Hewitt takes early ride home from Sydney International
By DENNIS PASSA
AP Sports Writer
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Lleyton Hewitt sat in the front seat of a courtesy car, ready for the hour's ride to his beachside mansion.
He's made this trip from the Sydney International many times before. This time the top-seeded Aussie made it as a loser.
Hewitt was beaten by Italy's Andreas Seppi 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the quarterfinals. And gone was Hewitt's 22-match winning streak at a tournament he captured in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005. He didn't play in 2002 and 2003 because of injuries or commitments.
His coach, Roger Rasheed, drove Hewitt's Hummer back to the house. Hewitt's wife, actress Bec Cartwright, was a passenger. Hewitt was left to ponder the missed opportunities.
He nearly pulled out of his first-round match with a stomach virus at the former Olympic site. Against Seppi, he blew two match points in the deciding set after serving for the match in the second.
``It really should have been finished off in straight sets,'' he said. ``It shouldn't even have been put in that situation in the third set.''
Hewitt, ranked No. 4, will fly to Melbourne on Friday to continue preparations for next week's Australian Open. The 60th-ranked Seppi advanced to Friday's semifinals against Igor Andreev, who beat Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in an all-Russian match.
James Blake defeated Arnaud Clement of France 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in another quarterfinal and will play second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia on Friday.
Davydenko advanced on a walkover when Thailand's Paradorn Schrichapan pulled out with a thigh injury, the eighth player to withdraw from this tuneup.
Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the women's final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. On Friday, Henin-Hardenne will play Italy's Francesca Schiavone, who downed the Czech Republic's Nicole Vaidisova 6-4, 6-3 in the other semifinal.
After five consecutive service breaks in the second set, Hewitt served for the match at 5-3. But he double-faulted to give Seppi a break point and them botched a backhand to lose the game.
Serving at 5-3 in the deciding set, Hewitt again missed a backhand volley at the net on match point. After fending off one break point set up by another double-fault, he hit a forehand long on another match point.
Seppi eventually broke back to 5-4. The Italian came back to lead 6-5, then won the match when he hit a forehand to the corner that Hewitt couldn't reach.
``It's been fantastic winning four titles here, but it's not something I thought about a lot,'' said Hewitt, who lost in the second round last week at Adelaide.
``I played too defensively when I got up. He played a lot better on my service games than on his service games,'' he said. ``I wasn't 100 percent, but I'm not taking anything away from his win.''
Seppi called the win his ``greatest ever, to beat Hewitt here in Sydney.''
``He made a lot of mistakes,'' Seppi said. ``He did play more defensively than usual, so I tried to take advantage of that and come in more.''
Henin-Hardenne used a powerful backhand to beat Kuznetsova, winning the second set in 23 minutes after taking a 5-0 lead. The Belgian, once ranked No. 1, won this event in 2004.
``I was moving great, I've been very powerful,'' Henin-Hardenne said. ``I have four matches here before the Australian Open. I hope I can keep it going this way.''
Top-seeded Kim Clijsters withdrew from the quarterfinals Wednesday night because of an ailing left hip. She still hopes to play in the Australian Open.
``The good news is that there is no tear of the muscle,'' she said. ``In the next couple of days I'm going to receive more treatment ... and at that point I'll have a better idea of my condition.''
WagerWeb Sportsbook Bet on the Tennis Here
