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  • Fish Overpowers Gutsy Hewitt

    3/20/08 4:36 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - In a quarter of the draw marked by third-set tiebreakers, it’s only fitting that one of the fourth-round duels in that section went the distance. Mardy Fish outlasted Lleyton Hewitt to move on to the Pacific Life Open quarterfinals.

    Mardy Fish pulled off yet another upset on Wednesday in his run through the Pacific Life Open, taking out No. 24 seed Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(4) in two hours and 28 minutes. It was a thrilling contest that featured Fish’s power against the steely resolve of Hewitt, and in the end the man with the bigger game prevailed.

    The two players split sets one and two, paving the way for a classic third. Fish took the opening frame by controlling baseline points and taking advantage of Hewitt’s failure to put in enough first serves. The Aussie double-faulted five times and won less than half of his second-serve points in the first set. As he often tends to do, however, Hewitt seemed to wear Fish down in the second set with steady play from the back of the court, and that allowed him to level the match.

    High-quality tennis from both players made for a wildly entertaining final set. Each man dominated on serve, as Hewitt lost just eight points on serve in the final 13 games and Fish dropped only ten. Hewitt actually won more points (38 to 37) in the decisive third set, but it was Fish who came up big at the critical stages. Clutch serves and aggressive play off the ground allowed the American to overwhelm his more passive opponent in the tiebreaker.

    Fish, who has also dispatched 31st-seeded Igor Andreev and No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko, moves on to the quarterfinals, where he will face No. 7 seed David Nalbandian. The American holds a 1-0 edge in the head-to-head series, but that win came all the way back in 2003.

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