HOUSTON (AP)—Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez needed three sets to see off South African qualifier Kevin Anderson on Thursday, progressing to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships.
Chile’s Gonzalez won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to set up a final eight meeting with Horacio Zeballos. The sixth-seeded Argentine swept past Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-2.
American John Isner was the main casualty of Thursday’s play, with the towering second seed eliminated by Belgian veteran Xavier Malisse 7-6 (3), 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3).
Malisse’s quarterfinal opponent will be American Wayne Odesnik, who was a 6-1, 7-5 winner over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.
While Isner departed, another big-serving American, Sam Querrey, blasted his way through with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic. Querrey will take on Chile’s Nicolas Massu next.
Fourth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt started understandably poorly in his return from injury but fought back to beat India’s Somdev Devvarman 1-6, 6-0, 7-6 (2). Hewitt will face old rival Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the quarterfinals.
Gonzalez finally got the edge when he broke Anderson in fifth game of the final set.
After Anderson went up 30-0 in the game, Gonzalez hit a forehand winner and a backhand cross-court return and Anderson followed with two errors, including a double-fault at break point.
“I can play better in the next round, the conditions were slow tonight,” Gonzalez said. “I’m going to be better for the next match. I have to play better tennis than today.
“I don’t have the good feeling of the ball. You have to keep playing and it will come.”
Malisse took his tight win over Isner by prevailing in the final tiebreaker, including winning the fourth point despite breaking a string during play. The Belgian hit a drop shot across the net and Isner dribbled it into the net. Isner served an ace on the next point but he won only one more point the rest of the tiebreaker.
“It could have been 6-3, 6-2 if he’d kept his serve but I played well and had a a good tie breaker in the third,” Malisse said.
Defending champion Hewitt won his first singles match since undergoing hip surgery on Jan. 29.
The Australian showed rust in a ragged first set filled with unforced errors, but allowed lucky loser Devvarman only two points in the second set and almost faded before finally put his younger opponent away in the tiebreaker.
“It’s going to take a few weeks to get my movement back to where I want it to be,” Hewitt said. “I felt going into the Australian Open I was moving as well as I ever have. So to get back to that we have a little bit of work ahead of us but we’re on the right track and hopefully things continue improving.”
Devvarman had a 2-1 lead in the final set tiebreaker when Hewitt ran off six straight points and ended it at the first match point with a service winner.
Hewitt was erratic in the opening set but found his range in a 20-minute second set when he won five games to love.
“It was hard to know what to expect,” Hewitt said. “He doesn’t hit a lot of winners but he gets a lot of balls back. In the second set, I served better. I tried to move him around and pick the right balls to come in on and put pressure on him.
“In the first set, I was a little bit too eager to go out and start hitting winners straight from the start.”
Hewitt was leading 5-3 and serving for the match in the third set but the Indian broke Hewitt twice to force the breaker.
“I let the match get away,” Devvarman said. “He is where he is because he’s been in that situation so many times, but it is disappointing to me right now.”