Hewitt beats Youzhny at Kooyong

Lleyton Hewitt said he was feeling fresh ahead of his 15th Australian Open after notching a rain-interrupted 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win over Mikhail Youzhny at the Kooyong Classic Wednesday.

With the flood tragedy unfolding thousands of kilometres to the north in Queensland, poor weather was also affecting Melbourne.

Hewitt's match was delayed by 90 minutes in the second set before the the former world number one returned to court to earn a victory at the eight-man tune-up for the Open, which starts Monday.

The 29-year-old has never played the Kooyong Classic, preferring ATP events as warm ups prior to the first major of the season.

"I knew I'd get three good matches here, it's a good field," he said. "You can't buy matches like the one I just had. This is how you get match-tough and that's what you have to be for the Open.

"I feel I can compete with most guys now, I had hard weeks of training after my (elbow) injury in September. I'm fresh and feel pretty good. That's a good sign at age 29."

Frenchman Gael Monfils also began his season on a positive note with his third straight win over Spain's Fernando Verdasco to open the four-day event.

Monfils, whose last competitive outing came as a losing Davis Cup finalist last month against Serbia, pulled back from the brink after dropping the opening set to win 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.

"It was good, it was the first match of the season, I'm pretty happy," said the 12th-ranked Monfils, who said his off-season preparation consisted of "a lot of running and some gym work" as he stayed away from tennis after a long 2010 campaign.

"It was a tough start to the match, but once I found my rhythm, I was moving well. I was the aggressor on the court."

Monfils has never lost to the ninth-ranked Verdasco, beating him in the Paris indoor third round two months ago and at Monte Carlo on clay in 2008.

Verdasco won the Kooyong special event a year ago over France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose opener against Austrian Jurgen Melzer was put back to Thursday after the rain. Monfils plays the winner of that match.

Monfils, watched by his Australian coach Roger Rasheed, showed good early conditioning as he mounted a comeback in an encounter lasting 2hr 52min.

The athletic Frenchman, who lost the Paris Bercy Masters 1000 final to Robin Soderling last November, came through for his first-round victory on a third match point.

Monfils struck gold with a drop shot for a third match point and took the victory as Verdasco ploughed a return into the net.