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Fourth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt advanced to his seventh quarterfinal of 2007 with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Spaniard Ivan Navarro at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo on Wednesday.

In the match which lasted one hour and 41 minutes, the 2001 Tokyo champion (d. Kratochvil) Hewitt won 43 of 64 points on serve and broke Navarro three times to record his 35th victory of 2007. World No. 113 Navarro now slips to a 0-8 career record against Top 20 players, and 10-12 for the season.

Tournament Profile | Berdych, Hewitt Toast Japan Open

World No. 19 Hewitt, the 2007 Las Vegas champion (d. Melzer), now advances to meet seventh-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic who progressed to the quarterfinals after saving three match points in his hard fought 7-6(6), 6-7(8), 7-6(8) victory over ninth-seed Korean Hyung-Taik Lee.

World No. 28 Karlovic is enjoying a career best season and will appear in his ninth quarterfinal of 2007 on Friday. The Croat has won two titles in 2007, in Houston (d. Zabaleta) and Nottingham (d. Clement) and now improves to 32-17. Lee, a semifinalist in Los Angeles (l. to Blake), falls to 25-23.

Czech Tomas Berdych (pictured above), seeded second in Tokyo, advanced comfortably to his eighth quarterfinal of 2007 with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over 16th-seeded American Michael Russell in one hour and 21 minutes.

World No. 10 Berdych hit ten aces and won 42 of 65 points on serve in recording his second win over World No. 77 Russell who now slips to 11-18 for the season. Berdych, who has a chance to qualify for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai with 300 points in 13th place, won the Halle title (d. Baghdatis) earlier in the year.

Berdych will face eighth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco who defeated 12th-seeded Swede Thomas Johansson 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3. World No. 32 Verdasco now advances to his sixth quarterfinal of 2007 after making the semifinals in Bangkok last week (l. to Tursunov) and improves to 29-24.

Elsewhere sixth-seeded Russian Dmitry Tursunov was upset by tenth-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. World No. 46 Lopez recorded his 22nd victory of 2007 in defeating Tursunov 7-6(8), 6-4.

Lopez now will face top-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer who booked his place in the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 7-6(0) win over American Vince Spadea in one hour and 26 minutes.

Ferrer, currently in his fourth straight week of being ranked World No. 8 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, hit seven aces and broke Spadea four times in recording his 52nd victory and advancing to his eighth quarterfinal of 2007. Placed at sixth in the ATP 2007 Race, Ferrer has a good chance to qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai in November.

World No. 78 Spadea, who has made the quarterfinals or better in seven events this year, slips to 24-25 for the season.

Third-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet (pictured above) hit six aces and dropped just nine points on serve to record his 42nd victory of 2007 and defeat German Rainer Schuettler 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and five minutes.

World No. 13 Gasquet, who collected his fifth career title in Mumbai last week (d. O. Rochus), now will contest his tenth quarterfinal of 2007 against Dudi Sela who advanced when Pashanski retired due to illness.

Prior to Mumbai last week, World No. 118 Schuettler had not won back-to-back matches all season. However, a semifinal spot in Mumbai (l. to O. Rochus) and two victories in Tokyo have seen him improve to 7-13 for the season.

What the players said:

Karlovic: “It was a long match, a very long match. Lee served well and it was really difficult to return. The match was really close, it could have gone either way, but I think I was a little bit luckier and that’s why I won.

“In the tie-breaker I was serving really well. I didn’t do a lot on the return, so me serving well was the key.

“Against Lleyton I played him twice on grass courts, so I never played him on a hard court, so it will be a difficult match either against him or Navarro.”

Wednesday: Shanghai Hope Ferrer into Tokyo Third Round
Tuesday: Lee, Navarro First Players to Reach Third Round
Monday: Former Champion Moodie Advances
Build-up: Del Potro Embraces Samurai Culture

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