Tennis: Hot-shot Hewitt a Patch on His Old Self

Lleyton Hewitt believes that "in patches" this year he has been playing at a quality equal to when was the world No1 in 2001 and 2002, and twice won the end-of-season Masters Cup.

In yesterday's day session Hewitt secured his place in the semi-finals and today meets Andy Roddick, who last night beat Guillermo Coria 7-6, 6-3.

"Andy has a tremendous amount of fire power on his serve and forehand and moves tremendously well for such a big guy. I'm going to have to make him play that one extra ball," said Hewitt, who arrived in Texas having played relatively little since the US Open - only two tournaments - and has thrived on the intense competition this week.

He failed to qualify for this tournament last year, when he concentrated on leading Australia to Davis Cup victory. Now he is back to No3 in the world.

Gaston Gaudio, the French Open champion, had beaten Hewitt in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros but here was out of his depth, losing 6-2, 6-1 in less than a hour.

"Right at the moment I feel really up for this event," said Hewitt. His only loss in the round-robin section came against the undefeated Federer, whom he could meet in tomorrow's final.

Federer juddered a little against Carlos Moya, who will lead Spain in their Davis Cup final against the US in Seville. Federer's 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win stretched his unbeaten run here to eight matches, the Swiss world No1 having been undefeated when he won the trophy here last year.