Hewitt rolls into U.S. Open quarterfinals
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Former champion Lleyton Hewitt Tuesday steamrolled Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty to secure a berth in the U.S. Open quarterfinals for a sixth straight year.
The third-seeded and former world No. 1 Hewitt handled the 15th-seeded Hrbaty 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 2005 Australian Open runner-up, Hewitt ended the match after just 1 hour, 34 minutes with his 11th ace of the day against a helpless Hrbaty. The fiery Aussie broke Hrbaty's serve a whopping eight times and the Slovakian piled up 34 unforced errors (49-15) in the uneventful affair.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Hewitt captured the U.S. Open in 2001 and was last year's runner-up to Swiss great Roger Federer.
Hewitt's other major title came at Wimbledon 2002.
The 24-year-old Hewitt's round-of-eight opponent will be Finnish lefthander Jarkko Nieminen, who pasted Spanish southpaw Fernando Verdasco in straight sets on Day 9 of the tourney.
Women's quarterfinals begin at U.S. Open
FLUSHING MEADOWS, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The ladies' quarterfinals of the U.S. Open begin Tuesday night, as top-seeded Maria Sharapova battles fellow Russian Nadia Petrova.
Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams square off in a bout between former world No. 1s.
The marquee match on "Ladies' Night" will pit the fourth-seeded Clijsters against a 10th-seeded Venus Williams.
The 22-year-old Clijsters and 25-year-old Williams are meeting for a 10th time, with the American holding a 6-3 lead in their all-time series. The pair has split two meetings this season, and Venus is 1-0 all-time against Clijsters at the U.S. Open, where she beat the Belgian star in the quarterfinals four years ago.
Venus has won her last 11 Grand Slam matches, including her surprising title run at Wimbledon in July, while Clijsters has won her last 13 matches overall, including back-to-back hardcourt titles in Los Angeles and Toronto just before the 2005 U.S. Open.
Armstrong may eschew retirement
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Seven-time Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong may consider making a bid for an eighth consecutive title.
The cyclist told the Austin American-Statesman he has entertained the idea in the past two weeks after a French newspaper reported he had tested positive six times for a banned blood booster as he was winning his first Tour in 1999.
"I'm thinking about it," Armstrong told the Statesman. "I'm thinking it's the best way to piss (the French) off."
When asked how serious he was about another Tour, Armstrong said, "I'm exercising every day." Last April, Armstrong said this year's Tour would be his final race, the report said.
Pirates fire Manager Lloyd McClendon
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates fired Manager Lloyd McClendon prior to the start of Tuesday's game with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"This is a difficult day for the Pirates since Lloyd has been a loyal member of our organization for 15 years," general manager Dave Littlefield said. "However, this is a very important time for our franchise and from a baseball standpoint we believe we needed to make a change."
Bench coach Pete Mackanin will guide the Pirates for the rest of the season.
Pittsburgh was 336-446 in McClendon's four-plus years as manager and never had a winning season record. One more loss by the Pirates will guarantee them 13 consecutive losing campaigns, three shy of the major league record.
At 55-81 this season, the Pirates are tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in the National League.
McClendon was named the 35th manager in team history on Oct. 23, 2000.
Pittsburgh's last winning season came in 1992 when it won the NL East, but the Pirates have also been hampered by limited spending on players since then and have let several of their top players move on to other teams.
