3 Jan 2014

Hewitt and Nadal progress

9:39 am on 3 January 2014

The Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt has secured a quarter-final berth at the Brisbane International after beating world number 28, Feliciano Lopez, in a second round match.

The veteran Australian took one hour and 39 minutes to defeat the Spanish sixth seed 7-5 6-3, setting up a quarter-final clash with Romanian qualifier Marius Copil.

It's the first time since 2009 Hewitt has won back-to-back matches in his opening ATP Tour event of the year.

Meanwhile world number one Rafael Nadal has reached the semi-finals of the ATP Tour's Qatar Open with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

He will now meet German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk .