Lleyton Hewitt showed his renowned fighting qualities as he saved two match points before beating Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun at the US National Indoor Championships on Wednesday.

The Australian former world No.1 trailed 5-6 and 15/40 in the second set before recovering to win 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in two hours and 21 minutes.

Hewitt, 31, will next face Uzbek Denis Istomin, who upset American third seed John Isner 6-4 6-3 in their first round match.

Hewitt is making his third appearance in Memphis, losing to American Andy Roddick on both of his previous appearances in 2009 (semi-finals) and 2011 (quarter-finals).

Lu, Taiwan’s top player, missed the Davis Cup tie between the nations earlier this month.