The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Hewitt cruises into quarterfinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 07, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Hewitt cruises into quarterfinals

ADELAIDE, JAN. 6. Top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt stepped up his Australian Open preparations with a 6-1, 6-4 disposal of Argentina's Agustin Calleri on Thursday to move into the quarterfinals at the Australian men's hardcourt championships.

Hewitt, third in the world rankings, next faces fifth-seeded Taylor Dent, who was down a break in the third set before he beat Julien Benneteau of France 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Hewitt broke Calleri's serve in the second and fourth games as he raced to a 5-0 lead before the Argentine held for his only game in the first set. Calleri went a break up at 2-0 in the second, stinging Hewitt back into action. The Australian star broke back immediately as he reeled off four consecutive games to set up victory.

Federer rolls on

At Doha, world No. 1, Roger Federer raced into the quarterfinals of the Qatar Open, downing Greg Rusedski 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.

Apart from his big first serve, Rusedski failed to mount any real challenge and Federer cruised through in less than an hour. The Briton fired three aces in the first set, but Federer broke him as early as the second game and Rusedski had no answer to some blistering ground strokes and fluent backhands.

The Swiss said "It was a good day out there for me. But I know I can play better that I did today".

Petrova pulls out

At Gold Coast, top-seeded Russian, Nadia Petrova was forced out of her quarterfinal against Silvia Farina Elia of Italy due to an unspecified injury in the Australian women's hardcourt tennis championship.

The results:

At Adelaide (Australian men's hardcourt): Second round: Jurgen Melzer bt Amer Delic 6-3, 6-3; Juan Ignacio Chela bt Jean-Rene Lisnard 7-5, 7-5; Lleyton Hewitt bt Agustin Calleri 6-1, 6-4; Taylor Dent bt Julien Benneteau 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

At Gold Coast (Australian women's hardcourt): Quarterfinals: Patty Schnyder bt Sesil Karatantcheva 6-2, 6-3; Silvia Farina Elia w/o Nadia Petrova; Samantha Stosur bt Magdalena Maleeva 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Tatiana Golovin bt Flavia Pennetta 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4.

At Auckland (ASB women's classic): Quarterfinals: Katarina Srebotnik leads Shahar Peer 6-1, 0-1 (susp., rain).

At Doha (Qatar Open): Second round: Roger Federer bt Greg Rusedski 6-3, 6-4; Fabrice Santoro bt Gael Monfils 6-2, 4-6, 7-5; Feliciano Lopez bt Uros Vico 6-2, 7-6(6); Nikolay Davydenko bt Karol Beck 7-6(2), 6-2; Rafael Nadal bt Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-4; Albert Costa bt Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 6-2; Ivan Ljubicic bt Marc Lopez 6-1, 6-4.

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