Feisty Australian Lleyton Hewitt continued his comeback trail with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 upset of third seed James Blake in the first round of the Memphis Championships on Wednesday.
Hewitt had hip surgery last year in what was the first season in a decade where he failed to capture a title.
He got a big boost in his recovery on Wednesday with a win over the high-ranked American. Hewitt came up with six aces in the final set that allowed him to fend-off four break points in serving out the match.
"I served well when I needed to, during the big points and break points, and that was big in those last two services games," Hewitt told reporters.
"It's tough coming back from surgery. The last three tournaments I haven't got the best draws so it was nice to get this one."
Hewitt lost to eventual finalist Mardy Fish in the opening round of last week's San Jose Open.
He fell behind early against Blake, dropping the first set but recovered to level the score when Blake struggled with his serve in the second set.
A controversial call late in the final set postponed the match for Blake, but Hewitt got over the setback and responded to complete his best match of the year so far.
"I did so much rehab (to get back). If you would have told me in November that I would be moving and hitting the ball as well as I am now I wouldn't have thought it was possible."
In other matches, top-seeded American Andy Roddick used 20 aces to knock off Steve Darcis 7-6, 6-2. Fish beat Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-1, 7-5, while Sam Querrey defeated Tommy Haas 7-6, 6-4.
Czech fifth-seed Radek Stepanek advanced against Kevin Kim 6-4, 6-2, Philipp Petzschner beat Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-4 and Robby Ginepri saw off German Simon Greul 6-4, 6-4.
