World No.3 Lleyton Hewitt was knocked out of the Next Generation Hardcourts tennis tournament in Adelaide by big-serving American Taylor Dent on Friday night - but said it meant little in terms of this month's Australian Open.

Dent, the son of former Australian Davis Cup player Phil Dent, won the quarter-final match 7-6(7-4) 6-3, clinching it on serve after Hewitt saved two match points in the final game.

Dent, the tournament's fifth seed, will play Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, the fourth seed, in a semi-final on Saturday, with Belgian Olivier Rochus and second-seeded Swede Joachim Johansson to meet in the other semi-final.

Hewitt's next match will be in next week's Sydney International, where he is the defending champion.

But he said his focus was firmly on the following fortnight's Australian Open, a tournament in which he has never made it past the fourth round.

"When you've been No.1 in the world for a couple of years and won a couple of slams and whatever else that's been, you look at the big picture and what motivates you and that's the grand slams and Melbourne's as big for me as any of the four," he said.

"Even if I don't win Sydney next week it's no big deal.

"I've still got to go out there and take it one match at a time in Melbourne."

Neither player gained a break point in Friday night's opening set.

Dent gained the critical advantage in the tiebreak by winning the opening point on Hewitt's serve, with neither player losing a point on serve for the remainder of the tiebreak.

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