Pacific Life Open

Hewitt Books Semi-final Spot

Top seed and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt maintained his world number one status by reaching the semi-finals in California.

Hewitt had few problems beating American qualifier Robby Ginepri 6-4 6-2.

Hewitt, playing his fourth match in four days, took a while to get going but once he got into gear Ginepri had no answer.

"Nine in 11 days I've won now. That's a lot of tennis," Hewitt said after the game.

"I've got that match toughness going now, match-hardened. I'd like to keep it going."

By making it to the semi-finals, Hewitt earned enough ranking points to stay ahead of Andre Agassi and maintain his top ranking for a 69th consecutive week.

"It's nice, but you're going to lose it sometime," the 22-year-old Australian said.

"I didn't come to Indian Wells to try and hold on to my number one ranking; I came here to win the tournament."

In the last four he will face another American qualifier Vince Spadea who defeated Brian Vahaly 6-3 6-2.

Spadea, who had lost to Vahaly in Adelaide, Australia earlier in the year, fired down eight aces during the match.

Fifteenth seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany caused a surprise with a 6-3 6-2 win over sixth seed Andy Roddick.

During the match, Roddick served at 147 mph - the second fastest ever recorded.

But Roddick also made 28 unforced errors - twice the number committed by Schuettler.

"I knew I was making a lot of errors out there," Roddick said.

"He was running down a lot of shots. I hit some really good shots and he was getting them back.

"Obviously, I don't think I played my best tennis by a long shot. But credit him, he came out and just was better than me."

Gustavo Kuerten recovered from losing the first set to James Blake before defeating the American in three sets.

Kuerten lost the first set 4-6 but recovered superbly to take the second 6-4 and was much too strong in the third, winning it 6-0 to reach the last four.

Clijsters and Davenport in Final

Top seed Kim Clijsters defeated Spaniard Conchita Martinez 6-3 6-2 to reach the final of the Pacific Life Open on Friday.

In reaching her fourth final of the year, the 19-year-old Belgian was simply to strong and too quick for the 30-year-old Spaniard, who was treated for blisters in the first set.

"I felt good and played really well," said Clijsters. "I waited for those points where I could attack and worked myself into points very well."

Since winning the Sydney title, Clijsters has embarked on a series of near misses.

She made the semi-finals of the 2003 Australian Open, where Serena Williams beat her in three sets.

She also reached the final of Antwerp, where she lost to Venus Williams, and the final of Scottsdale last week, but lost again, this time to Japan's Ai Sugiyama.

Clijsters will play fourth seed Lindsay Davenport, who upset second seed and fellow American Jennifer Capriati 6-4 4-6 6-4.

"That was a really hard fought match with high quality tennis," said Davenport, who ended the match with 50 winners to only 23 from her opponent.

"I haven't played at that level for a few months so it's really exciting. It's a big win for me."

"I was getting frustrated at my inability to play at the level I thought I could play at.

"I thought I had a tough draw when this tournament started so to get to the final is great."

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