Lleyton Hewitt eased into the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday with straight sets win over Belgian Steve Darcis.

It took 19th seed Hewitt only 77 minutes to crash Darcis with 6-0, 6-3, 6-0 and set up a meet with wildcard holder Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in the second round.

The Australian made a brilliant start, taking the first set in just 23 minutes and continued his winning momentum in the second set.

After leading at 3-1, Hewitt lost his serve for the only time in the match but soon bounced back to go 4-2 and broke Darci's four consecutive service to take the following two sets 6-3 and 6-0.