Back spasm sends scare into Hewitt camp

World No.22 Lleyton Hewitt is adamant his Australian Open campaign remains on track
despite suffering an injury scare at the Hopman Cup in Perth on Thursday.
Hewitt, whose career was threatened by a serious hip injury in 2008, suffered a back
spasm early in his 6-2 6-4 loss to Spain's world No.16 Tommy Robredo as top-seeded
Australia crashed out of the Hopman Cup.
The 28-year-old South Australian repeatedly grabbed at his back and hip and served
five double faults in his opening two service games before calling a medical
time-out after dropping the first set in 37 minutes.
Hewitt received a lengthy rubdown on his back and moved relatively freely upon his
return to the court, holding his first four service games of the set before Robredo
grabbed the decisive break in the ninth game.
"I was a little bit worried at the start because I was feeling pretty good going
into the match and then it was about the second point I just felt something on my
serve," Hewitt said.
"My back went into a bit of a spasm out there so I was probably more concerned about
that for the first set than actually trying to compete and play tennis.
"I was just trying to loosen it up as much as anything and I forgot about the
tactics that I went out there to do.
"In the second set the back loosened up, which was nice.
"We will have a bit more physio in the next few days before Sydney (January 10-16
Sydney International) starts.
"I'm still not 100 per cent at the moment but by the time I play in Sydney in a few
days' time I'm pretty confident I'll be fine.
"It (my hip) is fine."
Hewitt was able to back up from his singles match to partner Sam Stosur in the mixed
doubles, which Spain won 6-3 3-6 7-6 (10-7 in match tiebreak) to book their place in
the final.
Earlier, world No.13 Stosur crashed to a 6-4 6-1 defeat to world No.26 Maria Jose
Martinez Sanchez in a match that lasted just 67 minutes, handing Spain a spot in the
final.
Australia needed to defeat Spain 3-0 without losing a set to top group A and qualify
for the final but Stosur's early blip brought a swift end to those aspirations.
"I didn't get to where I wanted to during the match but she put the pressure on me
throughout the whole match so I couldn't do too much," Stosur said.
It continued a lean tournament for Stosur, whose only win came over emerging
American teenager Melanie Oudin.
In the other group A tie on Thursday between the US and Romania, Oudin defeated
fellow teenager Cirstea 6-2 6-3.
But only the women's singles was played as a live rubber after Romania's Victor
Hanescu injured his groin during his match against Robredo on Tuesday and was forced
to withdraw from the tournament.
Group B is still wide open, with Great Britain, Russia and surprise packets
Kazakhstan still able to reach the final.