Lleyton Hewitt battled to overcome Markus Hantschk 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 after the German wild card stretched him to the limit in their first round clash at the Hamburg Masters on Tuesday.
The Australian world number one and top seed completely dominated the opening set in his first ATP clay court match of the year, but 210th-ranked Hantschk worked off his nerves in a match lasting two hours 22 minutes.
Rallying strongly and often keeping the ball off Hewitt's lethal forehand, the 25-year old German dictated much of the play from midway through the second set.
After levelling the match at one set all, Hantschk held a break point at 3-3, but Hewitt came through with a winning forehand and eventually broke serve in the 10th game to claim victory on his fourth match point.
"He played as well as he could out there and threw the kitchen sink and everything he had, and it was a good match for me to guts out and dig deep and come away with a win in the end," said Hewitt.
Spaniard Carlos Moya set up a second round clash with talented teenage compatriot Rafael Nadal after overcoming a spirited challenge from Australian Scott Draper to win 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
COMFORTABLE WIN
Switzerland's Roger Federer, seeded third, enjoyed a more comfortable victory over Belarussia's Max Mirnyi, winning 6-3, 6-3.
After contesting two finals in two weeks, winning Munich and falling to Felix Mantilla in Rome, the defending champion was grateful that he was not dragged into a lengthy baseline battle.
"Having back-to-back Masters Series is something to think about for sure, because I find it so extreme," said Federer.
In other matches, 10th-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean earned a second round clash with Britain's Tim Henman by beating Filippo Volandi of Italy 6-3, 6-4, and 15th seed Fernando Gonzalez recovered from 1-5 in the third set and saved a match point to overcome Olivier Mutis of France 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
There were also victories for fourth seed Andy Roddick, eighth seed David Nalbandian and ninth seed Rainer Schuettler, but sixth seed Jiri Novak was upset 6-1, 6-4 by Russia's Mikhail Youzhny and 13th seed Alex Corretja fell 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 to Xavier Malisse.