Another Lleyton letdown

Top-seeded Aussie fails to make quarters ... again

Hewitt seeks strength in loss MELBOURNE, Jan 20 (Reuters) -- Lleyton Hewitt says he thinks his stunning loss to Younes El Aynaoui at the Australian Open on Monday could help make him a better player. The world No. 1 said he was shattered by his 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-4 fourth-round defeat but could see that it might benefit him in the long run. "It's really disappointing, there's no other way of putting it. But hopefully I am going to have a lot more opportunities, and that's the way I have to look at it," Hewitt said. "It's tough at the moment, but I'm not going to get too dejected about it. "It could make me a bigger, stronger person when I come back to play in the years to come." The 21-year-old Hewitt went into the match as a red-hot favorite but could not find a way past El Aynaoui's booming serve. The big Moroccan aced him 33 times and was not broken at any time during the match. "It wasn't bad luck that I lost, I just played an opponent who was better than me on the day," Hewitt said. "When I look back on this match in a couple of days or a couple of weeks ... I can honestly say that I fought as hard as I could out there. "I felt like I played pretty well and I had a lot of chances, but to his credit, he just served huge. I couldn't get any rhythm on my returns. He was too good." Hewitt won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon last year but says the Australian Open is the tournament he craves the most. No Australian man has won the tournament since Mark Edmondson in 1976, and hopes were high that Hewitt could end the drought. Although the Rebound Ace courts should suit Hewitt's game in theory, the Australian Open has been his worst Grand Slam, and he has failed to make it past the fourth round in each of his seven visits to Melbourne Park. He said there was also some extra pressure on him to perform well in Melbourne, but that had nothing to do with his defeat. "The pressure and expectation is a lot more ... but whenever you're a top player in a Grand Slam, there is always pressure and expectation," he said. "I just try to block it out as much as possible and use it as a positive rather than a negative."

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Younes El Aynaoui overpowered Lleyton Hewitt with his serve and big forehand Monday, knocking the top-ranked player out in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The Moroccan, seeded 18th, beat Hewitt 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-4, derailing his hopes of becoming the first Australian winner of the home Grand Slam tournament since 1976.

Hewitt, known as an outstanding returner, had only three break chances in the match as El Aynaoui served at speeds up to 211 kph (131 mph) and fired 33 aces.

"I gave it everything I had and he was too good," said Hewitt, the 2001 U.S. Open and 2002 Wimbledon champion. "It's tough at the moment, but I've got to not get too dejected and bounce back strongly. ... It was just too hard the way he was serving today. It was a little bit out of my control."

El Aynaoui scored the first service break in the fourth set's seventh game. At 30-all, Hewitt hit a passing shot attempt wide, and then double faulted.

In the final game, he reached match point with a leaping overhead smash and then won the 3 1/2-hour match with a forehand into Hewitt's backhand corner.

"I hope I didn't give away all the power I have -- there are still more matches left," El Aynaoui said.

The 31-year-old El Aynaoui reached only his third Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal. His second was at last year's U.S. Open, where he lost to Hewitt in four sets.

He ran around to hit forehands from all corners of the court, and at all angles.

El Aynaoui next meets ninth-seeded Andy Roddick, who came from two sets down to beat Russian Davis Cup hero Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.

Roddick became the second American in the men's quarterfinals, rebounding from two sets down to beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2.

Counting two previous losses to Youzhny, Roddick had lost six consecutive sets against the Russian Davis Cup hero before staging his comeback.

He pulled out a tight third set with a heavy serve return that Youzhny hit wide, gained an early break in the fourth set and broke twice in the fifth, ending with a low shot that Youzhny volleyed into the net and three unreturnable serves.

"Midway through the third set, I was thinking whether there was a flight out tonight," Roddick said. "I was a little frustrated but I didn't let it get the best of me."

Three-time champion Andre Agassi already had reached the quarterfinals, where he will meet France's Sebastien Grosjean. Roddick, also a quarterfinalist twice at the U.S. Open, will face El Aynaoui.

Another American hope, James Blake, lost 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to Germany's Rainer Schuettler, who gained the fourth round when 2002 runner-up Marat Safin withdrew with a wrist injury from a fall in an earlier match.

Schuettler, a 26-year-old German who had never reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal before, rebounded from early service breaks by Blake in the first two sets.

In the final set, the two traded service breaks in the fourth and fifth games, and Schuettler gained the key break in the sixth when Blake double-faulted. Schuettler finished with a forehand down the line that Blake couldn't handle at the net.

The 23-year-old Blake, playing in a Grand Slam event's fourth round for the first time, had 35 errors, compared with 19 by Schuettler.

"When you're playing for something that's really important, the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam, it hurts," Blake said. "I learned something. You can't play the same tennis in the second week as you can in the first."

 

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