An anticipated showdown between the tournament's top seed and its defending champion failed to eventuate on Friday as Fernando Gonzalez and Lleyton Hewitt both lost their quarter-final matches at the US Men's Clay Court Championship, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Houston.In the final match of the day, No. 6-seeded Horacio Zeballos of Argentina upset Chilean No. 1 seed Gonzalez, 6-4, 6-4; it was the South American duo's first meeting.
In the semi-finals Zeballos will meet fellow Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela, who withstood a late fight back from Hewitt to defeat the fourth seed and defending champion, 6-4, 6-3. Chela served for the match at 5-0 in the second set but was made to wait for victory as Hewitt reeled off three straight games in a comeback attempt. The Argentine regained his composure though and broke the Australian’s serve for the fifth time to secure victory in one hour and 12 minutes.
The 29-year-old Hewitt, who battled past Somdev Devvarman in his opening match, was playing his first tournament since undergoing right hip surgery on 29 January, four days after losing to Roger Federer in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Later on Friday Hewitt contested the doubles semi-finals with his coach, Nathan Healey, falling to top seeds and defending champions Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, 6-2, 7-6(4), despite twice holding a service break in the second set.
American No. 3 seed Sam Querrey held off a strong challenge from 2000 finalist Nicolas Massu to prevail 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 Friday and reach the semi-finals.
In reaching his third ATP World Tour semi-final of the season, Querrey fired 10 aces and countered losing his own serve twice by converting three of seven break point opportunities to seal victory after one hour and 50 minutes.
“I lost focus after that game (when he was broken in the second set) for about five or six games, up until the second game of the third set,” confessed Querrey. “But then fortunately I fought back and got it done.
“[My clay court tennis] is kind of going up and down. Yesterday (against Kavcic) I thought I played a little better. Today, the first set and a half I thought I played great. Then when he broke me I got a little tentative but then picked it up at the end of the third set. So a little streaky today but it’s just getting better and better."
World No. 25 Querrey will face 2009 runner-up Wayne Odesnik, who scored a 6-4, 6-1 win on Friday over Belgium's Xavier Malisse in one hour, 22 minutes.
"I made too many mistakes," said Malisse. "It's tough to play a lefty; he plays pretty well on clay. Still I had a lot of break chances, but I didn't take them today."
Friday, 9 April 2010
Singles - Quarter-finals
[6] H Zeballos (ARG) d [1] F Gonzalez (CHI) 64 64
[3] S Querrey (USA) d N Massu (CHI) 63 36 64
J Chela (ARG) d [4] [WC] L Hewitt (AUS) 64 63
W Odesnik (USA) d X Malisse (BEL) 64 61
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