Hewitt rallies into Japan Open semis

Top seed Lleyton Hewitt lost the first set to Spaniard Francisco Clavet on Friday but the U.S. Open champion came through 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach a semi-final against unseeded American James Blake at the Japan Open.

Blake, Hewitt's opponent when the Australian was alleged to have made racist remarks in their second round match at Flushing Meadows, upset seventh seed Marcelo Rios 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 24 hours after knocking out fourth seed Jonas Bjorkman.

Defending champion and second seed Sjeng Schalken's hopes of a Tokyo repeat ended in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat by fifth seed Michel Kratochvil under floodlights at Ariake Colosseum.

In the women's draw, top seed Monica Seles overcame a sore ankle to beat Japan's Ai Sugiyama 7-5, 6-4 and reach the final, where she will play second seed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand or eighth-seeded South African Joannette Kruger.

It took Hewitt until the final set to find the range on his groundstrokes but, when he did, the 20-year-old from Adelaide unleashed crunching service returns to break Clavet twice.

"I was going for shots that weren't on in the first set, but then I went back to basics and started going for the right balls," said Hewitt, who won through with a cross-court forehand pass on his second match point.

UNFORCED ERRORS

Rios's chances of back-to-back titles went up in smoke as the 25-year-old Chilean's game suddenly deserted him after the first set.

The former world number one, who won the Hong Kong Open on Sunday, committed a string of unforced errors, particularly on his forehand, and was forced to save four match points on serve to avoid a final-set whitewash.

Blake, ranked 109 in the world, eventually sealed victory on his fifth match point after one hour 39 minutes to set up the chance of revenge against Hewitt.

Blake insisted the U.S. Open controversy was forgotten.

"It's always fun to avenge a loss. It would be unbelievable to beat the U.S. champion and a Davis Cup hero," said the 21-year-old New Yorker. "There is no residual feeling. We talked in the locker room and left it all in New York."

Nothing went right for Schalken as the Dutchman received a code violation after smashing his racket en route to defeat against an inspired Kratochvil.

The Swiss will play Karol Kucera on Saturday after the Slovak ended the run of Japanese wild card Takao Suzuki with a business-like 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Seles called an injury time-out after twisting her right ankle in the first set, which the American took 7-5 after coming back from 5-4 down with Sugiyama on serve.

After trading breaks with the third seed in the second set, Seles turned up the pressure on her returns and broke to love in the 10th game to take the match in one hour 43 minutes.