Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt and defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan moved a step closer to a showdown at the $380,000 Long Island Cup after coming through tough quarter-finals on Friday.
Hewitt outlasted fifth seed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-7, 6-1, 6-1 to take his winning streak to eight matches, having lifted the title in Washington last weekend, while Paradorn withstood a barrage of huge hitting to beat Swede Joachim Johansson 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.
"That was the best I've played this week," second seed Hewitt told reporters. "He is a top 20 player, a guy I really respect, and he makes you think about what you are doing.
"I was mentally tough out there, even though I had a lot of break-point chances, and I really just hung in there."
The Australian now faces 10th seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria or Russian Dmitry Tursunov. Paradorn, looking to become only the second man to win the tournament three times in a row, plays ninth seed Luis Horna of Peru.
Chela went into the match full of confidence having beaten Hewitt in their only previous meeting and began well, breaking serve in the first game. Hewitt broke back in the 10th, only to double fault at 6-5 in the tiebreak as the Argentine won it 8-6.
Hewitt stepped it up at the start of the second set and, once he had broken in the third game, the match turned on its head.
TRADED BRAKES
A run of five consecutive games gave him the set and though the pair traded breaks at the start of the third, Hewitt broke again in the fifth game on his way to victory.
Earlier, Ivan Lendl's record as the only man to win the event in three successive years looked safe as seventh seed Johansson, who beat Paradorn 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Athens Olympics 10 days ago, broke the Thai in the opening game.
Johansson boomed down a series of serves over the 140-mph mark as he took the first set. But as the match wore on, he tightened up and fourth seed Paradorn, sensing his chance, forced a second-set tiebreak and won it 7-3.
One break, in the eighth game of the third set, was enough for him to clinch victory.
"This is my house," Paradorn said. "There was nothing much I could do (when Johansson was hitting aces), but I just tried to hang in there and try to play a bit better.
"It's hard to find your rhythm against someone who serves so big because you probably don't have many long rallies, so I just had to try to get the serve back and go from there."
Johansson said he struggled with a stomach problem before the match.
"I couldn't really eat this morning," he said. "I tried to keep the points short but he started playing better and put a lot of pressure on me, especially in the third set."
Horna progressed by beating Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.
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