Hewitt No Sweat for Nadal; Henin v Serena Today at French Open

Posted on June 5, 2007

Lleyton Hewitt's brash talk that he could hang with Rafael Nadal on any surface after a tight match weeks ago in Hamburg came back at him on Monday when the Australian was dismissed in straight sets by the Spaniard 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(5) at the French Open.

"I'm very happy today with my game," Nadal said. "I'm happy about the win. Very good win against Lleyton. So, yeah, I played the best match of the tournament, my best match."

Also advancing Monday were No. 6 seed Novak Djokovic and unseeded Russian Igor Andreev who set up a quarterfinal encounter.

Novak tamed the big forehand of unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(1), while Andreev upset No. 16 seed Marcos Baghdatis 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.

Baghdatis was also impressed with the Andreev forehand.

"I have a feeling [his forehand] is even more powerful than that of Nadal," Baghdatis said of Andreev. "He hurt me quite a lot with his forehand. You never know where he is going to place the ball, it keeps you moving from one end of the court to the other, and it's never easy."

Setting up a quarterfinal meeting with Nadal Monday was his Spanish mentor and No. 23 seed Carlos Moya, who stopped the run of 35-year-old Swede Jonas Bjorkman 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-5.

"Now I'm the oldest guy in the field," Moya said, "but I still remember when I was the youngest guy in the draw, and now I have become the oldest. Time has passed so fast, but I'm very proud of being the oldest guy now, and I think I still have very good tennis ahead of me. When you're younger, maybe you don't value the things as I do right now. For me, it's a great honor to be in the last eight in a Grand Slam like this one, so I enjoy it more now. When I was 22, 23, I was in the Top 10 so I was supposed to be in the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros, and now I'm in the Top 20, so it's great for me to be here."

On court Tuesday at Roland Garros are (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. (7) Ana Ivanovic, (1) Justine Henin vs. (8) Serena Williams, (1) Roger Federer vs. (9) Tommy Robredo, (4) Jelena Jankovic vs. (6) Nicole Vaidisova, (9) Anna Chakvetadze vs. (2) Maria Sharapova in an all-Russian match-up, and (4) Nikolay Davydenko vs. (19) Guillermo Canas.