Nadal scrapes through to Hewitt rematch

LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) Rafael Nadal survived a scare from fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco today to set up an intriguing quarter-final against Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the Stella Artois tennis championships.

The French Open champion passed his first big grasscourt test in preparation for Wimbledon with a three-hour, 2-6 7-6 7-6 victory over Verdasco in the third round, but only just.

French 19-year-old Gael Monfils upset Croatian second seed Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 7-5 while triple defending champion Andy Roddick had to fight hard on the Queen's Club grass for a 7-6 6-3 victory over Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan.

Hewitt lost in four sets to Nadal in the fourth round at Roland Garros but on grass the 2002 Wimbledon champion will be a different proposition.

The Mallorcan, who beat world number one Roger Federer in Paris on Sunday to win the claycourt grand slam for the second year in a row, came close to defeat against Verdasco.

After failing to come to terms with the slick surface in the first set, the 20-year-old had to serve to stay in the match in the second before taking the tiebreak 7-3.

Verdasco, ranked 30 in the world, needed treatment on his back and thigh before the third set but refused to wilt.

Eventually, though, Nadal's superior fitness told and he won another tiebreak 7-3 to take victory.

''I don't understand very well because he had a lot of pain but he played very, very hard,'' said Nadal. ''He played unbelievable forehand, unbelievable backhand. But I came back with a very good attitude.'' Hewitt, three times champion at Queen's Club, recovered from a difficult start to earn a 4-6 6-1 7-6 victory over tall Belarussian Max Mirnyi.

''It's always a tough match against Max. Every time I played him, we've had battles,'' said Hewitt. ''It's nice to come through a tight match against a good grasscourt player.'' On court one Roddick saved three set points in the opening set against Srichaphan before edging the tiebreak 7-5 and an early break in the second saw the American on his way to victory.

MACHINE GUN Briton Tim Henman strolled into the quarter-finals with a 6-3 6-4 victory over France's Nicolas Mahut.

The four-times Wimbledon semi-finalist will need his best tennis in the last eight against jinx opponent Dmitry Tursunov after the Russian overcame Taiwan's Yeu-Tzuoo Wang in three sets.

Hard-hitting Tursunov knocked Henman out of last year's Wimbledon and both the Australian Open and French Open this year. He knows only one way to play.

''Just kind of like a machine gun,'' he said. ''If you shoot 16 bullets a minute, you're going to hit a target eventually.'' Australian Mark Philippoussis, the 1997 champion, was knocked out 6-2 3-6 6-3 by Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, who faces Roddick next.

American James Blake, the fifth seed, ousted compatriot Robby Ginepri 6-3 3-6 6-3. In the quarter-finals he faces Monfils, who outlasted Ljubicic 13-11 in a first-set tiebreak and forced a match-winning break of serve in the 12th game of the second set.

The talented Parisian teenager beat Blake in a five-set third-round match at the French Open.

REUTERS DH RAI0255