ADELAIDE, Australia -- Local favorite Lleyton Hewitt
and Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Paul-Henri Mathieu lost their
final round-robin matches Thursday and were eliminated from the
$419,000 Next Generation Adelaide International tennis
tournament.
Second-seeded Richard Gasquet won his match to secure a berth in
the quarterfinals of the hardcourt event, the first to use the
new round-robin format that gives players a chance to atone for
an early loss.
With a berth in the round of eight on the line, the
fourth-seeded Hewitt suffered a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 setback to
unseeded Igor Kunitsyn of Russia.
The sixth-seeded Clement dropped a pair of tiebreakers in a 7-6
(7-4), 7-6 (7-5) loss to lefthanded qualifier Chris Guccione of
Australia, who did not lose a set in moving into the
quarterfinals.
The eighth-seeded Mathieu was eliminated with a 7-6 (7-3), 0-6,
6-3 defeat at the hands of 6-5 teenager Juan Martin del Potro of
Argentina, who also advanced to the round of eight.
In all, six unseeded players will take the court Friday, with
Gasquet and top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia the only seeds
still alive.
Gasquet remained unbeaten with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 victory over
Frank Dancevic of Canada. His next foe is Guccione.
Djokovic, who won twice last year, will meet American Paul
Goldstein, the first to clinch a quarterfinal slot and also yet
to drop a set.
Looking for his second career final appearance, Kunitsyn will
face del Potro.
Friday's other quarterfinal pits Joachim Johansson of Sweden
against American Vincent Spadea. Johansson won this event in
2005.
Johansson was the beneficiary when defending champion Florent
Serra of France retired in the third set of his match with
seventh-seeded compatriot Gilles Simon with an upset stomach.
Spadea, who already had beaten third-seeded Radek Stepanek,
advanced with a 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) triumph over Evgeny Korolev of
Russia.
The winner receives $64,800.