SYDNEY - Lleyton Hewitt's preparations for the Australian Open kick into another gear today with a quarterfinal clash at the Sydney International.
Top seed Hewitt will meet world No 60 Andreas Seppi of Italy in the third match on centre court at Olympic Park.
Hewitt, a four-time winner in Sydney,
is still trying to shake a stomach bug but showed huge signs of improvement with yesterday's 6-1 6-4 win over Austrian Jurgen Melzer.
"I wouldn't say it is all gone just yet. It was a big step in the right direction though," he said.
"I'm pretty pleased with the way I was able to go out there and focus on the job at hand and not worry about how I was feeling at all."
First up today (from 1pm NZT) was an all-Russian clash between Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov.
In other men's quarterfinals, eighth seed James Blake meets Frenchman Arnaud Clement and second seed Nikolay Davydenko was playing the winner of the rain-delayed second round match between Paradorn Srichaphan and Ivo Karlovic this morning.
An epic battle looms in the women's semifinals, between fifth and sixth seeds Justine Henin-Hardenne and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Henin-Hardenne enjoyed a walkover yesterday, Nadia Petrova pulled out with a groin injury, while Kuznetsova trumped tricky Serbian Ana Ivanovic in the only women's match to go the distance.
The other semifinal features seventh seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who had a walkover against top seed Kim Clijsters who injured her hip during warm up, and eighth seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova after she led 6-3 3-1 against an ill Daniela Hantuchova.
After four withdrawals from competition yesterday, Carlos Moya pulled out of his second round clash with Blake, tournament organiser Craig Watson is hoping there are no more casualties today.
The Sydney tournament has a history of player retirements, Lindsay Davenport, Elena Dementieva and Moya all pulled out here last year, but Watson doesn't believe any players are feigning injury after a few matches to head to Melbourne for the Australian Open early.
"I absolutely do not believe that is the case," he said.
"If (anyone) thinks one match practice is enough then I must be a pretty poor judge.
"Kim (Clijsters) was genuinely depressed and disappointed not to get anymore matches.
"I personally believe there are too many (WTA and ATP) events."
- AAP
SYDNEY - Lleyton Hewitt's preparations for the Australian Open kick into another gear today with a quarterfinal clash at the Sydney International.
Top seed Hewitt will meet world No 60 Andreas Seppi of Italy in the third match on centre court at Olympic Park.
Hewitt, a four-time winner in Sydney,
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