NEW YORK, 31 August 2003 — Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan and two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia breezed into a fourth-round showdown at the US Open with impressive victories here yesterday. Paradorn, the 11th seed, equaled his best Slam showing by beating Spanish lucky loser Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. Paradorn’s only prior Slam trip to the round of 16 came at in July at Wimbledon, where he lost to Andy Roddick.
“It was great for the next match. I’m not using a lot of energy,” Paradorn said, looking ahead to Hewitt. “It’s going to be a good match. I’m looking forward to playing him. It’s going to be a tough match for me and for him too.”
Sixth seed Hewitt advanced when Czech Radek Stepanek retired due to back pain with the Aussie ahead 6-1, 3-0. Hewitt was playing so well that he wanted more so he hit balls with reigning Wimbledon champion Roger Federer afterward.
“I was in a pretty good routine,” Hewitt said. “I was hiting the ball pretty cleanly. It was a step up in the right direction. In some ways, you want to keep going and in some ways you want to save some for the second week.”
Hewitt enters tomorrow’s duel for a quarterfinal spot 4-1 against the Asian ace, having won last year in Paris, Miami and San Jose and in 2001 at Indian Wells. Paradorn’s lone victory over him was in the 2002 Tokyo quarter-finals.
“In that match, I was holding my serve, good hitting holding well, ready to make the next shot, to go for it,” Paradorn said. “He’s always tough.”
Hewitt expects a thriller with Paradorn in their first Slam meeting. “He’s a tough player, extremely talented,” Hewitt said. “He has got every shot in the game. He’s aggressive, has a big shot, moves well around the court and he can come in and volley as well.”
On the women’s side, sixth seed Jennifer Capriati struggled past France’s Emilie Loit 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 while two-time Grand Slam champion Mary Pierce of France ousted Japan’s Shinobu Asagoe 6-4, 6-1.
Hewitt, the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon champion, ousted Stepanek from a Slam for the second time this year, having knocked him out of the Australian Open in the third round as well. Hewitt won nine of the first 10 games when Stepanek called a trainer to the court. The 24-year-old Czech lay on his stomach as the trainer rubbed his lower back. Stepanek lost two of the next three points and then quit the match.
Three-time Slam winner Capriati posted a “No Loit-erring” sign, holding off the upset-minded woman who was two points from ousting eventual winner Serena Williams from the first round of the Australian Open in January.
Capriati was broken to start the last set but won the next five games before being broken again. Capriati then took three match points on Loit’s serve and won on the last of them when Loit sliced a backhand wide. Next for Capriati is Russian 11th seed Elena Dementieva, who ousted American Amy Frazier 7-6 (7 1), 7-6 (7 3).
Pierce, 28, is making an unlikely bid for the third leg of a career Grand Slam, having won the 1995 Australian Open and 2000 French Open crowns. She next faces seventh seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia.
On Friday Andy Roddick was given a challenge for his 21st birthday and the American responded with a tie-breaker rally for the ages as the clock struck midnight on Ivan Ljubicic’s upset bid.
Fourth seed Roddick battled past the 43rd-ranked Croatian 6-3, 6-7 (4 7), 6-3, 7-6 (10 8) here in a match that lasted three hours and five minutes and ended here early yesterday morning, minutes into Roddick’s 21st birthday.
After going 21-1 and winning three hardcourt titles since Wimbledon, Roddick seized the ATP Champions Race lead and became a favorite here. But he struggled to subdue a stubborn rival who broke him only once but battled to the finish.
Roddick trailed Ljubicic 5-2 in the final tiebreaker when midnight struck. He turned 21, his match fortunes changing with his age as Ljubicic double faulted and Roddick won eight of the final 11 points.
After saving four set points, Roddick fired a 138-mph ace to earn his first match point. Ljubicic hit a forehand volley winner to save it but Roddick followed with a forehand winner and Ljubicic fired a final lob long to end it.
After the match, Ljubicic ripped Roddick for playing to the crowd with antics that affected line call’s and umpire decisions. “Anywhere in the world except in the United States, if we played this match, I would have won,” Ljubicic said. “It affected the linesmen, the crowd, everyone else except me. In a match like this, that’s what made the change.”
Roddick, who next faces Brazil’s 49th-ranked Flavio Saretta, said Ljubicic was being a sore loser. Ljubicic was irate over a forehand winner on the sideline by Roddick that leveled the final tie-breaker at 7-7. He sank to his knees when the call was made, appealing in vain for an overrule from the umpire.
Roddick said the ball was good and television replays supported him, even though Ljubicic said he called the ball good before it landed and linesmen were too intimidated to contradict him before a cheering crowd.
Swiss second seed Roger Federer took only 78 minutes to dispatch Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-1, 6-2, 6-0, and take his ATP-best 60th victory of the year.
Kim Clijsters, the only top-ranked woman never to win a Slam title, battled breezes to eliminate 29th-ranked Russian teen Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2. The 20-year-old Belgian will try to match her best US Open showing today by beating 17th-seeded American Meghann Shaughnessy. Fifth seed Amelie Mauresmo of France ousted the final qualifier, 16-year-old Russian Slam debutant Maria Kirilenko, 6-4, 6-2. Pierce will next face Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, who upset ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4.
