No excuses from Rusedski after Hewitt defeat

Greg Rusedski refused to use the excuse of a back injury after his Stuttgart Masters Series 6-4 6-4 quarter-final defeat at the hands of Lleyton Hewitt.  

The unseeded British number two failed in his bid to reach a second consecutive semi-final at the Schleyerhalle and then paid tribute to the Australian.

"My back was a little stiff," said Rusedski, who wore a hot-pack support during the match, "but it didn't affect the match at all. I have no excuses. Lleyton played really well.

"I didn't serve as well as I could, but I played better than I did last week in Basle.

"But if you don't hit the corners with the serve you'll be in a lot of trouble with him."

Hewitt, who had won a semi-final against Rusedski last week in Basle, admitted he employed the lessons he learned there to get on top early and maintain the pressure.

"It's tough to play Greg, I learned a lot from Basle," said Hewitt.

"I had a good start. When we got into baseline rallies, I think the advantage was on my side."

Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov will face Hewitt in Saturday's semi-final after he staged an inspired comeback against Dutchman Sjeng Schalken.

The Russian sixth seed scored a 4-6 6-1 6-4 victory to eliminate October's Japan Open champion.

According to ATP calculations, Kafelnikov is now one victory away from claiming a spot in the eight-man field for the Masters final in Lisbon starting November 28.

Kafelnikov said: "I was quite focused and patient, I surprised myself. I kept my momentum going and waited for the right moments to attack. I settled down after losing the first set, from that point on, things got better and better for me."

South African veteran Wayne Ferreira also moved into the last four at the expense of Andre Pavel, winning 6-0 7-5, a day after the Romanian had knocked out fourth seed Andre Agassi.

Unseeded Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean beat Michael Chang of the United States 7-5 1-6 6-2 and will take on Ferreira in the other semi-final.