Former champion Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the third round of the US Open for the seventh consecutive year with a hard-fought three-set win over free-hitting Argentine Jose Acasuso.

Hewitt took more than two and a half hours to subdue Acasuso 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 to set up a showdown with 25th-seeded American Taylor Dent.

Australia's world No.3 struggled to find his timing against Acasuso, who deemed attack the best form of defence against the gritty counter puncher.

Games went with serve until the first-set tiebreaker and Hewitt was forced to fend off one set point before finally gaining the initiative after 49 minutes at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Hewitt broke Acasuso in the opening game of the second set but the Argentinean continued to go for broke and was rewarded when he struck back to level at 2-2.

The turning point of the match came with Hewitt serving at 40-30 in the 12th game of the second set and trying to force another tiebreaker.

He double-faulted but the lineswoman failed to call the ball wide, prompting the chair umpire to instruct the players to replay the point.

Both players were upset, Hewitt arguing that the umpire should not have overruled if he didn't clearly see the ball land wide and Acasuso claiming that because the umpire did overrule, he should have been awarded the point.

Instead of being deuce, Hewitt won the replayed point and the rattled Argentine quickly fell behind 6-0 in the tiebreaker, and was unable to recover.

The Australian raced through the final set with two service breaks to stay on course for a likely semi-final against world No.1 Roger Federer.

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