NEW YORK, 7 September 2005 — Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the quarterfinals at the US Open for the sixth straight year with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dominik Hrbaty, who drew as much attention for his unusual shirts as his play yesterday.
“Hopefully I’m putting myself in position to have another crack of it,” said Hewitt, the 2001 champion and runner-up last year. “Deep in the second week now, I’m really starting to enjoy it.”
Hewitt now plays Jarkko Nieminen, who became the first Finnish man to reach the quarters at a Grand Slam with a 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.
Hewitt needed 31⁄2 hours to beat American Taylor Dent in the third round, but he didn’t show any signs of fatigue against No. 15 Hrbaty. Or being distracted by the Slovakian’s unusual shirt.
Hrbaty has drawn some interesting looks for the black-and-pink shirt, which looks ordinary from the front. On the back, though, there are oval-shaped cutouts below each shoulder, making it look as if he didn’t pull it on all the way.
Hewitt broke Hrbaty three times in the first set, including once at love in a four-point game. But Hrbaty, a quarterfinalist last year, gave Hewitt more of a game in the second set. He broke the Australian to go up 3-1, but then gave the break right back.
With the set tied at 4, Hrbaty was broken again, though the bright afternoon sun might have had something to do with it.
After Hewitt raced to the corner to chase down a shot, Hrbaty stood ready at the net, set up for what should have been an easy winner. But with the sun glaring in his eyes, his smash sailed over the line. The same thing happened on the next point, giving Hewitt another break opportunity.
Hewitt converted the break when Hrbaty’s backhand hit the net and bounced out of bounds, one of the Slovakian’s 49 errors. Hewitt then served out the set and breezed through the third to move into the quarterfinals.
On the other side of the draw, three Americans reached the quarterfinals, including a matchup of the two feel-good stories of the Open. James Blake rallied to beat No. 19 Tommy Robredo on Monday after Andre Agassi scratched out a five-setter over Xavier Malisse.
Blake is still as big an Agassi fan as he was back in grade school. In fact, Blake thought Agassi was so cool the first time he saw him — the tennis rebel with his long, highlighted hair and big earring — he went out and got a pair of those denim shorts.
“Man, it had to be fifth or sixth grade. I was probably 10 or 11 years old,” Blake said. “He was probably in his early 20s by then, taking the world by storm already.”
Agassi’s hair and his 20s are long gone, and those denim shorts have been replaced by staid, old-school-length white ones. He’s still taking the world by storm, though, becoming the first man over 35 to make the US Open quarterfinals in 14 years.
“Before the match, after the match, if someone interviews me during the match, I’ll probably say nice things about him,” Blake said. “He’s really a true gentleman, one of the friendliest guys in the locker room. That’s something that’s impressive when you don’t need to do that because you’re one of the legends of the sport. You’ve got everything you can ever dream of, but he still knows how to treat people.
“That’s something I really admire.”
“I kept my head down and kept wanting to make him earn it,” Agassi said. “In the third and fourth set, I felt I was a bit living on the edge with my serve. But then in the fifth, I settled down a little bit on my service games and put enough pressure on him to get that break.”
With the crowd chanting his name, Agassi broke Malisse in the sixth game of the final set, then stunned the Belgian with three aces in a row to lead 5-2.
He grabbed two quick points on Malisse’s serve, then capped the afternoon on double-match point.
Blake’s victory over Robredo follows wins over No. 28 Greg Rusedski in the first round and No. 2 Rafael Nadal on Saturday, putting him up next against Agassi today.
