Australian Lleyton Hewitt reached the semi-finals of the US men's Clay Court Championship on Friday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Hewitt, a former world number one who is battling to come back from left hip surgery, will be vying to advance to his first ATP Tour final in more than two years when he meets Russian Evgeny Korolev on Saturday.
Hewitt served for the match in the eighth game of the second set but was broken as Garcia-Lopez nailed a crosscourt forehand on break point. The Aussie served for the match again in the 10th game, but wasted three match points before sealing it with a forehand winner.
Hewitt dropped his serve in the fifth game of the opening set, but broke Garcia Lopez in the fourth and eighth to pocket the set. Hewitt's last appearance in a final was in Las Vegas in 2007, where he won his 26th career title. His 2008 season without a title saw Hewitt's streak of 10 years with at least one title end.
Korolev advanced with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Argentinian veteran Guillermo Canas. Canas broke Korolev as the Russian served for the match at 5-3 in the third, but Korolev broke back to claim the win.
Bjorn Phau defeated fellow German Tommy Haas 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. He'll next face American Wayne Odesnik, a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) winner over compatriot John Isner.
Isner fired 14 aces and won 75 percent of points on his first serve and 70 percent of points on his second serve. He dropped serve just once, but Odesnik was also stingy on his serve, saving four of five break points that he faced as the match went to the third-set tiebreaker.
"He puts a lot of pressure on you to hold serve," Odesnik said. "He takes some pretty big cuts at the ball and if they go in, it's not easy to defend."
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