TENNIS/French Open: Those who worry that Lleyton Hewitt's all-action, all-running style will lead to premature burnout were given further cause for concern yesterday.
The Australian World Number One was beaten 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the fourth round of the French Open by Argentina's Guillermo Canas in four hours 13 minutes of extraordinarily tense, high-quality tennis.
And, within half an hour, Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, the reigning champion, was knocked out in straight sets by Spain's Albert Costa.
The second set alone of Hewitt's epic lasted more than an hour and a half, with Canas taking the tie-break 15-13 (itself almost half an hour), on his 10th set-point.
Kuerten's 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 defeat was more expected. A hip operation in February curtailed his preparation while Costa is playing some of the best tennis of his career.
Only Kuerten of the current players has won more clay court tournaments than Costa, although he has never progressed beyond the last eight here.
"Today is a great moment for me," said Costa. "This match was one of the greatest moments of my career."
Kuerten said he had pushed himself to the limit. "I'm close to getting to my best level, but I felt I got everything I could from my body," he said. "He (Costa) was really inspired today, it was a great day for him."
Hewitt must so dearly have hoped that Canas's previous five-set win over Spain's Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion, might have tired him a little, having lasted four hours 28 minutes.
The relief was obvious when Hewitt won the first set tie-break 7-1, but thereafter, try as he might - and he tried mightily - he could not nail the Argentine down.
"I didn't want to go down two sets like last year and felt it was a good advantage to have won the first set," said 21-year-old Hewitt.
"It's about getting that small advantage, that edge out there. He was able to get it and I wasn't."
The Costa-Canas quarter-final promises to be another clay-court classic, providing Canas has not run his energy tank dry.
It was to be expected that Canas, who has been on court for almost 14 hours thus far in the tournament, would chase everything down, but Hewitt was as determined as ever not to give second best.
He was booed and whistled off at the end, having hurled his racket earlier on and taken a swipe at the potted plants surrounding the Court Suzanne-Lenglen, but he did not deserve it.
Spain's Alex Corretja, the beaten finalist last year against Kuerten and in 1998 when he lost to Moya, arrived in Paris with little clay-court form and has once again taken to Roland Garros like a worried man takes to his nearest and dearest.
"I feel like I have time to solve my problems here," he said after beating Mariano Zabaleta of Argentine 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.
"There is a great ambience here - people even come and watch you practice, and some send me letters to the locker room."
Corretja next plays Romania's Andrei Pavel for a place in the semi-finals, Pavel having defeated Germany's Tommy Haas, the number three seed, in straight sets yesterday.
Pavel, the French Open junior winner 10 years ago when he was 18-years-old, had won only one match at Roland Garros as a senior prior to this year and was as thrilled as anyone yesterday to have reached his first grand slam quarter-final, blowing kisses to the crowd with abandon.
"I wanted to win so badly," said Pavel.
The women's quarter-final line-up for tomorrow was decided with both the Williams sisters taking their appointed places, although Serena, wearing a dress she described as spangly-dangly, had a decidedly dangly first set against the 17-year-old Russian Vera Zvonareva, playing in her first grand slam tournament, before winning 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
The Russians appear to be producing a never-ending stream of talented women, currently headed by Elena Dementieva, the number 13, although she was disappointingly defeated 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 by Clarisa Fernandez of the Argentine, who had previously beaten Belgium's Kim Clijsters, last year's runner-up.
Aside from the tennis, this match was remarkable for the fact that Dementieva served twice in succession.
She lost her serve to give Fernandez the second set and then, after a toilet break, served again at the start of the third.
The official in charge was Jane Harvey, which might lead the hard-hearted to suggest that not only can the British not play on clay, they cannot umpire on it either.
Daniela Hantuchova, the 19-year-old Slovak who beat Martina Hingis in the final of this year's Indian Wells event, was yesterday tipped by Monica Seles as a future grand slam champion.
"She has such a beautifully fluid game, a great serve, and moves really well," said Seles whose greater experience saw her home 6-4, 7-5.
"I was trying so hard to finish the match, I was very focused on the win.
Seles, three times the French Open champion from 1990 to 1992, next meets Venus Williams.
Guardian Service
FOURTH ROUND RESULTS
Women's singles: 1 J Capriati (US) bt 20 P Schnyder (Swi) 6-4 6-4; 7 J Dokic (Yug) bt K Srebotnik (Slo) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2; P Suarez (Arg) bt 10 A Mauresmo (Fra) 6-2 2-6 6-4; 3 S Williams (US) bt V Zvonareva (Rus) 4-6 6-0 6-1; M Pierce (Fra) bt 9 S Farina Elia (Ita) 6-1 6-2; 2 V Williams (US) bt C Rubin (US) 6-3 6-2; C Fernandez (Arg) bt 13 E Dementieva (Rus) 3-6 6-2 6-3; 6 M Seles (US) bt 11 D Hantuchova (Slo) 6-4 7-5.
Men's singles: 20 A Costa (Spa) bt 7 G Kuerten (Bra) 6-4 7-5 6-4; 15 G Canas (Arg) bt 1 L Hewitt (Aus) 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (15-13) 6-4 6-3; 22 A Pavel (Rom) bt 3 T Haas (Ger) 6-1 7-6 (11-9) 6-4; 18 A Corretja (Spa) bt M Zabaleta (Arg) 6-3 6-2 7-5.
