New York, Aug 31 (IANS): A battle of two former US Open champions saw a victory of the older, who had been away from public sight for a while.

The 32-year-old Lleyton Hewitt needed four hours and three minutes to eliminate sixth-seeded Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro in a second round match, earning himself a spot in the last 32 Friday, reports Xinhua.

"It's an amazing feeling. Keep going and back to it, but a year and a half ago I got told I probably wouldn't play again with the surgery I had. For me, I love being out in that atmosphere, sucking up every second of it," said Hewitt.

Hewitt has a great memory in the Arthur Ashe Stadium, winning the first of his two Grand Slam titles 12 years ago, and many spectators also had in mind that the current World No.66 used to stay on the No.1 throne then.

Hewitt had played Del Potro four times before Friday's match, winning and losing two.

The Australian veteran was able to win the first set 6-4 only to see Del Potro win the following two 7-5, 6-3. Hewitt had a chance to serve out the fourth set when the score got to 5-3 but Del Potro broke back to drag his eight year older opponent to the tie-break where Hewitt fired up to win six straight points to end the tiebreak 7-2.

Del Potro couldn't recover from the close loss of the fourth set. The 24-year-old kept making mistakes, was broken three times to allow a Hewitt victory.

"He's a great player and a great fighter. For the second round, it's a really difficult player," said Del Potro.

Hewitt will next face 22-year-old Russian Evgeny Donskoy.