Evening Standard (London): Hewitt fights back to see off Spanish hope

LLEYTON HEWITT beat Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller in Melbourne today to reach the quarterfinals of his home Grand Slam for the first time.

Hewitt, carrying the hopes of Australian men's tennis, won 7-5, 3- 6, 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 after looking outclassed in the middle of the match.

Third seed Hewitt was in deep trouble when his left-handed opponent strung together nine successive games to go two sets to one up but the tenacious Australian clawed his way back to force a tiebreak in the fourth set, which he won 7-3.

Both players scrambled madly around the court before Nadal, 18, appeared to run out of gas at the start of the fifth set. Hewitt raced to a 3-0 lead and closed it out on his third match point when the exhausted Spaniard pushed a backhand long.

Former Wimbledon and US Open champion Hewitt, who beat Nadal in the third round last year, will play one of two Argentines in the quarterfinals, either sixth seed Guillermo Coria or ninth seed David Nalbandian.

By contrast, Andy Roddick cruised into the quarterfinals with a straight sets win over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber. The second seed then revealed he is winning money in the casino as easily as he is winning it from his court exploits.

Roddick, who won 6-3, 7-6, 6-1, also admitted he was looking forward to tomorrow's clash between Andre Agassi and Roger Federer.

Roddick, who now meets Tim Henman's conqueror Nikolay Davydenko, said: "I was down in blackjack, now I'm up 600 bucks, so I'm pretty excited about that. The game is really simple, so I understand it.

"Andre has set the standard so high for himself that it's not surprising to see him winning matches. It's not going to be surprising two years from now if he's still here winning matches.

People have been talking about his retirement since before I was on the tour. I've come to expect it. Andre has been able to give Roger probably his best matches over the last year or so. I think Roger has got him a couple of times, but they were pretty close."

Davydenko, playing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, won 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 against the 12th seed Guillermo Canas, of Argentina.

Meanwhile, the Russian bid to hold all four women's grand slam titles suffered a double blow when Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva were both beaten.

Third seed Myskina, the French Open champion, lost 6-4,6-2 against Nathalie Dechy, the French No19 seed.

Dechy is coached by Sven Groeneveld, who is expected to soon start working again with Greg Rusedski.

Dementieva, the sixth seed, lost to Swiss 12th seed Patty Schnyder 6-7, 7-6,6-2. The results left only two Russian women in the draw - Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, the fourth seed, and US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded five. They play each other in the last eight.

Lindsay Davenport reached the last eight with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Croat Karolina Sprem.