Hewitt motors while Safin stutters as the first rain hits Wimbledon

By Bill Scott Jun 24, 2005, 17:36 GMT

London - Third seed Lleyton Hewitt avoided the first rain of the Wimbledon Championships fortnight as he set himself up for a weekend of practise with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 7-5 win over Justin Gimelstob.

The 2002 champion, who was downgraded to a third seeding despite his world number 2 status in favour of American Andy Roddick, continued his solid run on the grass at the expense of 123rd-ranked lucky loser Gimelstob.

Hewitt, with five career grass-court titles, moved into the round of 16 for the fourth time in six years as he denied the American any chance.

Gimelstob was playing in a Wimbledon third round for the first time and last reached the second round in 1998.

Hewitt earned a Monday start against American Taylor Dent, who ousted Czech Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Hewitt is calmly working his way into form, earning a spot in the second week, as more traditional rain returned after a week of hot, sunny weather in London.

"I played a lot of matches before I won it in 2002. The match-ups have been probably a little bit different," said the Aussie.

"It's nice to be in the fourth round now," he continued. "Especially the last two matches, there's been a lot of tight points out there, which is what I need when I haven't played a lot of matches.

"In that respect, it's been good that I've had to come up and play some big points."

While Hewitt advanced, fifth seed Marat Safin was bundled out by the only Spaniard with a handy game on grass, Feliciano Lopez.

The 23-year-old Spaniard grew up on hard court in Madrid, where he perfected his skills before picking up the traditional Iberian clay game, earned a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win into the fourth round.

The 33rd-ranked Spanish lefthander, who has twice reached the last 16, leads Safin 3-1 in their career series. Lopez broke Safin on both of his opportunities, firing 14 aces and 33 winners.

Safin, fresh from a second-round win over 2003 finalist Mark Philippoussis, failed to make the most of his new-found success on grass, where he reached a final in Halle this month against Roger Federer.

Lopez has now won ten of his last 13 matches against Russians and plays the winner from a match between Croatia's former semi-finalist Mario Ancic, who beat ex-junior champion Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

Far from being glum, Safin was not displeased with his effort.

"I've been playing on it for the past two weeks, and I think it's great," said the finalist at Halle.

"Even though I lost, at the end of the day I'm satisfied that I finally I found my game on grass. I was a little bit unlucky with the draw. I have nothing to complain about, I'm pretty happy."

Second seed Roddick finished off a match interrupted Thursday evening, finally overcoming a surprisingly tough challenge from number 120 Italian Daniele Bracciale 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7) 4-6, 6-3.

Number 3 Amelie Mauresmo led four women's seeds into the fourth round as she beat Shenay Perry 6-0, 6-2. Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was tested before overcoming Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2.

Three more Russian seeds moved through.

Elena Dementieva easily beat Mashona Washington 7-5, 6-1 while Anastasia Myskina battled from the brink past Jelena Jankovic 6-0, 5-7, 6-8.

Elena Likhovtseva put out Italian veteran Silvia Farina Elia 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Top seeds Federer and Lindsay Davenport were left hanging as the bad weather and approaching darkness kept their matches off court.