Sat, Jun 12, 2004 - Page 18 News List

Hewitt battles to reach quarterfinals

RESILIENCE Three-time champion Lleyton Hewitt had to work hard to stave off the dogged attack of Jonny Marray to survive in the Stella Artois Championships

REUTERS AND AFP , LONDON AND HALLE, GERMANY

In the other quarterfinal matchups Czech third seed Jiri Novak meets German Tommy Haas and France's Arnaud Clement takes on world number one and defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland who booked their spots on Wednesday.

Edgbaston

Champion Magdalena Maleeva was denied a shot at winning back-to-back Edgbaston titles at the Wimbledon grasscourt warm-up event, losing to Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn on Thursday.

Seeded fourth, Maleeva got off to a fantastic start but was reeled in by Tamarine who ran out a 0-6 6-4 6-2 winner.

"She killed me in the first set, everything was a winner," Tamarine said. "She was even hitting aces on second serves. But I fought hard and got back into the game.

"It really was a high quality match. I love coming to Birmingham, I like the courts here and grass really suits my game."

Tamarine is now favorite to come out of the top half of the draw and reach the final.

She next takes on ninth seed Emilie Loit of France in the quarterfinals while rising French teenager Tatiana Golovin -- winner of the French Open mixed doubles crown with Richard Gasquet last week -- takes on Anne Kremer of Luxembourg.

Loit beat Akiko Morigami 6-4 7-6.

In the bottom half of the draw, third seed Maria Sharapova advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4 6-3 win over Australia's Samantha Stosur.

"I really want to win this tournament as I had such a great experience here last year," Russian Sharapova said.

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