INDIAN WELLS (California), March 12: Defending champion Lleyton Hewitt saved three match points before beating Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui 4-6 7-5 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the Pacific Life Open.

By avoiding defeat against El Aynaoui, who scored a shock four-set win over the world’s top player at the Australian Open in January, Hewitt prevented Andre Agassi taking over as number one in the rankings.

The Australian had to come up with an extraordinary backhand down the line winner on El Aynaoui’s first match point.

Hewitt then watched his opponent dump a forehand into the net on his second match point before saving the third by rifling a forehand pass down the line.

Defending women’s champion Daniela Hantuchova was not as fortunate as Hewitt, the Slovak going down 6-4 6-4 to 16th-seeded South African Amanda Coetzer in a fourth round match.

Britain’s Tim Henman progressed in the men’s event, ousting last week’s Delray Beach champion Jan-Michael Gambill 7-5 6-2 on a hot day in the desert during which temperatures reached 90 degrees.

Three players retired through illness, including Spain’s Felix Mantilla, who was trailing 6-7 6-4 4-1 to fourth seed Roger Federer.

Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio retired when 4-0 down to Chile’s Marcelo Rios and Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen also pulled out while trailing 6-2 0-1 to Spain’s Tommy Robredo.

Just like he did in Australia, the 32-year-old El Aynaoui unnerved Hewitt with his huge first serve and big forehand.

Even though he is considered one of the best returners in the world, Hewitt failed to break serve until he was 5-3 down in the second set.

Hewitt said El Aynaoui had benefited from his victory at the Australian Open.

In notching his first win since October, 13th seed Henman displayed against Gambill the serve-and-volley game that took him to the final here last year.

Third seed Hantuchova, 19, could never find the form that led the Slovak to her first title here last year, committing 59 unforced errors to only 33 by her 31-year-old opponent.

Coetzer, who won the Acapulco title last week, will play Spain’s Conchita Martinez in the next round.

Eighth seed Chanda Rubin of the U.S. was a 0-6 6-4 6-4 winner over Japan’s Ai Sugiyama and now meets top seed Kim Clijsters or France’s Nathalie Dechy.

Results: (x denotes seed):

WOMEN