Third seed Lleyton Hewitt today served his way into the quarterfinals of the Legg Mason Classic with a 6-1 6-4 triumph over Germany's Denis Gremelmayr.
Hewitt served just five aces but had no double faults and never faced a break point against Gremelmayr, a left-hander ranked 120th in the world.
"I had my rhythm out there right from the start," said Hewitt. "I felt like I was able to pressure on his service games throughout the whole first set. Pretty much every game I was in control."
In the last eight, Hewitt will face 11th seed Arnaud Clement of France, who blasted nine aces and never lost his serve during a 6-3 6-2 upset of fifth seed Dominik Hrbaty.
Elsewhere, American Mardy Fish also advanced with a 6-3 6-1 whipping of Andrea Stoppini, the Italian who stunned Andre Agassi in straight sets on Tuesday.
Top seed James Blake was playing two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin later Thursday in the third round of the hard court tournament.
