Hewitt ousts Canas to close in on top spot

Young Australian Lleyton Hewitt continued his rise to the top of the tennis world with a victory in three sets over Argentina's Guillermo Canas in a third round match at the Stuttgart Masters Series tournament on Thursday.

Hewitt, who is in contention to finish the year in top spot and could knock Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten off the lead in the ATP Champions Race this week if he wins the indoor event, recovered from a slow start to brush aside Canas for a 3-6 6-1 6-4 win.

The U.S. Open Champion has already done enough to take second place in the Race from Andre Agassi, who followed Kuerten out of the indoor event when he lost to Moroccan Hicham Arazi on Wednesday.

The gritty 20-year-old, who is riding on a 16-match winning string dating back to his Grand Slam breakthrough, goes on to meet defending champion Wayne Ferreira in the quarter-finals in a re-run of last year's final.

Ferreira, who beat Hewitt after a five-set thriller to claim the 2000 Stuttgart title but had been struggling lately, held nerve for 6-3 3-6 7-6 over France's Sebastien Grosjean, the eighth seed.

Qualifier Max Mirnyi of Belarus, who had knocked out top seed Kuerten in the previous round, kept going strong, surviving two match points and 31 aces to oust 13th-seeded Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic 4-6 7-6 7-6.

Croatia's Ivanisevic, who wasted his two match points in the decisive tie-break, received a warning for racket abuse and then started escalating the umpire chair's ladder after two controversial line calls.

MATCH POINTS

Mirnyi, one of the most intimidating players on the ATP circuit, has now saved six match points in the tournament -- two in qualifying, two against Kuerten and two on Thursday.

The powerful 24-year-old meets Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals after the American overcame a stern challenge from fellow former world number one Marcelo Rios for a 4-6 7-6 6-4 win.

Sampras, seeded ninth and fighting for a berth in a season-ending Masters Cup next month in Sydney to end a miserable season on a positive note, was given a hard time by Rios.

The elegant Chilean used an early break to win the first set and, after losing the second only in a tie-break, broke Sampras again in the first game of the last set.

Sampras, who has not won a tournament since Wimbledon last year, broke back in the third game before capturing Rios's serve again in the ninth to serve for the match, wrapping it up with an unforced error from his opponent on the first match point.

"He's a very talented guy," Sampras said of Rios, whom he had only played once before in his career. "He reminds me a lot of Andre (Agassi).

"I fought hard, got through some tough situations."

Tommy Haas had earlier delighted his home fans by fighting back for a 4-6 6-3 7-6 win over Arazi to set up a quarter-final battle against Britain's Tim Henman.

CRUISED THROUGH

Seventh seed Henman negotiated a tight first set, then cruised to a 7-6 6-2 win over Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti for a place in the last eight.

Swede Thomas Enqvist, who won here two years ago, went through as well with a close 6-3 6-7 7-6 victory over American Andy Roddick.

Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the fifth seed, was never in trouble on his way to a straightforward 6-3 6-4 win over Czech Jiri Novak and now stands in Enqvist's way.

Enqvist's win was quite dramatic as he squandered a match point and wasted another before taming Roddick, seeded 14th.

The injury-prone Swede, recapturing his best form after missing the first two months of the year with injuries, was made to work by the powerful Roddick, withstanding a barrage of 22 aces.

"I think it was a great match from everybody except my coach and my girlfriend," Enqvist said after winning an exciting contest which could have gone either way.

"It really came down to one point here and there."