Hewitt through but Henman falls in Indian Wells

By Matthew Cronin

INDIAN WELLS (Reuters) – Twice former champion Lleyton
Hewitt survived a Rainer Schuettler onslaught on Monday to
advance 7-6 2-6 6-4 into round three of the Pacific Life Open.

Britain’s Tim Henman wasn’t as fortunate, though, falling
6-4 6-4 to Czech Tomas Berdych.

On the women’s side, fourth seed Elena Dementieva had to
use all her guile to overcome Indian sensation Sania Mirza 5-7
6-4 6-4 to reach the fourth round.

Young German seventh seed Anna-Lena Groenefeld continued
her stellar play with a 2-6 6-1 6-2 over Israel’s Anna
Smashnova to reach round four and in a marathon three-setter,
17th-seeded Argentine Gisela Dulko stopped French 12th seed
Tatiana Golovin 1-6 7-5 7-6 to get to the same stage.

Australian Hewitt hasn’t won a title in more than a year
but continues to play himself deep into tournaments.

In his last two outings, he’s reached the finals of events
in San Jose and Las Vegas.

Schuettler stood toe-to-toe with the ninth seed in long
baseline rallies, but in the end Hewitt simply out-toughed the
German.

HENMAN FRUSTRATED

“It was hard to hit winners out there,” said Hewitt, who
will face Berdych in the third round next. “The conditions were
slow and really heavy. The balls were fluffing up a lot and it
was hard to crack an egg out there.”

It was worse news for Henman.

Consistently contending with a bad back over the past
season, the Briton has been unable to regain the form that
brought him to the final here four years ago.

Against the talented Berdych, Henman showed signs of his
once stellar top 10 game, mixing up his groundstrokes and
putting away deft volleys, but the powerful Czech overpowered
him at key moments to leave the 31-year-old Henman frustrated.

“I played some good stuff to create opportunities, but I
didn’t take them,” he said.

In two minor men’s upsets, France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu
upended 11th seed Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 7-6 4-6 6-2 and
Belgium’s Xavier Malisse thrashed Czech Radek Stepanek 6-1 6-1.

Sebastien Grosjean of France beat Belgium’s Kristof Vliegen
6-1 6-3, while Croatia’s Mario Ancic overcame Italy’s Davide
Sanguinetti 6-3 7-6.