Nadal humbles Hewitt

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:31

Hewitt, a former world number one, had no answer for Nadal’s powerful groundstrokes and ability to create something from nothing.

Nadal will next play the either David Ferrer or Robin Soderling.

Things started badly for the Australian when Nadal came back from 40-15 down to break his first service game, and from there the Spaniard gathered momentum to race into a 5-1 lead.

A rare Nadal unforced error gave Hewitt break point in the seventh game, but he wasted the opportunity with another inaccurate forehand and Nadal made the most of the let-off to see out the first set.

The Spaniard broke Hewitt in the first game of the second set, hitting a sublime cross-court forehand winner en route, but Hewitt found some rhythm and stayed in the set until 3-3.

Thereafter Nadal won six games on the spin to take the second set and go 3-0 up in the third, but his run was halted by Hewitt battling to hold serve to make it 3-1.

That only delayed the inevitable, though, as Nadal produced a number of powerful winners to clinch the match.

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