Lleyton Hewitt has beaten Cypriot wildcard Marcos Baghdatis 1-6 6-2 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals at the US National Indoor Tennis Championships.
The No.3 seed leads the career series with Baghdatis 3-2, winning their first match since 2010 when Baghdatis had to withdraw with an injured shoulder. Hewitt won his 29th career title in Brisbane earlier this year.
He needed 91 minutes to finally beat Baghdatis, who reached the Australian Open final in 2006, for the first time outside of Australia.
Former world No.1 Hewitt will now play American Michael Russell on Friday.
Second-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain and Ivo Karlovic of Croatia were set for the night's final match with the winner playing American Jack Sock.
Earlier Thursday, qualifier Alex Kuznetsov upset eighth-seeded Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 2-6 6-3 7-6 (1) to reach his first ATP Tour quarterfinal. He will play fourth-seeded Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan, who beat American qualifier Denis Kudla 3-6 6-3 6-3.
