Australia's Lleyton Hewitt beat Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2 on Friday in the opening match of the Davis Cup final.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt throws his racket in frustration during the Davis Cup final opening match against Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Friday, Nov. 28, 2003. [AP]

"All my thoughts were to try to get Australia off to a great start," said Hewitt, playing his first match in more than two months. "I'm glad I did."

The competition got off to a controversial start when a long- outdated Spanish national anthem was played during the opening ceremony.

Spain's Sports Minister Juan Antonio Gomez-Angulo waved furiously and yelled from the stands as the anthem of Spain's first republic, the Himno de Riego, was played instead of the current anthem. The correct anthem was then played, and will be repeated before the matches Saturday and Sunday.

"I was quite surprised," Ferrero said. "I had never heard that (anthem) before. It was a big mistake but I had to keep my mind focussed on the match ahead."

Hewitt shut out Ferrero in the fourth-set tiebreaker, broke serve in the first game of the fifth set and dominated the rest of the way before a sellout crowd of about 14,000 at Rod Laver Arena.

Australia's Mark Philippoussis faced Carlos Moya in the second singles match Friday on the temporary grass court.

On Saturday, Australia's Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs will face Feliciano Lopez and Alex Corretja in doubles. In the reverse singles Sunday, Philippoussis will play Ferrero, and Hewitt will face Moya.

Tennis Australia officials apologized courtside after they were alerted to the anthem error, and sent a letter of apology to the president of the Spanish tennis federation, Augustin Pujol Niubo.

"It is unfortunate the outstanding opening ceremony was marred by this regrettable occurrence and, as a mark of respect, Tennis Australia will be playing the Spanish and Australian anthems before play tomorrow and again on Sunday," Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard said in the letter.

Pollard said the error occurred because "a CD of world national anthems provided to the performer by Tennis Australia contained what we have subsequently been advised is not the correct national anthem."

Australia has won the Davis Cup 27 times, four behind the leading United States. Spain's only win came in 2000 against Australia.

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