Sydney - Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic began redeeming himself after a first-round loss last week, rolling Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of the Medibank International on Wednesday.

That kind of winning scenario was duplicated when third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, last year's losing finalist to Djokovic at Melbourne Park, stormed out of the blocks to hammer Italy's Simone Bolelli 6-4, 6-1.

With the Australian Open starting on Monday, both men need to get it right if they want to try and repeat their 2008 successes.

Argentine fourth seed David Nalbandian made a solid start, defeating France's Michael Llodra 6-1, 6-3.

Australian hopes suffered mixed reviews as Lleyton Hewitt recovered from his second straight deficit of the week, rolling through 13 of the last 19 games to reach the quarter-finals over Serb Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 6-4.

But last year's losing finalist Chris Guccione went down to Finn Jarkko Nieminen 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 and will plunge even lower than his current number 132 ranking as result.

Hewitt, a four-time champion in his new hometown of Sydney, has showed he's lost none of his trademark fight in a scrambling victory.

"He's a great ball-striker, one of the best ball-strikers going around," he said of tattooed Serb Tipsarevic. "He moves extremely well but you've got to hang in there with him and make him play that extra shot.

The 27-year-old Australian winner is careful when gauging his current form. "In practise I'm hitting the ball really well, but you can't expect miracles when you haven't played for four-and-a-half months." (dpa)