Thu Jan 3 10:32:12 2008

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Native son Hewitt eases into Adelaide quarters

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Adelaide, Australia (Sports Network) - Hometown hero Lleyton Hewitt was among Thursday's second-round winners at the Adelaide International tennis event.

The top-seeded and former world No. 1 Aussie handled Argentine Jose Acasuso 6-2, 6-2 on the hardcourts at Memorial Drive. The Adelaide native Hewitt captured this event in 1998 and 2000 and was the runner-up in 1999.

Hewitt's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be sixth-seeded Frenchman Jo- Wilfried Tsonga, who whipped Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-2 on Day 4 of this Australian Open tune-up.

In other second-round action, third-seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen trounced Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic 6-4, 6-1 and American Vincent Spadea snuck past German Mischa Zverev 6-3, 7-5. Nieminen and Spadea will square off here on Friday.

The other quarters will pit second-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu against Aussie wild card Joseph Sirianni and German Benjamin Becker versus 2004 Adelaide runner-up Michael Llodra of France.