As so often in the past, trusty Lleyton Hewitt was left to fly the Australian flag after Todd Reid and Mark Philippoussis crashed out of the adidas International.

In an ominous warning to his Australian Open rivals, Hewitt imposed his considerable mental will over Arnaud Clement to advance to a semi-final with French Open finalist Martin Verkerk.

Unfortunately for local fans, though, the dream all-Australian showdown between Hewitt and Philippoussis won't be after Verkerk doused the Scud's fire 6-4 7-6 (7-4) with a brilliant display of controlled power and precision in the late match.

Reid, displaying an uncanny resemblance to Hewitt, had earlier come unstuck against experienced South African Wayne Ferreira, falling 6-4 6-4 in his bid to reach the last four of an ATP tournament for the first time in his promising career.

Hewitt has been saying it for a while now and it would be hard to argue after his 6-1 4-6 6-3 win over Clement that he's not back to his clinical best.

Having breezed through the first set and lost his way in the second, Hewitt faced a mini crisis when trailing love-40 on serve at 2-2 in the decider.

The two-time champion simply stared down Clement, the 2000 Australian Open runner-up, and, in typical Hewitt fashion, reeled off the string of points he needed to break the Frenchman's spirit.

"It was a huge game to get out of because I was telling myself if I get out of that game, then I felt like I could break him the next game to go 4-2 (ahead)," he said.

"Obviously, he's going to be on a bit of a downer after not breaking that game.

"It was a huge turnaround."

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