Hewitt advances at Sydney International
By Dennis Passa (Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-12 14:16

Lleyton Hewitt rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the second set to beat Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4 Wednesday, advancing the top-seeded Australian to the quarterfinals of the Sydney International.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt plays a shot in a match against Slovakia's Karol Beck during the Sydney International Tennis tournament in Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005. Hewitt won the match in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. [AP]

Frenchman Clement double-faulted at two crucial points in the match — the first time at 2-2 in the opening set to give Hewitt his first service break.

With Clement up 3-0 and then 4-1 in the second set, Hewitt broke back in the seventh game — with Clement giving him break point with a double fault.

Clement then watched as Hewitt hit a crosscourt winner on the next point, pumping his fist and yelling "Come On!" amid cheers from the capacity center-court crowd.

Hewitt held service to love in the eighth game, leveling the set 4-4, before again breaking a demoralized Clement in the ninth.

The 23-year-old Australian won his fifth consecutive game to seal the match and advance to a quarterfinal against the winner of Wednesday's late match between 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson and Hewitt's Davis Cup teammate, Wayne Arthurs.

Third-seeded Joachim Johansson of Sweden, who won last week's Australian men's hardcourt championship at Adelaide, pulled out of his second-round match against Max Mirnyi of Belarus on Wednesday with a hamstring injury while trailing 4-1 in the first set.

He injured his right hamstring in the second set of his win Tuesday over Greg Rusedski.

"It's a new injury, I've never had it before," Joachim Johansson said. "It was sore when I was practicing. I couldn't give 100 percent, and at this level, there's no way you can win a match. I will go to Melbourne this evening and see what the doctor says."

When asked whether he might be in doubt for next week's Australian Open, he said: "I think it's too early to say."

In other men's matches Wednesday, eighth-seeded Taylor Dent defeated fellow American Mardy Fish 7-6 (4), 6-1; fourth-seeded Andrei Pavel of Romania beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-4, 7-6 (3), and Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic defeated Spain's Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-2.

In women's second-round play, third-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia beat Eleni Deniilidou of Greece 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia defeated Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-0, 6-2, and Samantha Stosur of Australia, a finalist in last week's Gold Coast tournament, beat Tatiana Golovin of France 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Top-seeded American Lindsay Davenport plays her quarterfinal match Thursday against Stosur. Dementieva will next play Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who beat Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-2 Wednesday.

"She's No. 1 in the world and she's playing really well right now," Stosur said of Davenport. "But so am I. I think it'll be an interesting match."

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