A Winning Start for Australia

Lleyton Hewitt beat Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, today to give Australia a 1-0 lead in the Davis Cup final.

“All my thoughts were to try to get Australia off to a great start,” said Hewitt, playing his first match in more than two months. “I’m glad I did.”

Hewitt shut out Ferrero in the fourth-set tiebreaker, broke serve in the first game of the fifth set and dominated afterward before a sellout crowd of about 14,000 at Rod Laver Arena.

Australia’s Mark Philippoussis faced Carlos Moya in the second singles match today on the temporary grass court.

On Saturday, Australia’s Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs will face Feliciano Lopez and Alex Corretja in doubles. In the reverse singles Sunday, Philippoussis will play Ferrero, and Hewitt will face Moya.

The matches got off to a controversial start when the wrong Spanish national anthem was played. Spain’s Sports Minister Juan Antonio Gomez-Angulo waved furiously and yelled from the stands as the pre-civil war republican anthem was played. He said the error was an insult not only to the players and Spanish delegation but to the entire nation.

There were rumblings among Spanish supporters in the crowd when the pre-Franco anthem began and Australian captain John Fitzgerald apologized to the crowd after learning of the mistake. The correct anthem was then played.