Melbourne, January 19:

A surprisingly subdued Lleyton Hewitt was bounced out of the Australian Open in the second round on Thursday, delaying his desperate hope of winning his home Grand Slam for at least another year.

Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela solidly beat the third-seeded Hewitt, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-2, reversing the outcome of their spiteful third-round match here last year. The unseeded Chela rarely let the Australian — or the boisterous crowd — get into the match.

Hewitt, a finalist here last year who was in his 30th major and 10th consecutive Australian Open, was hoping to be the first Australian man to win the home major since Mark Edmondson in 1976.

But he committed 62 unforced errors and struggled as he did in his first-round, five-set victory over 58th-ranked Robin Vik. Hewitt managed to rally then. This time, Chela squelched his comeback effort after Hewitt took the third set by cashing in on his seventh set point to extend his streak of taking 10 straight tiebreakers.

Earlier, it was a banner day for Swiss stars Roger Federer, the men’s top seed, and Martina Hingis, on the comeback after a three-year layoff. Both had fast victories that other players could only envy as temperatures reached 33 Celsius.

Conserving energy for later in the two-week tournament, Federer was in top form as he zipped through his second-round match, needing only 1 hours, 12 minutes to beat Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4, 6-0. It was the second easy match for Federer, seeking his seventh Grand Slam victory and second title here. He has yielded only 12 games in six sets. His next opponent is 30th-seeded Max Mirnyi.

Hingis was on court only 52 minutes. Backed by a crowd that included a yodeler and clearly enjoying the experience at the place where she won three of her five Grand Slam titles, she had no trouble in beating Finland’s Emma Laine 6-1, 6-1.

Losses by fifth-seeded Pierce and No 21 Ava Ivanovic mean that Hingis has no seeded players in her part of the draw until the quarter-finals, when she could face ailing Kim Clijsters, seeded second.

Pierce, the 1995 Australian champion and a two-time finalist at last year’s majors, became the highest seeded player to be sidelined when she lost 6-3, 7-5 to Iveta Benesova. Pierce made 41 unforced errors, against only 19 for Benesova.

Clijsters, bothered by hip and back soreness, overcame 48 unforced errors and five double faults to beat Yuan Meng, who had heavy strapping on both thighs and produced only two clean winners in the match. Clijsters needed treatment on her back and hip between sets and was not moving fluidly, although she went to the net 14 times and won 12 of those points.

Also advancing on the women’s side were No 3 Amelie Mauresmo, No 7 Patty Schnyder, No 12 Anastasia Myskina, No 16 Nicole Vaidisova and No 20 Flavia Pennetta.

Seven of the seeded women lost on Thursday: Pierce, Ivanovic, No 19 Dinara Safina, No 22 Anna-Lena Groenefeld, No 27 Marion Bartoli and No 31 Gisela Dulko. Men’s winners included No 5 Nikolay Davydenko, a potential quarter-final opponent for Federer, No 6 Guillermo Coria, No 12 Dominik Hrbaty, No 15 Juan Carlos Ferrero, No 21 Nicolas Kiefer, No 23 Igor Andreev and No 25 Sebastien Grosjean.

Second Round Results:

Men: Nikolay Davydenko beat Kevin Kim 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2; Roger Federer beat Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4, 6-0; Guillermo Coria beat Federico Luzzi 7-6 (10), 6-4, 6-3; Peter Luczak beat Olivier Rochus 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (1), 6-1; Max Mirnyi beat Davide Sanguinetti 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (8); Luis Horna beat Bjorn Phau 6-3, 6-2, 6-1; Dominik Hrbaty beat Dick Norman 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 4-6, 10-8, Sebastien Grosjean beat Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-3, 6-3; Nicolas Kiefer beat Boris Pashanski 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-1; Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2; Tommy Haas beat Paul Goldstein 6-0, 6-1, 6-2.

Women: Samantha Stosur beat Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 7-5; Michaella Krajicek beat Sania Mirza 6-3, 7-5; Flavia Pennetta beat Martina Sucha 6-3, 6-0; Aiko Nakamura beat Gisela Dulko 6-1, 6-1; Maria Sanchez Lorenzo beat Anna-Lena Groenefeld 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Anastasia Myskina beat Jamea Jackson 7-6 (4), 0-6, 6-3; Patty Schnyder beat Shinobu Asagoe 6-1, 7-6 (9); Kim Clijsters beat Yuan Meng 6-4, 6-2; Sofia Arvidsson beat Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-0; Amelia Mauresmo beat Emilie Loit 7-6 (1), 6-2; Iveta Benesova beat Mary Pierce 6-3, 7-5; Martina Hingis beat Emma Laine 6-1, 6-1.