MEMPHIS — Former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt defeated No. 7 seed Yen-Hsun Lu on Wednesday 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.
Hewitt, who is ranked 70th in the world, reached the quarterfinals last week in San Jose.
No. 4 Mardy Fish defeated Lukas Lacko, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the second round and Robert Kendrick beat James Blake, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in his second-round match to reach the quarterfinals of an ATP event for the first time since July 2006.
Florent Serra knocked out No. 9 Xavier Malisse, who had to retire in the second set trailing 6-2, 1-0.
In the women's event, No. 3 Melanie Oudin was eliminated by Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, 6-1, 7-5. Oudin's loss left sixth-seeded Rebecca Marino of Canada as the lone remaining seed in the tournament.