TENNIS: DAVID FERRER battled his way past Lleyton Hewitt to reach the fourth round of the US Open yesterday while defending champion Novak Djokovic continued his New York stroll.

The second seed has looked in fine form at Flushing Meadows and he needed only an hour and 37 minutes to defeat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-3 6-2 6-2.

Benneteau is the 31st seed and the man who almost beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon this year – but he could do nothing to threaten Djokovic.

The Serb, who beat Rafael Nadal in the final last year, had been slightly off-colour after losing to the Spaniard in the French Open final to see his hopes of four straight grand slam titles go up in smoke.

But he has hit form again on the North American hard courts, winning the title in Toronto and reaching the final in Cincinnati, and he made it through with only 14 games dropped in three rounds.

Benneteau simply could not live with Djokovic’s power and precision from the back of the court and time and again found himself out-rallied as the Serb powered away 41 winners and made only 12 unforced errors.

Djokovic is not used to playing in the first match of the day, but there was no lack of sharpness from the world number two.

He said: “He’s a quality player and has a lot of variety in his game, so I came to the match knowing that I have to start very strong. And winning the first set obviously brought me a lot of momentum and confidence to continue on playing well.

“I felt from the start that from the baseline I was very comfortable, both defence and offence, in that position. So I tried to be aggressive and not allow him to come to the net because he plays good when he’s in control.”

Ferrer and Hewitt are possibly the game’s two grittiest competitors, and it was no surprise that their match lasted for more than three hours.

Hewitt, the 2001 champion, needed a wild card to get into the tournament as he is still working his way back from foot surgery earlier this year, but there are signs that he is rediscovering some of his old form.

The 31-year-old had five set points in the first set tie-break but Ferrer simply would not give in, setting up the set point he took with some incredible retrieving.

Hewitt levelled but went an early break down in the third set and the five-setter he had against Gilles Muller in the previous round began to catch up with him as Ferrer ran away with it in the fourth to win 7-6 (11/9) 4-6 6-3 6-0.

Meanwhile, Kim Clijsters said goodbye to professional tennis on Saturday night as she and Bob Bryan lost in the second round of the mixed doubles.

The Belgian announced earlier this year that she would bow out at Flushing Meadows and her singles career ended on Wednesday when she was beaten by British teenager Laura Robson.

That still left Clijsters with doubles but she lost in the first round of the women’s event and in mixed she and Bryan went down 6-2 3-6 12-10 to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Brazil’s Bruno Soares.

Clijsters, who got a standing ovation as she addressed the crowd, said: “It’s been an honour to be a part of this lifestyle and have so many dreams come true.

“Life goes on but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the sport any more . . . I’m happy I’m closing off this chapter and starting a new life with my family. I had a great night and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish.”