Hewitt cruises into quarters in Adelaide
World No.3 Lleyton Hewitt's Australian Open preparation stepped up a gear as he cruised past Argentina's Agustin Calleri in straight sets to move into the quarter finals of the Next Generation Hardcourts tennis tournament at Memorial Drive.
The top-seeded Australian, who had looked rusty early in his first-round match against Frenchman Arnaud Clement, was in hot form from the start, blitzing Calleri 6-1 6-4 in only an hour.
"It's just a matter of getting used to the conditions, I guess, and getting a match under my belt," Hewitt said of the contrast between tonight's impressive display and his scratchy form early in Tuesday night's win over Frenchman Arnaud Clement.
"I obviously came out and was pretty aggressive out there tonight and I really tried to dictate play."
He was spurred on by the presence of new girlfriend, actress Bec Cartwright, who cheered him on from the stands for the first time tonight.
"It was good, she hasn't seen too many tennis matches, so it was nice to go out there and not get off to a slow start like the other night anyway and come through with flying colours," Hewitt said.
"I don't know how much she knows about tennis, but I obviously played alright out there tonight, so we were all pretty happy with it."
Hewitt broke the Argentinian's serve in the second game of the match and again to love in the fourth game, to race to a 5-0 lead in a matter of minutes.
Calleri, a hard-hitting baseliner ranked 58th in the world, briefly put the Australian under pressure early in the second set when he broke Hewitt's serve in the second game to take a 2-0 lead.
But Hewitt produced near-faultless tennis to immediately break Calleri's serve to love, then broke again on Calleri's following service game, hitting a string of winners from both sides to take complete control of the match.
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