Richard Gasquet and Lleyton Hewitt crashed out of the men's draw at the Sydney International on Wednesday.
No. 1-seeded Gasquet was beaten by Russian Dmitry Tursunov 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in their second-round match.
Gasquet has had little court time since arriving in Australia, as he pulled out of last week's tournament in Adelaide due to a knee injury. But the Frenchman felt yesterday's loss would not harm his chances in Melbourne.
PHOTO: AFP
"It's not a big problem for the Australian Open because I'm ready. I did two matches here and no pain, so its okay," he said.
Lleyton Hewitt, the No. 6 seed, will have to complete his Australian Open preparations on the practice court after being upset by Davis Cup teammate Chris Guccione 7-6 (4) 7-6 (2). Guccione used his potent serve to rifle 23 aces past Hewitt.
Hewitt said the loss won't derail his lifelong goal of winning his home grand slam.
"The major tournament hasn't started yet, so there's no point getting worried. I felt all-in-all today the ball-striking was pretty good," he said.
Hewitt didn't have his serve broken during the match, but failed to convert on four break points.
"At the moment I'm pretty frustrated because I felt like I played a pretty good match out there. I felt like I was the better player the whole match and the stats showed that," he said.
Hewitt's made a number of outbursts at officials, who he believes are now too reliant on the Hawk-Eye line-calling technology which is not in operation in Sydney.
"Central umpires have probably gone into their shell more so since Hawk-Eye has come in, which, okay, that's fine in major tournaments. But at the smaller tournaments where you don't have Hawk-Eye you have to stand up and make decisions," he said.
No. 5 seed Carlos Moya and No. 8 seed Fernando Verdasco were also second-round casualties, leaving No. 4 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic as the only seed to make it into the quarter-finals. He will meet Guccione in the last eight.
Meanwhile, Justine Henin, relishing the pressure on her to keep her No. 1 world ranking, swept through to the semi-finals yesterday in the women's tournament to line up a blockbuster against world No. 4 Ana Ivanovic.
The Belgian seven-time Grand Slam champion took 52 minutes to thrash Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-0 to set up a showdown today with the big-hitting Serbian.
Ivanovic kept her part of the bargain, spending almost two hours on court under a hot sun to see off Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova will face Czech Nicole Vaidisova in the other semi-final today. Vaidisova knocked out world No. 3 Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the remaining quarter-final.
Henin is favorite to win the Australian Open, which gets underway in Melbourne on Monday and is the year's first Grand Slam tournament.
"I'm No.1 in the world and I can understand everyone seeing me as the favorite, but I can tell you that every time I wake up I know that anything can happen and I try to do the best I can," Henin said.
"I'm really focused and I just try to be well prepared. A Grand Slam is long, there are seven matches and you need to be strong, mentally, physically; you need a little bit of luck," she said.
Henin acknowledged her opponents up their game when they play her.
"I can feel it, they always have a better level which is interesting and very exciting for me because it's always a good challenge to keep my ranking and to improve," she said.
Henin will face a well-prepared Ivanovic, who has been practising in Sydney for almost a month.
"I've definitely had a good preparation and I'm really happy that I've won the last couple of matches and had a chance to slowly get into it," Ivanovic said after beating Srebotnik.
"Winning a couple of matches has definitely given me some confidence and coming into the Australian Open I feel much better," she said.
Second seed Kuznetsova says she needs to have more self-belief to take her tennis to the next level.
The Russian has not won another Grand Slam since her 2004 success at Flushing Meadow despite playing in other finals, at last year's US Open and the 2006 French Open.
Kuznetsova showed her power on the slower Plexicushion hardcourt with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Italian Francesca Schiavone.
"I need to be more consistent," she said. "To take the next step and win another slam I just need to play more important matches better and maybe believe in myself a little bit more."
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