Hewitt in French Open fourth round

PARIS: Lleyton Hewitt closed in on a potential French Open showdown with defending champion Rafael Nadal after easing past Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 6-2 to reach the fourth round on Saturday.   

Hewitt, the 14th seed, will now wait to see whether or not second seed Nadal can get past France's Paul-Henri Mathieu in his third round clash later in the day.   

Hewitt, playing Roland Garros for the first time in two years, swept past Hrbaty in 2hr 06min as he again showed few signs of the ankle injury he picked up in Austria in the run-up to Roland Garros.   

"He played a lot better today than he had done before," said Hewitt who had won both the pair's previous matches. "But I was hitting through the court well and I didn't want to waste too much energy out there, which was another positive."   

After a close opening set against the 22nd seed Hrbaty, Hewitt was never threatened. Hrbaty, who survived two five-set marathons to get to the third round, saved one match match point in the eighth game of the third set but was unable to stop Hewitt from celebrating victory when he hit a forehand wide on the second.   

Hewitt, a former world number one and US Open and Wimbledon winner, has never got beyond the quarter-finals here.