MELBOURNE: Lleyton Hewitt fanned hopes of a hometown win in the Australian Open when he upset Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 at the exhibition Kooyong Classic Wednesday. Frenchman Gael Monfils tuned up for the Open with a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 three-hour win over defending champion Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Russia's Nikolay Davydenko beat Czech Tomas Berdych 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the third match on opening day. Del Potro beaten Juan Martin del Potro's comeback from injury has briefly stalled with his 6-2, 7-5 loss to Germany's Florian Mayer in the second round of the Sydney International. In other matches Wednesday, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia beat Igor Andreev of Russia 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Gulbis' quarterfinal opponent will be Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, who beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4. Richard Gasquet came back from a set down to beat Italian Andreas Seppi 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in 2 hours, 4 minutes. Gasquet next meets fourth-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki, who beat former finalist Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-2, 6-3. Frenchman Gilles Simon earned a quarterfinal spot by winning two matches Wednesday. He completed a 6-0, 6-3 win over No. 8-seeded Yen-hsun Lu, in a rain-delayed match, them beat Portugal's Frederico Gil 6-1, 6-3. In the women's draw, Kim Clijsters beat No. 7 Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-2 in 85 minutes to advance to the semifinals. No. 8 Li Na of China beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Ferrer, Almagro win Top-seeded Spaniards David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro opened their 2011 campaigns with hard-fought wins to book places in the Heineken Open quarterfinals in Auckland Wednesday. Ferrer, the world No. 7 and top seed, took more than 2½ hours and exploited one of only two break point chances to beat Tobias Kamke of Germany 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4. Almagro, ranked 14 and the No. 2 seed, was more comfortable but was still tested in beating 52nd-ranked Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-4, 7-6 (2) in 93 minutes. Defending champion John Isner also progressed, beating Robin Haase of the Netherlands 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5. No. 6-seeded David Nalbandian, No. 7 Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil and No. 8 Kohlschreiber all progressed to the quarterfinals but No. 4 Alberto Montanes of Spain was beaten 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 by Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. Rain prevents play Rain has prevented play in the day session at the Hobart International, causing a backlog of matches which may result in the final being delayed until Sunday.
