Hewitt defeats Mirnyi at Sydney Int'l
By Dennis Passa (Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-14 15:00

Top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia won his 18th straight match in the Sydney International, beating Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals Friday.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt hits a backhand during his semifinal match against Max Mirnyi of Belarus at the Sydney International tennis tournament in Sydney Friday, Jan. 14, 2005. Hewitt won the match, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. [AP]

"I know Max's game pretty well," Hewitt said of his former doubles partner. "And he knew I wasn't going to go away after losing the first set. I hung in there and made him hit a lot of balls."

Hewitt, who won the Australian Open warmup event in 2000, 2001 and 2004, will play qualifier Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over countryman Radek Stepanek.

Hewitt has never played against Minar.

"I don't even know what he looks like," Hewitt said.

Minar, 20, has never advanced this far in any main series tournament, having played most of last year on the challenger circuit. Ranked 500th at the beginning of 2004, his strong play on the secondary series — a 19-14 record in singles — moved him up to 183rd by year's end.

Regardless of his finish in Sydney, Minar won't be in next week's Australian Open. He chose to play in Sydney instead of trying the qualifying route at Melbourne.

In women's play, Australia's Samantha Stosur advanced to the final on a walkover — the second day in a row she's had an opponent pull out — when third-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia withdrew because of heat illness.

"I was dizzy and very weak, so I think that I'm having the symptoms of a heat illness," Dementieva said. "I have been playing my matches, singles and doubles, in the peak of the heat."

Temperatures on the center court surface at the Olympic complex ranged from 104 to 113 degrees. Those are conditions similar to what the players can expect at next week's Australian Open in Melbourne.

On Thursday, American Lindsay Davenport withdrew from her quarterfinal against Stosur because of bronchitis.

"It's not the way I want to be in another final," Stosur said. "Certainly having one walkover is a bit strange, but having two, it's a bit ridiculous."

"Any time you play a tournament the week before a Grand Slam, everybody is a bit careful about what they do."

Stosur, who lost in the final of last weekend's Gold Coast event, will play the winner of Friday's later semifinal between Alicia Molik of Australia and China's Peng Shuai in Saturday's singles final.

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