Bhupathi-Max out of Monte Carlo Masters

Fiesty Australian Lleyton Hewitt came close to another miracle escape before going down to a third round 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 defeat to German fourth seed Rainer Schuettler.

Hewitt, seeded 14 here, had come from a set down in the first round to beat France’s Julien Benneteau. He repeated the escape act, as well as saving two match points, against Gaston Gaudio of Argentina in the second round before finally coming up short against the German yesterday.

After levelling at one-set each, he led 3-0 in the final set and had a point to go 4-0 before Schuettler mounted his winning recovery after a pulsating 2hr 23min on court. “I didn’t have high expectations coming here. I needed to get some matches and get used to the clay surface and the mindset of playing on clay, ” said Hewitt.

Schuettler now faces Britain’s sixth seed Tim Henman who came back from a set down to defeat Chilean ninth seed Nicolas Massu 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Henman was a semi-finalist here in 2002 beating Massu on the way but he got off to a disastrous start dropping serve four times in the first set. Henman won his first-ever Masters title in Paris last year and he believes that has contributed to him having a new attitude on court. Guillermo Coria and Marat Safin of Russia stayed on course for a semi-final showdown.