LLEYTON HEWITT'S trademarks have been mothballed for five months, but the two-time grand slam winner dusted them down in the final two sets at the Hopman Cup in Perth yesterday.

In his first match since hip surgery in mid-August, Hewitt rattled home in the final two sets to beat Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-2.

It was the comeback match he had to have. Hewitt was down a set, the momentum was against him, and the highly competitive Kiefer looked likely to wreck the Australian's return to the courts.

The "c'mons" were few and far between over the course of the match but there was no denying the fighting qualities of the 27-year-old, who changed the momentum midway through the second set, with Kiefer showing no sentimentality over Hewitt's comeback.

Showing no ill-effects after surgery to his right hip, Hewitt, ranked No.70, lacked the penetration of Kiefer at times - but he compensated with his ability to hunt down shots.

His singles victory levelled the tie with the Germans after Casey Dellacqua ran out of steam in her match against promising German Sabine Lisicki, losing 6-4, 2-6, 5-7. But the Australians went down in the doubles 6-7 (7-2), 6-3, 7-6 (10-5) to lose the tie 2-1.

"It's been a long time out, it's good to be back," Hewitt said. "It's been a long time coming and I've been hanging for this game. It's good to be back here in Perth and a great way to start the year so far. I've done everything in my power to get as close to 100 per cent for the Australian summer. It's a matter of just trying to come out here now and play a lot of matches and get into a routine of playing a lot of tough matches going into the Australian Open where it's obviously going to be tough playing five sets back to back."