Moya dumps Hewitt; Suarez too hot for Pierce

Carlos Moya dashed home fans' hopes by ending the campaign of seventh seed Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of the Australian Open tennis championships early Sunday morning.

The Spaniard, who lost the 1997 final to Pete Sampras but went on to win the French Open the following year, triumphed 4-6, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in a three hours and 48 minutes.

"I knew it would be a battle like this and I never gave up.
"I'm very happy the way I won this match, it's unbelievable. I have no words to describe it," said Moya after the victory, which came in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Earlier on Saturday, glamour girls Martina Hingis, Venus Williams and Mary Pierce were in no mood for three set struggles as on court temperatures soared to 51 degrees C, and all were back in the locker room after two.

The problem for Mary was that she was under the shower a loser, crashing out of the tournament she won in 1995 -- to Argentinian Paola Suarez.

The reigning French Open champion was hammered 6-3, 6-2 in 58 minutes by the world No. 37 who earned a fourth round crack at 10th seed Amanda Coetzer, who beat Germany's Marlene Weingartner in straight sets.

Dark clouds soon rolled in but they didn't cool Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The Russian was still feeling the heat after being belittled by Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi over his claims that there was insufficient prize-money in tennis.

The outspoken star, who eased past Chris Woodruff of the U.S, snapped back: "I don't care what the American democratic opinion is. I've had plenty of locker room support...."

Pierce, who has suffered this season from eye problems and admitted after her second round match that she needed contact lenses, made 33 unforced errors as she struggled to see Surez's flashing groundstrokes.

Hingis had better vision but suffered the indignity of being broken twice by unknown French wildcard Virginie Razzano before pulling through 7-5, 6-1.

Venus had a one break blip against the Czech Republic's Denisa Chladkova but moved up a gear to win 6-4, 6-1. "It was very hot - I didn't want to stay out there for very long".

She now plays Amelie Mauresmo, the French 13th seed and a finalist two years ago, who said she had the weapons to beat the US Open and Wimbledon champion.

"I've got my little idea about how to play her but that's a secret," Mauresmo said after coming through her third round match against Iva Majoli 6-4 6-2. "It'll be interesting."

The two women have not met since the 1998 Australian Open. Williams won that third round clash in straight sets.

Sister Serena is also through but said she wasn't happy with her game after being broken three times by Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn before winning a seesawing match 6-1, 6-4.

"I was very disappointed with the way I played," she said. "I just didn't do the things I wanted to do out there."

She will face either Elenea Dementieva, the ninth seed from Russia, or Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic, in the next round.

While Pierce let the French side down in the women's draw, Arnaud Clement and Sebastien Grosjean kept the flag flying high among the men.

Clement, the 15th seed, beat Swiss Roger Federer 7-6 (7/5) 6-4, 6-4 and will now play unseeded Briton Greg Rusedski who followed up his upset of top seed Gustavo Kuerton by sweeping aside German qualifier Lars Burgsmuller.

Grosjean beat Thomas Johansson 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 to set up a fourth round clash with 4th seed Magnus Norman who battled to a four set victory over Spain's Alex Calatrava.

Other players through include Italy's Rita Grande and Germany's Rainer Schuettler. Schuettler will play the winner of Saturday night's Lleyton Hewitt/Carlos Moya clash.

Not so lucky was Wayne Ferreria. The 10th seed tumbled out to Swede Andreas Vinciguerra.

It wasn't a fair contest though with the South African nursing a suspected torn finger ligament which hampered the way he held his racquet.