ever third round match at the U.S. Open. It will not be easy as he faces 12th seed Richard Gasquet. Gasquet owns a 5-1 mark against the Aussie in his career. They have split two Grand Slam matches with Gasquet winning in straight sets at the 2014 French Open and Tomic winning in four sets at Wimbledon in 2013.

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About the author
Chris Spiech
Tennis fan who still is not sure exactly how he became a tennis fan.