Curtains for Kuerten; Hewitt, Haas take bow

Hewitt’s French Open dreams were halted in the fourth round as he went down fighting 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 to Argentina’s Guillermo Canas. Champion in 2000 and 2001, it is the three-times winner’s first defeat at Roland Garros since 1999.

Canas successfully blunted Hewitt’s powerful groundstrokes in a marathon four hour 13 minutes battle to gain revenge for his fourth round Roland Garros defeat to the Australian last year.

The U.S. Open champion, who had beaten Canas in their previous five meetings, had been hoping to improve on his quarter-final showing here 12 months ago but was left to lick his wounds after running into the determined Canas.

Canas will face either defending champion Gustavo Kuerten or Spaniard Albert Costa in the last eight.

Germany’s Tommy Haas became another seeded casualty when the third seed fell 6-1, 7-6, 6-4 to Romania’s Andrei Pavel in the fourth round.

Venus Williams and Monica Seles made no mistake though, breezing past Chanda Rubin and Daniela Hantuchova while Mary Pierce reduced a 121-point ranking difference to dust as she belted ninth seed Silvia Farina Elia 6-1, 6-2.

Haas took a considerable time to get going and by the time he did Pavel proved too strong to allow him back into the contest. After racing through the first set, the Romanian sneaked a tense and tight tiebreak 11-9 for a two-set lead.

Venus’s 6-3 6-2 victory stretched her supremacy over Rubinto 7-1. Next up for Venus is Seles. The three-time champion out-battled 11th seed Hantuchova 6-4, 7-5 to reach the French Open quarter-finals for the 10th time in as many appearances.

Seles won the last of her Paris crowns aged 19 — the age of Slovakia’s Hantuchova now — and the sixth seed’s experience told when it mattered, as she sealed victory in 93 minutes. ‘‘I was definitely concentrating on every point because she’s known for her comebacks,’’ Williams said.

(Reuters)