source: http://uk.sports.yahoo.com Saturday September 1, 08:33 AM Hewitt and Roddick win on tough night at tennis Open By Gary Hill NEW YORK (Reuters) - Young guns Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick have fought off tough challengers to reach the third round of the U.S. Open, but Hewitt had to fight accusations of racism. The 20-year-old Australian fourth seed repeated over and over that he had not meant anything racial when, unhappy over two foot-fault calls, he asked the umpire to move a linesman who, like his opponent James Blake, is African American. "Look at him, mate. Look at him. You tell me what the similarity is," Hewitt complained to umpire Andres Egli of Switzerland during the third set of his 6-4 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-0 victory at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Friday evening. The remarks were picked up on television, but afterwards, peppered with questions about the incident, Hewitt said: "I don't think I said anything racial out there." In several sessions with the media, 21-year-old Blake, ranked 95th in the world, clearly did not want to criticise a fellow player. "We'll see how we get along personally," Blake said at his final news conference of the evening. "But on the court, I have nothing but respect for him." BOTHERED After the match, Blake told Reuters: "It did bother me a little bit. But I figured that it was in the heat of the moment when he's fighting out there and not thinking about being politically correct. "I hope he didn't mean anything derogatory by it. But I can't speak for him. I hope he didn't mean it in a racist way. If he has racial problems, he has to be the one to deal with that." The USTA and ITF said they would review the incident and report their findings on Saturday. If they review the tennis as well, they will see an exciting contest in which Blake, who vomited during an injury timeout at 2-3 in the fourth set, played what he said were the two best sets of his life to go up two sets to one. But, despite the rousing support of the underdog-friendly U.S. Open crowd, the heat and exhaustion overcame him and he staggered through the rest of the match. Andy Roddick, who turned 19 the day before, also saw a challenger seize the imagination of the crowd. Qualifier Jack Brasington, who won just three games in the first two sets, gave the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium hopes of an upset before losing 6-2 6-1 5-7 7-6 (7-4) to Roddick. "He just lifted his game," said Roddick, who won junior world, Australian and U.S. Open championships last year and is one of the great young hopes of American tennis. "I was just wondering how long he was going to keep it up." TIEBREAKER Brasington looked likely to force a fifth set when he went 3-0 up in the fourth-set tiebreaker but he then fell apart, dropping seven of the next eight points and double-faulting on double match point. In other night matches, 11th seed Alex Corretja of Spain beat Frenchman Jerome Golmard, 12th seed Arnaud Clement of France defeated Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands and former French Open champion Carlos Moya, the 17th seed, beat fellow Spaniard Fernando Vicente. Earlier in the day, top seed Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, fifth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia also advanced to the third round. On the women's side, top seed Martina Hingis fought off Croatian Iva Majoli to move into the fourth round with a tough 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) victory. Twelfth seed Meghann Shaughnessy became the highest women's seed to fall when she was ousted by Czech Daja Bedanova 6-4 6-1 in the third round. Fourteenth seed Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia beat 1994 champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-4 7-5 in the tournament's first meeting of seeded players. Dokic faces Hingis next. Twice former champion Monica Seles, Wimbledon runner-up Justine Henin and 1999 champion Serena Williams also reached the round of 16. |