SYDNEY, 10 January 2008 — Richard Gasquet and Lleyton Hewitt crashed out of the men’s draw at the Sydney International yesterday as women’s No. 1-seeded Justine Henin breezed into the semifinals of the Australian Open warm-up event.
No. 1-seeded Gasquet was beaten by Russian Dmitry Tursunov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in their second-round match.
Gasquet has had little court time since arriving in Australia, as he pulled out of last week’s tournament in Adelaide due to a knee injury. But the Frenchman felt yesterday’s loss would not harm his chances in Melbourne.
“It’s not a big problem for the Australian Open because I’m ready. I did two matches here and no pain, so it’s okay.”
No. 6-seeded Lleyton Hewitt will have to complete his Australian Open preparations on the practice court after being upset by Davis Cup teammate Chris Guccione 7-6, 7-6. Guccione used his potent serve to rifle 23 aces past Hewitt.
Hewitt said the loss won’t derail his lifelong goal of winning his home Grand Slam starting Monday.
“The major tournament hasn’t started yet, so there’s no point getting worried. I felt all-in-all today the ball-striking was pretty good.”
Hewitt didn’t have his serve broken during the match, but failed to convert on four break points.
“At the moment I’m pretty frustrated because I felt like I played a pretty good match out there. I felt like I was the better player the whole match and the stats showed that.”
Hewitt’s made a number of outbursts at officials, who he believes are now too reliant on the Hawk-Eye line-calling technology which is not in operation in Sydney.
“Central umpires have probably gone into their shell more so since Hawk-Eye has come in, which, okay, that’s fine in major tournaments. But at the smaller tournaments where you don’t have Hawk-Eye you have to stand up and make decisions.”
No. 5-seed Carlos Moya and No. 8-seed Fernando Verdasco were also second-round casualties, leaving No. 4-seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic as the only seed into the quarterfinals. He will meet Guccione in the last eight. Henin is through to the semifinals after only 52 minutes on court in the tournament.
The two-time Sydney champion received a first-round bye and a second-round walkover, before cruising past Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-0 yesterday. Henin will play No. 4 Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals after the Serb beat Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. “It’s been a strange start in the tournament for me, winning my first match not playing.” Henin said. “So I’m happy with the way I played today.”
Henin is aiming for a second Australia Open crown after missing last year’s tournament due to her marriage break up. The Belgian is also keen to make amends for retiring midway through the 2006 final against Amelie Mauresmo due to a stomach upset. “I feel really comfortable about what happened and I have no regrets. I was feeling so bad. I wasn’t healthy enough to play that match.”
No. 2-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also progressed to the last four after beating Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-0.
