Lleyton Hewitt tops Baghdatis

Memphis - Former world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals 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 for the first time outside of Australia.

Hewitt will 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 on Thursday, qualifier Alex Kuznetsov upset eighth-seeded Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) to reach his first ATP Tour quarter-final.

He will play fourth-seeded Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan, who beat American qualifier Denis Kudla 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.